Cheap thermostat and heat pad, FAIL

[drew5337]

I highly recommend Ultratherm UTHs if you're going to use one of those. Nothing beats RHPs though imo.

What's RHP? My jargon needs some work, sorry.

[drew5337]

New set up is running well and consistent. Pics to follow in a day or two.

[Luvyna]

What's RHP? My jargon needs some work, sorry.

RHP = Radiant heat panel

Having had a recent scare with an overheated enclosure due to a displaced probe (that very fortunately ended with my snake being okay as I caught it early enough), I could not agree more with OP's post. I think that if there is one thing you're going to splurge on for your snake's setup, it should be the thermostat. It's the one piece of equipment that could mean life or death/serious injury for your snake in a matter of hours. In my case, if I had a Herpstat instead of the Hydrofarm Jumpstart I was using for my ceramic heat emitter, the alarm system would have alerted me within minutes that something was wrong and saved my snake and I from a very scary experience and a trip to the vet.

I am in the process of installing a Herpstat 2 now for my enclosure and I will never go with anything less. I really appreciate that it has a safety relay system (will shut off power to heating elements if temps too high or low, or internal error detected, prevents runaway heating if main relay fails) and built in alarms. It's expensive, but I think it's worth it if it will give peace of mind, last a long time, and keep my snake safe.