Household thermostat?

I'm sure others have had this thought and most likely someone has tried it out already. Has anyone had any success using a household thermostat to control your rack heating? Not the room temps, but the flexwatt temps.

I have made a homemade rheostat with 2 dimmer switches and 2 electrical plugs that worked great until I bought my thermostat. Allowed me to dial all the way down to "0"
Took a couple of days adjustment and then marking temps and hashes to get it set but after initial trial and error I could get temps right on the money.

I have a thermostat made for an under tile heating system that I have been too chicken to try out on my snake enclosures. I would first want to hear that others have done it and not messed everything up before trying it myself.

Unfortunatly I couldn't find one that would run the temps I need (95F)... Also the probe is built into the unit and would have to be modified and tested for accuracy.. perhaps recalibrated due to resistance in the wire.

i used to work for a plumbing and heating company (managed the warehouse) and i had talked with a few people about the possibilities... basically there's only one type that would work and that's a low-voltage heating only thermostat. they're cheap, but it'd be much harder to use and have it work correctly unless you can figure out a way to attached an external or remote probe.

Well I guess from the sounds of it it just makes more sense to simply buy one that is made for the job at hand. Oh well thought it might make a fun weekend project but it seems more pain than it is worth.

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Originally Posted by bsd13

I'm sure others have had this thought and most likely someone has tried it out already. Has anyone had any success using a household thermostat to control your rack heating? Not the room temps, but the flexwatt temps.

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The only purpose that would be served by using a household thermostat is the unnecessary complication of a rather simple application. Household thermostats are low voltage controllers that control relays. They are not full load controllers and cannot work alone to control your rack heating without a relay circuit in place.

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Originally Posted by Desert

The only purpose that would be served by using a household thermostat is the unnecessary complication of a rather simple application. Household thermostats are low voltage controllers that control relays. They are not full load controllers and cannot work alone to control your rack heating without a relay circuit in place.

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Thanks...

I think I kinda reached that conclusion in a round about way already. Thought I didn't concern myself with the technical details to be honest, but at least now I know why I reached that conclusion.

Industrial Thermostats can be used and are currently in use. The Ranco and Johnson controllers are perfect examples. The big thing with these is they use a remote temp probe. By the time you were to modify a basic household unit to work you could buy a raw Ranco and be way ahead!

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Originally Posted by Gloryhound

Industrial Thermostats can be used and are currently in use. The Ranco and Johnson controllers are perfect examples. The big thing with these is they use a remote temp probe. By the time you were to modify a basic household unit to work you could buy a raw Ranco and be way ahead!

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Yeah that's what I started to realize as I was doing research on them.