Thermostats - what brand and where to buy?

I am having an AP cage with flexwatt shipped to me, and I need a thermostat. I'm really tight on cash, so nothing too fancy, but of course I want it to work well.

I know the Helix is a good brand... any others? I'd appreciate suggestions. And where could I buy these?

For proportional thermostats I would recommend Helix or Herpstat. I have a Herpstat Pro and love it.

For on/off thermostats, I would recommend a Ranco. I use a Ranco for my room heater.

I hear Johnson thermostats are nice and are less expensive than helix from what I've seen. Try checking out Reptile Basics, as it seems they have several good thermostats.

What are the pros/cons of proportionals and on/offs? This is actually for a rainbow boa, not a BP.

Also, do you think the night drop feature is necessary?

On/off style thermostats generally keep the temperature within +/- 1 degree of the set point and is either providing 100 percent power and 0 percent power to the Flexwatt.

Proportional thermostats vary the power to the heat tape and in general keep the temperature more constant. Mine are usually within +/- 0.2 degrees.

If you can do it I would recommend going with a good proportional thermostat such as the Herpstat.

Helix, Ranco and Herpstat pro are my weapons of choice. ;) You can get Helix and/or Ranco from Reptilebasics.com

I personally would go with a johnson control over a ranco. I have used both for about 2 years now. Both work well. I just like the fact that if your probe goes bad on a johnson you can replace the probe for like 10 bucks. I found that ebay is a good way to get ranco thermostats. I picked one up for 20 bucks a few weeks ago. I haven't had luck finding johnson controls on ebay but rancos are a dime a dozen.