I own one. To be honest it is in a drawer I simply do not trust it. They are very poor quality and although I could use it for a back up fail safe unit I don't ever trust it for that. Mine is painfully inaccurate, when set to 90 it is shutting off at 84 and on at 95 it has a monster swing. I would suggest a hydrofarm is slightly better.
I believe that on off t-stats are really good under certain conditions, basically stable temps and in direct heat or large amounts of thermal mass. Let me explain, indirect heat (where there is a small space between the enclosure and heat source ie Rack) or large mass (lots of weight) deal with the swing better. ON off deliver max power and then no power the problems arise in the time it takes the probe to power off the unit. Under certain conditions like a thin walled enclosure (tub) and the heat source fastened directly to the bottom. If located in a cool room the probe takes longer to respond than normal and the heat is transferred inside very quickly there is no delay. I have tested my hydrofarms and zilla and been able to see on times of five to ten mins. This mean the snake is subjected to 125º-160º for 5 to ten min. To me this is unacceptable. If the heat is not direct the max temp is lower and it takes longer to change the temp so this time is not so critical. Same for heavy enclosures they take longer to cool and heat so the spikes are absorbed some.
Generally speaking the no off types do not make good entry level t-stats because the conditions that make then perform the worst are very common. (a single tub is a regular variable room temp with a UTH stuck on the bottom) I would suggest that a more versatile proportional t-stat that does not suffer the same issues would be a better safer and more useful option. I believe the lest expensive out there is the Herpstat intro.
Reply With Quote