Rheostat Not making much differance.

I bought a reptitemp rheostat (20 bucks) from petsmart and have both my heat pads plugged into it. However turning the control button from low to high doesnt realy seem to do anything, I pluged a lamp into it to see if it was working, and I did see the lightbulb dima bit when set on low and brighten a bit when set to high ( just a bit ) so I dont understand why its not effecting temp control in my enclosure as drasticaly as I thought it would. Are these rheostats only supposed to fine tune heat by a few degrees.

I bought a cheap little light-dimmer from the hardware store. (Same principle as a rheostat but you can only plug one thing into it at a time.) I plugged a heat-lamp into it and it worked great for me. (A full range of power from highest to completely off.) The one thing you might have to keep in mind is that a rheostat or dimmer can't make something put out MORE power than it already does. It can only decrease power. So they're only useful if your heat pads or lamps are too warm to begin with.

Don't know if that helps you or not. I've never used a reptitemp, so I can't say how effective those are.

hey beagle, you're probably better off using controlled heating pads. rheostats are very dodgy, i've only heard of a few that actually worked the way they were intended.

the ones you can buy at walmart and places like that are very good
just like the ones Judy was talking about I've never used any rehostat but i know those ones will work real well and are a little bit cheaper than the "reptitemps"
my advice is to take the crappy one back and get the walmart light dimmers

mighty fine advice...

people need to start taking wal-mart into their consideration when it comes to herping more often. it's a lifesaver.

If you haven't read this topic already, I explain in it the difference between what a rheostat does and what a thermostat does:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/index.ph...iewtopic&t=523

I completely understand the differance between a thermostat and a rheostat, that being said the repti-therm rheostat that I bought doesnt do crap.
Nice article though Hoomi,very well done. :P

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wizill

people need to start taking wal-mart into their consideration when it comes to herping more often. it's a lifesaver.

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Definitely true for hardware and rubbermaids and sundry. But their fish/pet department is sometimes deplorable. My mother-in-law breeds and sells beta fish...but refused to sell to the local Wal Mart after seeing the condition of their fish.

lol, of course i'd never buy anything alive from wal-mart.