Quick Responses @Home Depot

So I'm @ Home Depot. Going to buy thermostat. Are the dimmer switches for the thermostat or lights? Just need to be clear on how many I need to buy.

Lamp dimmers are used for anything that needs heat regulated. The dimmer can be used instead of a thermostat to modulate temps

Dimmers can be use but thermostats are better if you can afford it....dimmers you will have to constantly monitor if the room temp fluctuates so will the heat pad

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You aren't going to find the kind of thermostat you need at Home Depot. They do have lamp dimmers

Correct tstat have to be ordered

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Originally Posted by JoshSloane

You aren't going to find the kind of thermostat you need at Home Depot. They do have lamp dimmers

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Yes I figured that out. Lol. Got the dimmers though!

What am I looking for when I order? Don't want to wind up with the wrong thing like I almost did.

Depends on your needs and fund I would avoid any on/ off style. How many snakes do you have are you heating one cage or a rack or multiple cage with different heat requirements? Highly recommend any herpstat I have a intro and a herpstat 4 love them both VE tstats are great as well

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First off, don't shop at Home Depot. (Lol works at Lowe's)

I'm going to vote for homedepot[emoji12]. (Experience very bad service several times at Lowes).

I would try and buy a herpstat. Setting for the dimmers were always so hard for me to keep on point. I feel like they aren't reliable.


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Dont shop at Lowes I work for Home Depot in San Diego and we have HD call Lowes BLOWES... and our prices are cheaper.. I've been a manager for 10 out of my 15 years and will beat any price they have! muahahaha. actually I like lowes because i send all the home depot reject associates there as well as the jerky customers!

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Originally Posted by Solarsoldier001

I'm going to vote for homedepot[emoji12]. (Experience very bad service several times at Lowes).

I would try and buy a herpstat. Setting for the dimmers were always so hard for me to keep on point. I feel like they aren't reliable.


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Really??? When I go to Homedepot to check out the competition I either never see an associate or they don't even acknowledge me.

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Originally Posted by Lynchman18

Dont shop at Lowes I work for Home Depot in San Diego and we have HD call Lowes BLOWES... and our prices are cheaper.. I've been a manager for 10 out of my 15 years and will beat any price they have! muahahaha. actually I like lowes because i send all the home depot reject associates there as well as the jerky customers!

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XP Prices are actually pretty much the same. One product will be cheaper while another is more expensive. Maybe Home Depot's are better in Cali, but in VA my old store was literally right next to Home Depot, you can see it from the parking lot, and we always had more cars and customers complaining about Home Depot.

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Originally Posted by nightwolfsnow

Really??? When I go to Homedepot to check out the competition I either never see an associate or they don't even acknowledge me.

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Where is it that you live then? The 4-5 times I've been in Lowes they were awful with communication.


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I went to home depot once looking for hardware cloth while building mouse breeding racks, the very polite person who tried to help me suggested that I try a fabric store. :rolleyes:

Lamp dimmers work fine for regulating heat, here is a link to a post that I wrote a while back detailing how I put together dimmers for heating my reptile cages, ---> http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...r-cheap-skates

Thermostats however are the prefered method for most people, I'm currently using a lot of the VE-200 thermostats by Vivarium Electronics I use one for each rack, they stack nicely on top of each other.

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Originally Posted by JoshSloane

Lamp dimmers are used for anything that needs heat regulated. The dimmer can be used instead of a thermostat to modulate temps

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Recommending a dimmer instead of a proper thermostat like a Spyder Robotics (for example) is the reason reptiles get burns.

Lowe's has better wood than home Depot around me, I have to dig through a whole bundle just to get 20 2x4s that are straight where at Lowe's I can normally get 20 from the first 22 I grab. I'll gladly pay an extra 25 cents a board to not spend all damn day there. I find customer service sucks at both in their own way and they normally have under qualified people answering questions. I will say atleast home Depot sells many tools cheaper than amazon though. My go to for power tools is Milwaukee, which Lowe's doesn't even sell.

