What cheap thermostat do you recommend?

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

I personally will never use a thermostat with out a fail safe second unit. I believe that accidents can and will happen it is not an 'IF' but 'WHEN' and a probe caught by something (like a tub sliding over it) is a simple easy to make accident that can carry a very large cost.

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I 2nd this. Several years ago I accidentally dislodged my probe on my Herpstat on a rack and didn't realize it at the time. The probe was no longer above the heat source and was dangling behind the rack. It happened at night when I was checking water/spot cleaning, etc. I woke up the next morning and noticed all of my snakes pressed towards the front of their tubs that were super humid.

The temp inside the tubs was over 110º!!! The t-stat wasn't in contact with the heat so it thought the temp was much too low and had the heat element at full blast. At first I thought I had a malfunction, but finally figured out what had happened. Luckily none of my snakes were killed or injured in any way and all turned out just fine. But every since I make it a point to double check the probe and its security and I also run a back up on/off t-stat with its probe in a different place. The back up is set higher than the regular one, so the only time it will ever go off is if there is a malfunction.

$200 in a Herpstat and Johnson t-stat is nothing if it keeps thousands of dollars worth of snakes alive.

Not to hijack this thread but has anyone been able to find a Hydrofarm thermostat at a retail store? I've only been able to find them on Amazon.com - Which really, is fine, I can order one through them, but I'd really like to be able to just go out and get one ASAP if I can...I just can't seem to find them for sale anywhere.

I would definitely love to have one of the more expensive t-stats at some point, but for the moment, I have a hydrofarm.
It was what I could get quickly when I got my snake way ahead of time(like, 5 months ahead of time) and I couldn't afford a porportional one. I like my hydrofarm. I trust it.
It may be inexpesnive, but it does not seem like a 'cheap' unit.
It does what I need it to.

Oh, and if I might add, I've not seen any threads about hydrofarms failing, but I have seen several threads about herpstats failing.
If anyone has had a hydrofarm fail on them, I'd like to hear from them. :)
And if I had thousands of dollars worth of snakes, I would definitely get a good proportional t-stat instead of a $30 on/off one.
But I trust my hydrofarm. I would hate it if something happened to my snake since she is pricless to me, even though I only paid $20 for her, she's worth more than that. :3 I would be heart broken if the t-stat failed.
But I've heard pretty much nothing but good things about the hydrofarm. I've not seen anyone say that they got it and it failed on them.

It's from what I hear, a LOT Better than the ones you can buy for 50-60$$ at the petstore. I wouldn't buy a thermostat from a petstore anyway.
Many users on BP.net have it and like it. It works for me, and for them.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Hydrofarm thermostats.

They do seem ok other than when it is set at 90 it delivers something else. Check it with a trusted thermometer and they seem ok.

I would recommend not getting Hydrofarm. I've only used it for a month or so and every time I go to read my temperatures on the heat mats when the thermostat is set at 90 the temps are in the high 100's. I have to constantly change the positions of my mats so my snakes don't burn themselves.

I use a Hydrofarm on a small qt rack. I've been using it for a few months and have had no issues. Other than what kite said. It does tend to be a bit off with temp readout. I do keep 2 digital thermometers in the same rack as a back up. Usually the therms are about 2 degrees off of the tstat read out. But it works.

My question though for those of you that have a back up tstat. How do you set one up? I would like to get back ups in place for my racks but I can't seem to wrap my brain around hooking a second up to the heat. Its probably a really silly question.


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I have a big apple herp one cost me like 45$ looking back regret buying it. (Not cause it is bad) I am buying a proportional one. I would recommend one to you also. Either Hepstat or johnsans Idk which one I am getting yet.

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I think that will cover it for a failsafe it is easy very very easy.

The Hydrofarms are fine just know what the actual set point is. I am running 3 of them now and they are all within the +/- 2 degree mark. For back up I wired in a dimmer on each setup and set it a few degrees higher than tstat needs to be. Yes by using a dimmer I realize I am just reducing power to heat but I am still able to maintain temps very well. It does not matter what kind of thermostat you are using, they all can and will fail. After all they are electronic.