How much heat do you think a heating pad gives off?

[bman123]

You need a real t stat. not a rheostat or a dimmer but a tstat. Set it & forget it.
A rheostat and dimmer will fluctuate, you dont want that.

[Animals As Leaders]

You can make your own rheostats for under $7. Google it. There's really no excuse to not be able to monitor a uth. If you can't afford the pieces, don't have the snake in there.

thats what I did. I made a nice heavy duty one. I also noticed it works a lot better then a rheostat that you get from petco. I believe its because a dimmer switch from walmart, or home depot has a longer dial and allows you to lower it even more then you would be able to with a rheostat. I always noticed with those rheostats the temp always creeps up a lot quicker then with the one I made. I have never seen my temps go above 96 using it, and once you see that you just lower it a little. Its the long term exposure you really gotta be careful with. Deffinately affordable, no reason to have it if you already spend as much as you did already right?

EDIT: I only used it until I had money for the tstat which was about a week. But as long as you are VERY diligent in checking the temps a lot then the dimmer really is a safe way to regulate. The big thing is when you have to leave the snake for more then one day, then you can run into a problem because your not there to turn the dial. I think a dimmer is a great way to regulate temps but only while your tstat is in the mail haha.

[Kaorte]

You need a real t stat. not a rheostat or a dimmer but a tstat. Set it & forget it.
A rheostat and dimmer will fluctuate, you dont want that.

A rheostat is better than nothing though. Most reptile thermostats can only be found online so a rheostat is a good temporary means of control until a thermostat has arrived. Nothing wrong with using a rheostat on a temporary basis.