Cheaper Thermostat Options

Hey guys! So I know that Herpstats/Vivarium Electronics thermostats are top of the line and highly recommended, but aren’t exactly in my price range at the moment (Especially since I would need one for 2 sources; heat mat and RHP). I’ve heard mixed things about Jumpstart, and I’ve read reviews about Century Digital thermostats. Both of these are on amazon. Keep in mind that I do not yet have a BP, nor will I for at least a month or so :). Any experience or advice you have on the above two? Or tell me what your favorite cheap thermostat is! Any answers are welcome! Thanks in advance

I have a few Jumpstarts, no complaints really. They do their job.

I've been running Jumpstarts for years without any issues.

I use a Century thermostat. I would definetly love to get a herpstat some day, though.

The Centry one, you set the temp like other thermostats, but I find that this one (at least mine) tends to wait around 2 or 3 degrees above or below what you set before correcting it. This means that when set at 90f it can get between around 88-93f depending on the day, so it requires a lot more monitoring and adjusting to get it right sometimes (I want to clarify that the temp inside my tank doesn't usually fluctuate that much within a single day, rather the reading of the thermostat probe against the UTH fluctuates).

Anyway it works and it's cheap, but personally I don't find it extremely reliable. If I go away for a day or two I tend to be worrying about his temps all the while, and I imagine that herpstats give you more peace of mind.

I've never had a jumpstart, but between Centry and Jumpstart.. if you're willing to spend a little extra, I'd go with Jumpstart. Still not as good as herpstat but judging by what others have said it seems a bit more reliable than Centry. However, Centry DOES work if that's all you can afford at the moment, like me.

Thank you for the responses! I’m probably going to go with two Jumpstarts. Just to clarify, I definitely plan on getting a Herpstat in the near future (probably sometime this winter) but as I’m already spending so much on the enclosure and everything right now, I’d rather start off with a cheaper alternative. :)

I have three century thermostats and they are ok. My first one actually was a bad unit. It worked as expected for several days and then it went haywire. Temps were thru the roof according to probe readings but actual temps never exceeded room temp and mostly just too cold. It would also go the other way and temps would drop according to probe but it was way to hot. Century replaced it after much confusion and new one works perfect. Because they did stand behind the product I bought two more for my second BP.
I am using a Vivarium VE100 on my females enclosure for the UTH and the Century for the secondary heat source a CHE. Very soon my Second enclosure will be set up the same way. The Vivarium has less temp drop and and I can set the Hysterisis ( how low it goes before turning on) I believe it’s like two or three degrees on the Century and I have it set for 1 degree on VE100 and it’s much more consistent. I have gotten great performance from my Century thermostats other than the initial experience however I will always have a little distrust from the initial failure. It did fail really quickly but not before getting all set up and stable. Jumpstart looks pretty much identical but maybe it’s different. Not bad for the money but trustworthy?

I use Jumpstarts and Herpstats - The jumpstarts are satisfactory. The herpstats are amazing.

I had jumpstarts which work great when working, but all 3 of mine became too inaccurate/broke within a year of use. I don't know if it's just a fluke, since other people seem to have used them well!

The herpstats have been completely reliable, and the only thermostat I'm willing to use with RHP's.

Never used the Jumpstarts, but I'm reluctant to trust them with my snakes. I use a Vivarium Electronics and an old Big Apple Herp thermostat I've had forever which was high-end in its day and has always been reliable for me.

I have been using Jumpstarts for my Reptile Basics UTHs for years and never had an issue. However, those UTHs don’t get very hot to begin with - if you have a heat source that has the potential to reach extreme temps I would go for something more high end, like a VE or Herpstat.




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Funny story, I have a Herpstat, a few iPowers, a Jumpstart, and a couple Zillas back from when I had no idea what I was doing. The only thermostat I've had problems with so far is the Herpstat. I used it in a homemade styrofoam box incubator and got an error a few weeks into incubation. The heat turned off and the temp dropped to room temperature for a couple days. I lost two eggs and had one kinked hatchling that died in egg, but the other five eggs hatched fine.

Later on (after a google search for the error) I learned that It's not a good idea to let the probe get too wet, or to put it near other cords. Oops. Maybe that should have been obvious, but I had no idea. Since it was difficult to maintain steady temps in the tiny styrofoam box anyway, I made a new incubator out of a wine cooler and kept the probe out of the egg box and away from other cords. Problem solved. I used the Herpstat again and got no errors this time. Every egg in my second clutch hatched without issue. Six beautiful babies.

That said, none of the other thermostats I've used are nearly as accurate as the Herpstat. Proportional vs. on/off makes a big difference. And that's the main reason I used the Herpstat for the eggs. I didn't want fluctuating temps during incubation. None of my existing snakes seem to mind a 2-4 degree difference, but I still intend to switch entirely to Herpstats over time and phase the others out.

The big thing is that Herpstats turn the heat source off if something goes wrong. Cheap off/on models let the heat source blaze at full power if they fail. High temps have a much greater chance of injuring or killing snakes than temps that are too cold. I've heard of a few people over the years losing snakes to a cheap thermostat that malfunctioned. Usually it's the Zillas, but that might just be because they're readily available at most big box pet stores.

I've gotta admit though, out of all the "cheap" models I have, I like the Zillas the least. They're overpriced for what they are and it's hard to set correct temps with a dial. They also seem to fluctuate more than the iPowers and the Jumpstart. Digital displays are so much better. I kinda perfer the iPowers over the Jumpstart because they're been really consistent for me, but Herpstat rules them all. Haven't tried the Century, but it looks pretty similar to the iPower.

I just plugged up an iPower to my 20g long and they're correct about it taking about 3°F for it to regulate the temp. Hopefully it will work well enough though.

I have a question myself which a Google search brought me to this thread. I was googling herpstats as I have 3 racks that I've acquired and would like to start using once I get everything figured out. I have two 12pc 12quart racks and a 10pc 32quart rack. I was wanting to know what thermostat you all would recommend using. Is the herpstat EZ2 good enough with the two probes, one for each style of rack (12q & 32q) with the analog settings? I see the EZ2 at 160$, and then see the digital thermostats at $300+. So, what you recommend? Is the Herpstat EZ2 sufficient? Or should I go with a digital one? I'm new to the hobby but I wouldn't want to risk that many snakes, even though I'm sure the herpstat brand is reccommended what's the added advantage of the digital/more expensive kinds? Thanks in advance.

The EZ2 would probably work. Can't personally vouch for it since I have a different model, the Redline 2. I don't like dials much, but a dial on a proportional thermostat is still a whole hell of a lot better than a dial on an on/off model. I read through the description for the EZ2 and it sound like it has everything you need. Pretty nice features for a barebones unit. As long as the combined wattage of the two 12qt racks isn't over 300 (and I don't think they should be) you should be fine.

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Originally Posted by the_rotten1

The EZ2 would probably work. Can't personally vouch for it since I have a different model, the Redline 2. I don't like dials much, but a dial on a proportional thermostat is still a whole hell of a lot better than a dial on an on/off model. I read through the description for the EZ2 and it sound like it has everything you need. Pretty nice features for a barebones unit. As long as the combined wattage of the two 12qt racks isn't over 300 (and I don't think they should be) you should be fine.

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Hmmm, how would I test that? With a resistance meter?

My Big Apple thermostat is a proportional one with a dial.