The Big Debate v3.0 lol

Ok so we now know who has what thermostats and all.. some have over 300 bucks in one and some have 30 bucks in one.....

lets see who justs has them as pets and who is a breeder with the expensive thermostat...

If we're all here for the same purpose - i.e. to further our knowledge & better our herpkeeping experience - why does it matter who uses a $30 t-stat vs. a $300 t-stat?

Everyone uses what they feel is best according to budget & application, I'm sure. :rolleyes:

K~

exactly, but if you got 1 or 2 snakes, why would someone wanna suggest an expensive thermostat to them??? just trying to figure out who has the expensive ones..i'm sure most of the breeders have the expensive ones. but should the reg. pet owner need them????

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Originally Posted by KIBPLOVER

scare the heck out of the guy and say the 30 dollar one has a high failure rate and now he is panicing scrouging up money because a breeder suggested the poor 1 to 2 snake owner to get a 150 to 350 dollar thermostat..

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Wow. Show me where a breeder (or anyone for that matter) suggested getting a $350 thermostat to the person that has one or two snakes??

Yes, there are some cheap thermostats that have a high failure rate or the inability to "turn off" in case of failure, but it has been stated by many people that the $60 or $70 thermostats would work fine. If you can't afford to "invest" in reliable equipment for your pet snake, perhaps you shouldn't be keeping them in the first place. :2cent:

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Originally Posted by KIBPLOVER

exactly, but if you got 1 or 2 snakes, why would someone wanna suggest an expensive thermostat to them??? just trying to figure out who has the expensive ones..i'm sure most of the breeders have the expensive ones. but should the reg. pet owner need them????

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Because the pricetag on an animal should be the least factor in regarding its safety and security.
I have reliable thermostats because none of my animals, regardless of their value, deserve to die in agony from excessive heat.
Perhaps a responsible keeper should do the research and figure out if they can afford the set-up before they get the animal? At the vet hospital where I work, we have the same folks buying $300 petshop puppies and then balking at vaccines and heartworm prevention, and you can guess the level of sympathy I have for them. Know what you're getting into and take responsibility for it, instead of jumping in and then whining that it's all too expensive.
Me, I think my animal's safety is worth it...whether I have one normal male, or a rack of thousand dollar morphs.

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Originally Posted by slartibartfast

Because the pricetag on an animal should be the least factor in regarding its safety and security.
I have reliable thermostats because none of my animals, regardless of their value, deserve to die in agony from excessive heat.
Perhaps a responsible keeper should do the research and figure out if they can afford the set-up before they get the animal? At the vet hospital where I work, we have the same folks buying $300 petshop puppies and then balking at vaccines and heartworm prevention, and you can guess the level of sympathy I have for them. Know what you're getting into and take responsibility for it, instead of jumping in and then whining that it's all too expensive.
Me, I think my animal's safety is worth it...whether I have one normal male, or a rack of thousand dollar morphs.

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Precisely.

And it all depends on how one defines "expensive." You can get a good, reliable t-stat for $60-$70...which doesn't seem expensive at all to me. You can get a basic model Helix or Herpstat for around $120-$130. Again...for the safety value, that doesn't seem very expensive at all to me. No one ever suggests a $350 t-stat with multiple temp settings and seasonal programming for someone who keeps one or two pets.

BUT...I will always suggest a good quality, reliable t-stat for ANY reptile enclosure that needs one...over some rinky-dink $30 t-stat that is as likely to cook your snake as it is to keep it healthy.

It doesn't matter if an animal is a $25 "normal" or a $10,000 morph....each and every one of them deserve the best care we can give them...and if we can't afford to give that care, we should not have them until we can.

Kudos to Jess n' Judy :gj:

I got my puppy at the humane society for $40 and then shots and adoption papers put her at like $120. When it comes to expenses, like the surgery she had to have to remove cancer, think we cut corners on it just cause she was cheap, hells no.

ill get a more reliable safer T-stat, when I have the ability to afford it. This make me a bad snake owner? I provide for all their needs, I provide a safe home for them, have all their needs taken care of, and am ready in case they become ill to do what is needed to get them better, does all that mean nothing all cause I got a $35 thermostat that so far has controlled my temps without any problems, therefor I am a bad snake owner? All cause I didn't get the safer one right off the bat? No, it doesn't, and to say otherwise is plan ignorant.

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Originally Posted by KIBPLOVER

exactly, but if you got 1 or 2 snakes, why would someone wanna suggest an expensive thermostat to them??? just trying to figure out who has the expensive ones..i'm sure most of the breeders have the expensive ones. but should the reg. pet owner need them????

