Interesting note from Century Thermostats aka one of the “cheapies” from Amazon.

[Phillydubs]

So in my never ending hunt for the right therm I emailed the company that I am currently using. They are century on amazon. Now last night I did have 2 power failures. One for a few minutes another was a jolt. All went out and then back on. Clock were blinking cable box reset. My therms kicks off and right back on held the settings and all.

Again I’m not trying to be cheap here and I think I’m going to just get herp2 for all my enclosures. Or maybe one herp4 one herp2.

I’m just not grasping the differences really or what I’m missing. So based on this email below what are these the same as say the herp EZ?

Based on what happened last night it will home after lower outrage and kick back in. It will also shut down if an internal failure. And if whatever is plugged into it goes too high it shuts off as well. I guess the only issue would be a misplaced probe or something. The only other difference is these are on off where it seems the herp2 and up all can control the output of the device to not have it on full power then off then on. I’m not sure how this works with a radiant heat panel. I’ve heard people say that this has blown their heat bulbs but I’ve been running mine over a month and I have it positioned well where it isn’t really on and off very much. Anyways here is the email. If anyone can unscramble my mind please feel free.




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[SDA]

These on off style thermostats are nothing like actual proportional thermostats. On/off thermostats can't keep the temps as constant no matter what they advertise.

If you can, get a herpstat 6 as if and when you get more snakes you already have the probes to setup the new enclosures. If I could do it over I would have got a herpstat 6 to start with.

[Sauzo]

The wording is deceptive. It says 'it will shut off when the controller has overloaded past its rating'. That has nothing to do with the unit failing and going to a ;full on' state. It means that if you unit is rated at 1500 watts and you put a 2000 watt UTH on it, it will trip the breaker in the unit and it will shut down. Thing is, UTHs can easily hit 120+ degrees which as long as the UTH is not overloading the unit which it wouldnt be, the t-stat would not shut down unless it has a hi/low temp thresh hold setting. Like Herpstats have a hi/low thresh hold setting where if if goes above or below the setting you put in, you can set the unit to alarm and shut down or just alarm. It also has the mechanical relay as well as a faulty probe safety.

What you need to ask them is 'if this unit fails due to a hardware issue, will it shut down all power to the channels and unit or will it run full power unregulated?" Does this unit have any safeties to regulate it from going out of control and running full power?" You dont care if you overload it and it shuts down. Any electronics will do that. Heck a house breaker box does that. You load one outlet with too much power and it trips the breaker.

The thing with the Herpstats is if the unit has a hardware failure or any type of failure that would allow the system to run full power unregulated, it will shut down all power.

Now i did notice it has a max temp of 108F. So if you are using this on a PVC cage, you could have issues. If you have to set it above 108F to get the correct temp, you are outta luck.

[tttaylorrr]

the safety shut-off the email is referring to is if the electrical appliance plugged into it pulls more electricity than the thermostat is rated for, i.e. a Jumpstart can't regulate a small space heater, as a small space heater pulls more watts of electricity than the thermostat can. this causes the thermostat to quit. this is fairly standard with many electronics.

a Herpstat also does this, but it is also protected by a fuse. an overloading of electricity (power surge) can do bad damage to a cheap thermostat that's not protected internally, as the fuse is a protection against an overloading or a surge.

without a fuse or safety relay, a surge can absolutely fry the internals and cause the thermostat to run wide open. it's not an if, but when.

[tttaylorrr]

The wording is deceptive. It says 'it will shut off when the controller has overloaded past its rating'. That has nothing to do with the unit failing and going to a ;full on' state. It means that if you unit is rated at 1500 watts and you put a 2000 watt UTH on it, it will trip the breaker in the unit and it will shut down. Thing is, UTHs can easily hit 120+ degrees which as long as the UTH is not overloading the unit which it wouldnt be, the t-stat would not shut down unless it has a hi/low temp thresh hold setting. Like Herpstats have a hi/low thresh hold setting where if if goes above or below the setting you put in, you can set the unit to alarm and shut down or just alarm. It also has the mechanical relay as well as a faulty probe safety.

