Rheostat issue

[BigByrd47119]

Yeah, all of our Petcos here in SA carry the Zilla 1K but they are $10 higher in the store.
You might be able to take that POS rheostat to a petsmart or petco for in-store credit I know petsmart carries it.................I have 2 that wont drop below 98 degrees! Though with that rheostat and a lamp dimmer together I have VERY touchy temp settings and can adjust by .01 degree with ease

Never considered that. Pretty brilliant!

[Strick]

After seeing several folks on here have good luck with these I decided to try one. Only been using it a month or so but so far it maintains temps like a champ. $26 shipped on amazon and very easy to use. It's on/off type but as I said it works and does not break the bank.

http://www.hydrofarm.com/pb_detail.php?itemid=3372

[Superpop]

Hello,

I can understand your frustration with the Zoo Med devise you show in your post. Its unfortunately a P.O.S. I figured it out the hard way too so no sweat.

Heres what you do. My recommendation is that you go to the local pet store and pick up one of these Zilla Temperature Controllers. This devise ran about $35 at the local pet store here.

However you could go to a near by hardware store and ask to pick up a lamp dimmer, such as this one found here Lamp Dimmer Switch. There are literally hundred of different dimmer switches for lamps so its simply a matter of picking the one you want. The one linked has a nice little night light, which I thought was cool !

In the end please save up to get the actual temperature control devise (thermostat) as it will save you a lot of trouble in the long haul.

Hope this helps! I'm sure others will be along shortly to throw in their opinions.

Thank you very much. We got a $10 lamp dimmer at lowes today and it does indeed have a much broader range of control than the $30 dollar rip-off zoo med rheostat!

Just not sure with what to do with the old rheostat now....I could either go through a lot of trouble trying to make zoo med give us a full refund or I could take it back to petland and claim I don't have the receipt anymore(which I do but it's past the return date) and get an in store credit.(and use the money to buy F/T mice....even though we can get them cheaper elsewhere)


EDIT: I just noticed that that lamp dimmer we purchased at lowes happens to be the EXACT same one you gave me a link to....just thought that was funny. =)

[Lexx]

Hello,

I can understand your frustration with the Zoo Med devise you show in your post. Its unfortunately a P.O.S. I figured it out the hard way too so no sweat.

Heres what you do. My recommendation is that you go to the local pet store and pick up one of these Zilla Temperature Controllers. This devise ran about $35 at the local pet store here.

However you could go to a near by hardware store and ask to pick up a lamp dimmer, such as this one found here Lamp Dimmer Switch. There are literally hundred of different dimmer switches for lamps so its simply a matter of picking the one you want. The one linked has a nice little night light, which I thought was cool !

In the end please save up to get the actual temperature control devise (thermostat) as it will save you a lot of trouble in the long haul.

Hope this helps! I'm sure others will be along shortly to throw in their opinions.

Thanks for the link to the Zilla thermostat. I ordered one from Amazon and it was $32 with the shipping. This is the first thermostat I've seen that isn't more expensive.

I too have learned the hard way that the rheostats sold in pet stores are crap. I lucked out because my heat lamp has a dimmer on it, but it will nice to have the thermostat for when I'm gone for the day.

[Superpop]

Hello,

I can understand your frustration with the Zoo Med devise you show in your post. Its unfortunately a P.O.S. I figured it out the hard way too so no sweat.

Heres what you do. My recommendation is that you go to the local pet store and pick up one of these Zilla Temperature Controllers. This devise ran about $35 at the local pet store here.

However you could go to a near by hardware store and ask to pick up a lamp dimmer, such as this one found here Lamp Dimmer Switch. There are literally hundred of different dimmer switches for lamps so its simply a matter of picking the one you want. The one linked has a nice little night light, which I thought was cool !

In the end please save up to get the actual temperature control devise (thermostat) as it will save you a lot of trouble in the long haul.

Hope this helps! I'm sure others will be along shortly to throw in their opinions.

So...

The cheap lamp dimmer has worked out fine and it does what I expected it would do and I have to lightly adjust it once a day...which I expected.

We have not yet returned the $30 Piece Of S*** rheostat for a in-store credit yet. We were considering using the in-store credit for frozen/thawed mice at first but now we are considering using it for the thermostat you linked to.

Later on you wrote:

Its an analogue rather than a digital like many people use. I have two at the moment and both seem to require being set at 2 degrees above the temperature you want.

Does that mean that the lowest setting on the thermostat is 82 degrees? I would like to know the lowest setting on the device before I try to purchase it.

Is 82 degrees too warm for the "cool" side of the tank? I only have 1 snake and I am basing wanting 80 degrees for the cool side on the care sheet.


Also we are going to have a $30 petsmart in-store credit when we return the crappy rheostat but that particular petsmart doesn't carry the "Zilla Temperature Controller". If I contact that store will they have one shipped to their location so I can buy it and use the in-store credit to buy it?