using flexwatt?

that thermostat is kind of ok if that's all you can afford for now. better than nothing at all but i wouldn't use it longterm if you can help it. the cheaper thermostats just aren't very consistent or accurate and seem to require constant adjusting and tweaking. whatever you do make sure that you use a digital thermometer in your enclosure to measure temps--the thermostats like that one that you set according to what temperature you want are not accurate at all. for instance--if you set it to be 90 degrees it may well heat the floor of your enclosure to 100 degrees--which you would never know without an internal digital thermometer.

Hey Guys.. Sure Ill put it up in the DIY section.. The next order i have of the parallel circuit Ill take step by step pics. I have thought about it everytime I wire one but just dont do it..lol.. Shadow on the tub you talking about I am kinda lost as to what you mean..The"w" threw me way off..lol and no its not hard to do... For the deminsions you said is the tub at the bottom 28wide by 16 deep? A one foot strip of 11" flexwatt will heat that size fine.. What you can do if it is a little to big is just slide it out from under the tub to get the correct amount you need under the tub.. The exposed part will be alot cooler than the part under the tub because of the source of thermal mass(the tub) pressing down on it. Any UTH, bulb, che or any element for that matter has to have some sort of control. You can use the cheap tstats but I would use them in conjunction with a dimmer in case of failure.. The dimmer will limit the amount of power going to the element... Not to plug..:) but the ranco @ 72.99 is your best and cheapest bet.. It is really an investment since you can add onto the themostat as your collection grows.. Hope this helps....,
-Matt