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I've been using Ranco since I had ONE snake as a pet. Why? Because it wasn't worth it to me to spend less on a product that doesn't have a great track record. You get what you pay for. For me, spending $75 on a quality thermostat that I can trust for an animal that's going to be in my care for 20+ years was worth the money paid.

Is $75 really THAT expensive compared to what might be spent at a veterinarian to treat a belly burn when a cheaper thermostat fails?

There's a huge difference in being thrifty (homemade hides) and being cheap (lower quality thermostat). I'm not willing to compromise the health and well being of my animals to save $40.

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Originally Posted by xdeus

If you can't afford to "invest" in reliable equipment for your pet snake, perhaps you shouldn't be keeping them in the first place. :2cent:

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Excellent point! :)

One other thing that's not been mentioned...Rancos are the on/off t-stats which means they *CLICK* on and off....if you're like me and sleep in the same room as your reptiles and you're trying to sleep at night and you hear CLICK......CLICK......CLICK......it gets rather annoying. The proportional Helix/Herpstat t-stats control the heat electronically, so you never hear power being turned on and off....

I use and highly recommend rancos. I really like helix and herpstates and if my snakes were in my bedroom yes the clicking would probably really annoy me. However for an incubator I really really recommend rancos. Its nice to be able to control to a 10th of a degree your incubator however if your say in Florida where I am and you loose power you will find that the proportional theremostats don't work well on a generator as they need constant good power. A ranco being on / off will run and hold temps on a generator and possibly save your eggs.....

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

One other thing that's not been mentioned...Rancos are the on/off t-stats which means they *CLICK* on and off....if you're like me and sleep in the same room as your reptiles and you're trying to sleep at night and you hear CLICK......CLICK......CLICK......it gets rather annoying. The proportional Helix/Herpstat t-stats control the heat electronically, so you never hear power being turned on and off....

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When I got my first Ranco, the click sounded like my oven thermostat, and I kept getting up to see if the oven was on. Now I don't even notice it!

I have to agree with Judy and Kara here first of all the price of the thermostat is relative to what you want to do and how easy you want it. Second I'll just say that I use the Helix DBS 1000 for all my racks, it runs around 125.00 plus shipping. 125.00 is worth it for me considering I had a run in with a lesser quality one that caused a burn. This is the great thing about or hobby!! There is something for every level hobbiest to be able to enjoy. But just like with any hobby as your involvement grows so will the expense. Lets face it everyone want every morphs out there. But not everyone can afford to house feed and keep 50 - 400 snakes.. Find a level that your happy with and work from there.

what is a good thermostats i can hook up 2 tanks and a rack with, i kmow of herp stat pro but is there any others???

I believe it's been mentioned in another thread that as long as 2 or more are the same size and are heated the exact same way, you can plug more than 1 enclosure into that t-stat. The Ranco I ordered from ReptileBasics has a power strip that allows up to 6 units to be plugged into that one t-stat. As long as you don't go over the recommended wattage and your enclosures are the same, you should be fine.

Also, there's the Herpstat II which has 2 outputs rather than 4

http://spyderrobotics.com/products/herpstat2.html

right but don't you want a probe in each tank and one on the rack for a total of 3 probes???

You want a theromometer in each rack/enclosure to make sure temps are right.

If you have 2 or more of the same rack/enclosure, you put the probe on one rack/enclosure and plug both heat supplies into the thermostat.

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Originally Posted by KIBPLOVER

right but don't you want a probe in each tank and one on the rack for a total of 3 probes???

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Your rack will need to be on one thermostat, and if your tanks are set up identically (same size tank, same size UTH) then the two tanks can be run on one thermostat, the probe would go on one of the tanks and control both of them.

can the herp stat 2 be used on 3 setups, say 1 probe for 2 40gal breeders, and the other for the rack... since it has 2 out puts...

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Originally Posted by KIBPLOVER

can the herp stat 2 be used on 3 setups, say 1 probe for 2 40gal breeders, and the other for the rack... since it has 2 out puts...

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Yes, as long as the two 40 gal breeders are identical (same size heaters, location, substrate, tops, etc).

cool i will be getting the herpstat 2 then... to you guys who have it, is it easy to set up???

do you have to program temps..

see my temps in the breeder tanks are always the same,, they don't drop for night time... do they need too, or should????

always 89 to93 on warm side and 80 to 85 on cool side all the time..

It's pretty easy to set up. You pretty much just set the temps and go, but there are a lot of options that you can play with if you'd like (alarms and such).

Don't worry about the night drop. It's not needed unless you start breeding.

Here is the Herpstat II Manual. I've never owned a Herpstat II, but the Herpstat ND was extremely easy to set up and the instruction manual was very clear for me.