Ok I'm done ranting.

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Originally Posted by Rickys_Reptiles

Recommending a dimmer instead of a proper thermostat like a Spyder Robotics (for example) is the reason reptiles get burns.

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Dimmer regularly checked can be safer than a thermostat left unchecked. Many factors can go into this debate, You can't really make a blanket statement like that, some dimmers, just because of the way they are built, can't fail on at all. However I do believe a top tier thermostat is much safer, but it doesn't make a dimmer unacceptable.

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Originally Posted by Rickys_Reptiles

Recommending a dimmer instead of a proper thermostat like a Spyder Robotics (for example) is the reason reptiles get burns.

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Oh please! If the room your reptiles are in is temperature regulated in ANY fashion there is very little chance for a burn. My quarantine tanks use dimmers on the heat pad. At room temperature the pads stay at a constant 88-90. You would have to have wildly huge swings in temps to get a burn.

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

Lowe's has better wood than home Depot around me, I have to dig through a whole bundle just to get 20 2x4s that are straight where at Lowe's I can normally get 20 from the first 22 I grab. I'll gladly pay an extra 25 cents a board to not spend all damn day there. I find customer service sucks at both in their own way and they normally have under qualified people answering questions. I will say atleast home Depot sells many tools cheaper than amazon though. My go to for power tools is Milwaukee, which Lowe's doesn't even sell.

Ok I'm done ranting.



Dimmer regularly checked can be safer than a thermostat left unchecked. Many factors can go into this debate, You can't really make a blanket statement like that, some dimmers, just because of the way they are built, can't fail on at all. However I do believe a top tier thermostat is much safer, but it doesn't make a dimmer unacceptable.

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Exactly. I posted information regarding this weeks ago. I would bet that many more reptiles are burned from faulty thermostats than mismanaging a dimmer. Many less moving parts in a dimmer, and also requires you to be vigilant in your checking of temps. Lots of people set up a thermostat and walk away, failing to regularly check temps months later, just assuming the reading on the display unit is correct.

Thermostats also have the added variable of the probe becoming dislodged, which in many inexpensive models will cause the temps to skyrocket.

I always recommend dimmers to beginners for multiple reasons. First, with the deluge of information that new snake owners have to sift through, dimmers provide an easier approach to get started. Second, it forces them to get in the habit of using a heat gun to regularly check temperatures. Even with a thermostat it is STILL necessary to check your temps frequently over the course of the week. Third is the price. I feel like many new, and especially younger snake owners shy away from temperature regulation because of the cost of a reliable thermostat. Seems like they are more adept to pick up a 10$ dimmer from a hardware store, plug it in, dial in a temp and go.

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Originally Posted by Rickys_Reptiles

Recommending a dimmer instead of a proper thermostat like a Spyder Robotics (for example) is the reason reptiles get burns.

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No, UNREGULATED heating devices are how reptiles get burns. Too many people will slap a heating pad on the bottom of an aquarium and figure that's good enough as long as they pile on more substrate.

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Originally Posted by Solarsoldier001

Where is it that you live then? The 4-5 times I've been in Lowes they were awful with communication.


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I live in eastern Virginia.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

I went to home depot once looking for hardware cloth while building mouse breeding racks, the very polite person who tried to help me suggested that I try a fabric store. :rolleyes:

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XDDDDD I work in outside garden where hardware cloth is located, so that's hilarious to me.

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Originally Posted by frostysBP

Depends on your needs and fund I would avoid any on/ off style. How many snakes do you have are you heating one cage or a rack or multiple cage with different heat requirements? Highly recommend any herpstat I have a intro and a herpstat 4 love them both VE tstats are great as well

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I have 5 cages, all in the same room. BPs are all about the same size. Heat requirements are the same.

If the heat pads or heat tape is same size and its not overloading the nax watts the a herpstat one will be fine.

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