Helix/Herpstat vs Ranco/Johnson

Hey everyone,

I live in a 100+ year old house, and I just cant keep the temp in the room constant enough for the lamp dimmer to really be effective, so I am looking into getting a thermostat. I am pretty sure I want a proportional, but I wanted to get some input.

I tried to find all of this on spec sheets, but I still have some questions. I will need to control two heat sources, one UTH, and probably some flexwatt since I would have a tstat to control it (cheaper than another uth). In the next few years, I think I will want to get more snakes, so I would obviously want to get the most bang for my buck as far as number of devices controllable by one tstat.

As long as on/off tstats control the temp well enough, I am not opposed to them, and it would def save me some money. Have people had good results with Johnson or Ranco, and how many devices can they control?

I know a lot of people prefer the proportional tstats helix and herpstat. How many devices can the helix control? I know I would need at least a Herpstat II to control my current set-up, and the Herpstat Pro would allow for me to over-control my current set-up by also connecting lighting, then switching to another warm/cool heat source in another enclosure down the road.

Basically, let me know what you think I should get for my situation. Again, I need to control at least 2 devices, preferably more, and money is kinda tight.

Thanks a lot.

I've used all 3 and they all work fine. I'm currently using a Johnson Control to run my incubator and it keeps the temps very steady.

Proportionals are nice and will use less electricity. Adding some insulation around the enclosures would help too.

From everyone, & including myself, Herpstat is the way to go for sure. I actually bought 2 Herpstat's..One to control my UTH on my warm side for a basking spot under the warmside hide. And now i just hooked up another UTH under the coolside hide which is also ran by a Herpstat. The reason i got 2 is if i woulda bought the Herpstat Pro & it would happen to fail (which is VERY unlikely) it wouldnt screw over both my UTH's, plus im runing each at different temps. I wanted to bump my temps up on the coolside a bit, so thats why i got a UTH+Herpstat combo for that side. But yeah man, i ordered & it only took 2 days. And the customer service is awesome! Dion is a very cool dude. And Herpstat's are very accurit( like in 10th's of a degree). You get what you pay for, and imo its the best! :) With those, my temps are dead on and i dont have to worry one bit about "readjusting" or anything of that sort. And my little buddy has no complaints. :)

There are two things going on here. One, if you use lights to heat anything, you will want a proportional over an analog thermostat. This is because the analog will turn the light on and off as it is controlling the heat vs the proportional just reducing the power and producing a dimming effect.

Second, though you can use one thermostat to control 2 or 3 different items, they must be of the same wattage; you can't plug a 1ft strip of 3" Flex watt and a 1ft strip of 11" flexwatt into the same thermostat and expect them to maintain the same temperature. Since they use different wattages per foot, they will heat differently

This said, as long as all the heating items you want to use are the same wattage, you'll be fine. If not and you have the cash, go for the Herpstat II or the Herpstat Pro. Both of these have separate temp senors so you can use them on different cages/wattages.

And i saw that you said money is tight. But if you can weather it for a lil while with the setup you have currently, i would just buy the Herpstat II if you can wait and save a little bit of money. But its all up to you bro. Everyone has their preference and spending budget, so it's totally up to you. :gj:

All of the devices plugged into say a herpstat pro have to be the same wattage? This makes no sense. The 3rd and 4th outlets are able to do lighting, which would def vary from the heating wattage. Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought there was a limit to the wattage it can handle, but that each individual device did not have to have the same wattage, they all just had to be under xxx watts for that outlet.

Also, if the wattage is an issue, I can just replace the UTH with flexwatt too, making the wattage equal on both sides. Also, I will probably end up with a herpstat II, in which case i will use a dimmer on the light, a Herpstat Pro for future planning, or a Johnson/Ranco to cut costs. That is, unless someone can convince me of a helix, which I still dont know how many devices it can control.

All of the devices plugged into say a herpstat pro have to be the same wattage? This makes no sense. The 3rd and 4th outlets are able to do lighting, which would def vary from the heating wattage. Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought there was a limit to the wattage it can handle, but that each individual device did not have to have the same wattage, they all just had to be under xxx watts for that outlet.

Also, if the wattage is an issue, I can just replace the UTH with flexwatt too, making the wattage equal on both sides. Also, I will probably end up with a herpstat II, in which case i will use a dimmer on the light, a Herpstat Pro for future planning, or a Johnson/Ranco to cut costs. That is, unless someone can convince me of a helix, which I still dont know how many devices it can control.

The main thing with number of devices they can handle is how much total wattage you have. Total watts have to be below the amount the stat can take.
As for different sources, you can run them with the same stat as long as wattage is met, but items of differing wattage will heat differently, so combining different things on one stat is discouraged.

If you can spare the cash, get the BEST you can afford now. I started with a Johnson, then had to add 5 ZooMeds and a Ranco! The Johnson is better than the Ranco IMHO because it's smaller, quieter, and easier to adjust. Now I wish I could have just bought/been given those Zoomeds and saved up what I spent on the Johnson and Ranco to get a Herpstat II...which is what I want now but cannot afford.

What that rant was trying to say is, if you see yourself getting more snakes in the future, then get at least the Herpstat if not a II or even a Pro now. It will be worth it not to have to buy extra stats later. :)

Allright, so it seems these are my options for right now.

2 Johnsons--$160
Herpstat II--change both sides to flexwatt for = wattage--$220
Herpstat Pro--" "--$320

I went with the Herpstat II because it can take more total wattage than the Herpstat Pro. Also, even though I have a spare Helix in the first aid kit, if the Pro were to break then all would fail. This way, if the II breaks, I just shuffle a few snakes around and get the one unit fixed :gj: