Thermostats in Canada

Hey all, I was looking through the forums today, and noticed some earlier posts about people having problems getting the Hydrofarm thermostats in Canada. I found them on www.amazon.ca, they are labelled Jumpstart but the pic and description is for Hydrofarm. Anyways, they are 25% off right now, going for $30.64 with free shipping if anyone is interested

How well do these work? I get a lot of requests from people asking advise and Ialways recommend Syder Robotics because thats what I use and trust. These are a lot less expensive though!

Can you compare it to a Herpstat thermostat?

The Herpstats are significantly better than the Hydrofarm. Hydrofarm is on/off, where Herpstat is proportional. So Hydrofarm shuts on and off to control the temp, but Herpstat regulates the amount of power going to the heat source. Herpstat will hold a much more constant temp than the Hydrofarm. Herpstat also has some safety features that Hydrofarm does not have.

While Hydrofarms do work (I have a few for my QT tanks), they were originally designed for gardening so (as mentioned) their tolerances are measured in full degrees where as with the Herpstats being proportional, they have a variance of +/- 0.1 degrees (I believe) and were designed for reptile keeping. They also have safety mechanisms so if the heat source gets too hot the Herpstats will shut them off. Herpstats are the only ones I use on my established.

I do recommend Hydrofarms for budget conscious people who were given bad advice (unregulated heat sources) but always impress upon them they are for short term use only and they need to save their money for a good thermostat as it is by far one of the most important pieces of equipment in keeping reptiles.

Nice find!

I use my Hydrofarm as a backup for my Herpstat per advice I received here on the forums. It's a great idea given that the Hydrofarm is on/off if the Herpstat fails on the power will just be cut by the Hyrdofarm.

And while it can vary, after a bunch of testing I found my Hydrofarm was usually less than a degree off from the Herpstat. Of course it's not proportional, doesn't have all the features, etc.

Hydrofarm tstats are designed to heat earth. The specs clearly reflect this! They are +\-2° Celsius (4°F) in accuracy they have 3°F hysteresis then the metal probe and Electronics are slow to respond that can generate a fair bit of swing. Some may feel the 11 degree window is ok, I am not one of them. Herpstats by contrast have a 1.8 degree window with no swing.

I would suggest all hydrofarms be used with an ACCURATE thermometer. One whose accuracy is spec'd better than one degree F they generally run 100+ bucks. That makes hydrofarms more expensive than a herpstat. The best use is as a back up.


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I'm fairly new to all of this, but from everything I've read, including one poster above, they vary from the more expensive units by one to two degrees. Being as the primary use for this thermostat is to keep the uth from possibly burning your snake, I don't see one or two degrees making a huge difference. I've looked at the more expensive units, and I do plan on one when she moves into a larger enclosure, but for now, alot of people have had great success with these, and I've yet to read a horror story about them failing and gaming a snake

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Originally Posted by rufftimes

I'm fairly new to all of this, but from everything I've read, including one poster above, they vary from the more expensive units by one to two degrees. Being as the primary use for this thermostat is to keep the uth from possibly burning your snake, I don't see one or two degrees making a huge difference. I've looked at the more expensive units, and I do plan on one when she moves into a larger enclosure, but for now, alot of people have had great success with these, and I've yet to read a horror story about them failing and gaming a snake

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Ugh, that was supposed to be harming......autocorrect is my worst enema

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Originally Posted by rufftimes

Ugh, that was supposed to be harming......autocorrect is my worst enema

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Hahahaha autocorrect strikes again!

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These are three of the 7, I have they are the 'new improved' versions. Not one is even close to accurate (accurate being one degree over or under of correct) The worst one I have is 4.8ºF under correct. When it is set to 90 it delivers 94.8ºF add the hysteresis of 3º 96.7 and in my conditions I get 5ºF of swing on the top so it shifts from a hi of 102ºF to a low of 91.7ºF why an accurate thermometer is required.

I'd suggest a traceable RDT platinum with less than 1ºF allowable error. It bumps the price up dramatically the low end ones 100$ plus the high end 1000$ plus. It makes herpstat, helix, ecozone, and herpkeeper (habistat in europe) not very expensive.

If it were a few degrees it would be fine but sadly my tests show more than a few degrees 8º (inc hysteresis) is IMO unacceptable.
FYI 26.9ºC = 80.42ºF
83.8,82.4, and 81.6 these were the first three I had.

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