What you need to ask them is 'if this unit fails due to a hardware issue, will it shut down all power to the channels and unit or will it run full power unregulated?" Does this unit have any safeties to regulate it from going out of control and running full power?" You dont care if you overload it and it shuts down. Any electronics will do that. Heck a house breaker box does that. You load one outlet with too much power and it trips the breaker.

The thing with the Herpstats is if the unit has a hardware failure or any type of failure that would allow the system to run full power unregulated, it will shut down all power.

Now i did notice it has a max temp of 108F. So if you are using this on a PVC cage, you could have issues. If you have to set it above 108F to get the correct temp, you are outta luck.

you said what i tried to say but better.

[Phillydubs]

I’m just going to get the herpstats. This is driving me crazy and if something happened to a snake because of this I’d be devestated and not be able to live with myself.

Im still leaning towards 3 seperate herp 2s. If I have a surge protector and use one outlet to run 2 herpstats and another outlet to run the third would that be ok?

now I’m hung up on getting a herp 4 and what if there is an issue now 2 tanks are down as opposed to just one. Am I crazy to think that way

[tttaylorrr]

I’m just going to get the herpstats. This is driving me crazy and if something happened to a snake because of this I’d be devestated and not be able to live with myself.

Im still leaning towards 3 seperate herp 2s. If I have a surge protector and use one outlet to run 2 herpstats and another outlet to run the third would that be ok?

now I’m hung up on getting a herp 4 and what if there is an issue now 2 tanks are down as opposed to just one. Am I crazy to think that way

no, not crazy. i have the same fear with having a rack. peace of mind is worth the price of a field-tested reliable thermostat. they will prevent any accidents; the unit will shut off and the snake(s), while cold, will remain a-OK.

my rack runs on a Herpstat Intro+ and it's responsible for 3 snakes (4 in April after Peach graduates from QT) but i have full faith in it caring for my animals. there are Herpstats running close to a decade that are owned by people on this forum (i think...IIRC).

in terms of which and how many: ill leave that to your gut. TRUST YOUR GUT.

[Sauzo]

I’m just going to get the herpstats. This is driving me crazy and if something happened to a snake because of this I’d be devestated and not be able to live with myself.

Im still leaning towards 3 seperate herp 2s. If I have a surge protector and use one outlet to run 2 herpstats and another outlet to run the third would that be ok?

now I’m hung up on getting a herp 4 and what if there is an issue now 2 tanks are down as opposed to just one. Am I crazy to think that way

I would imagine it would be fine to run 2x Herpstat 2 on one outlet. Just make sure the strip or extension cord is rated for it. I personally run 2x Herpstat 6 on 1 plug using a 1500 watts rated extension cord. No way i would ever pull that much just 2 foot flexwatts. On the other plug i run my light timer for all the cages using extension cords.

Honestly, 3x Herpstat 2 is going to run you like $600. For that same price, you could just get a Herpstat 6 AND a Herpstat 1 or almost a herpstat 2. Just something to think about but bottom line, it's your choice.

[Scherf]

These on off style thermostats are nothing like actual proportional thermostats. On/off thermostats can't keep the temps as constant no matter what they advertise.

If you can, get a herpstat 6 as if and when you get more snakes you already have the probes to setup the new enclosures. If I could do it over I would have got a herpstat 6 to start with.

^^^what he said...^^^^ not only that they are more energy efficient if that matters to you as well....

[Scherf]

Im still leaning towards 3 seperate herp 2s. If I have a surge protector and use one outlet to run 2 herpstats and another outlet to run the third would that be ok?

if you put anything that wants to move serious power on a power strip/surge protected power strip. i would recommend getting the industrial metal power strips, the ones you can run 6 power tools off of..... i have seen too many cheap ones fail and when they do go, its bad.....

another food for thought, if you are trying to heat things to the same temp, with the same sized heat pads/pannels/flexwatt/etc..., you can run all those to a surge protector, then plug the surge protector to the herp stat. lastly put a probe on one and you can get the temps to stay all with in a 2 degree range of each other..... thats a cheap way to do it, but EVERYTHING about every setup has to be the same...