If you have questions regarding it, you can e-mail Dion (the owner of Spyder Robotics) and he is very good about responding and gives great customer service. You can't go wrong :)

EDIT: by the way!!!...I highly recommend BeanFarm (as I just ordered my Herpstat PRO last week from them) OR order directly from SpyderRobotics...

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Originally Posted by rabernet

There's a huge difference in being thrifty (homemade hides) and being cheap (lower quality thermostat). I'm not willing to compromise the health and well being of my animals to save $40.

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excellent point! we get those black hides, they are pretty inexpensive but when it came to our thermostat.. we didnt play, it isnt the most expensive on the market but it was a chunk of change. i didnt even know you could get one for $30, I certainly would invest a bit more money than that. for the point of the thread we use a Johnson Controls Thermostat-Pre Wired With Night Drop and its worked wonderfully for our rack system.. were by no means a breeder but we feel everyone of our animals deserve the best care, from our $20 normals right up through our mojos, spiders, exc.

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

One other thing that's not been mentioned...Rancos are the on/off t-stats which means they *CLICK* on and off....if you're like me and sleep in the same room as your reptiles and you're trying to sleep at night and you hear CLICK......CLICK......CLICK......it gets rather annoying. The proportional Helix/Herpstat t-stats control the heat electronically, so you never hear power being turned on and off....

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lol, even though its annoying i love hearing that click... it makes me smile :D

I have 2 Herpstats that cost me $230 total. After having an BAH-1000 I got for $40, that $230 for my two snakes is totally worth it.

First it depends on what you call EXPENSIVE, I have seen people call a $30 thermostat expensive!

I own 2 Herpstats and 3 Rancos, are they expensive? I don't think so!

The bottom line for me is that the safety and well being of my animals does not have a price tag.

Did not answer the question, did I? :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Deborah

First it depends on what you call EXPENSIVE, I have seen people call a $30 thermostat expensive!

I own 2 Herpstats and 3 Rancos, are they expensive? I don't think so!

The bottom line for me is that the safety and well being of my animals does not have a price tag.

Did not answer the question, did I? :rolleyes:

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I agree. :gj: I have a Helix and 3 Herpstats for 3 racks and an incubator.

I have one rack, with four tubs...well.. it HAD 4 tubs.
Because I didn't realize how unstable the temp controller I have
really is, I now only have 3 tubs.
Unfortunately, the tub that was burnt had my female living in it,:(
but FORTUNATELY she is ok.

This happened in about 8 hours time, and had to have happened
during the night, because I know I would have smelled burning plastic. (the controller is a 'dimmer' type, and on the LOWEST setting possibe)
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1...Picture3-1.jpg

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1...Picture1-1.jpg

I am checking my temps every hour until the new t-stat arrives... hopefully sometime next wed.

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Originally Posted by KIBPLOVER

what is a good thermostats i can hook up 2 tanks and a rack with, i kmow of herp stat pro but is there any others???

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I really like the performance of the Johnsons that I have. But remember, your rack will heat and retain heat differently than your tanks, so if you adjust your t-stat for one, that's not necessarily correct for the other.

It's recommended that your t-stats be hooked up to identical setups for the same heating environments. Even different sized tanks heat differently. As long as I have the same sized (and brand) of UTH on my 10g tanks, I can use the same t-stat. And all my same dimensioned tubs w/flexwatt are on the same t-stat, but I don't mix 'em up.

You don't want the tubs to cook b/c you're trying to keep the tanks hot enough. :twocents:

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Originally Posted by SnakieMom

I have one rack, with four tubs...well.. it HAD 4 tubs.
Because I didn't realize how unstable the temp controller I have
really is, I now only have 3 tubs.
Unfortunately, the tub that was burnt had my female living in it,:(
but FORTUNATELY she is ok.

This happened in about 8 hours time, and had to have happened
during the night, because I know I would have smelled burning plastic. (the controller is a 'dimmer' type, and on the LOWEST setting possibe)
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1...Picture3-1.jpg

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g1...Picture1-1.jpg

I am checking my temps every hour until the new t-stat arrives... hopefully sometime next wed.

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Woooooooooow!! You're reeeeaaally lucky! And I'm sooooo glad to hear your snake is okay!!!! Yours is a prime example why dimmers aren't enough---esp. w/the higher wattage UTHs or flexwatt. *whew* I'm VERY glad to hear your snake is okay.

(I learned the hard way, when the room's space heater failed to shut off.....and I wasn't so lucky. :tears::tears: But I know better now, and EVERYTHING I have is on t-stats.)