What cheap thermostat do you recommend?

[Blue Apple Herps]

I personally will never use a thermostat with out a fail safe second unit. I believe that accidents can and will happen it is not an 'IF' but 'WHEN' and a probe caught by something (like a tub sliding over it) is a simple easy to make accident that can carry a very large cost.

I 2nd this. Several years ago I accidentally dislodged my probe on my Herpstat on a rack and didn't realize it at the time. The probe was no longer above the heat source and was dangling behind the rack. It happened at night when I was checking water/spot cleaning, etc. I woke up the next morning and noticed all of my snakes pressed towards the front of their tubs that were super humid.

The temp inside the tubs was over 110º!!! The t-stat wasn't in contact with the heat so it thought the temp was much too low and had the heat element at full blast. At first I thought I had a malfunction, but finally figured out what had happened. Luckily none of my snakes were killed or injured in any way and all turned out just fine. But every since I make it a point to double check the probe and its security and I also run a back up on/off t-stat with its probe in a different place. The back up is set higher than the regular one, so the only time it will ever go off is if there is a malfunction.

$200 in a Herpstat and Johnson t-stat is nothing if it keeps thousands of dollars worth of snakes alive.