I use thermostats on most of my racks now, but I used dimmers (rheostats) for decades and they worked just fine, still use them on some of my racks. You just need to get a digital thermometer and tape the probe to the heat tape and adjust the dimmer according to the thermometer. I usually only had to adjust it a couple of times a year, in the late fall and again in the late spring. If you're room temps are fairly stable it shouldn't be a big deal and it's a HECK of a lot cheaper. Just keep an eye on it. Those thermometers with the MIN/MAX memory function work the best.
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