Hydrofarm thermostat WAY off...

[redshepherd]

Hydrofarm is like your house thermostat, an on off thermostat, it is going to have fluctuations above and below the set point. Also probe temp can be different than heat tape temp for a period if the tape just turned off or on.

I'm not saying it's not broken, but with an on off thermostat you are going to have a lot of fluctuations

The thing is that the numbers shown on the thermostat were still giving me 89~92, while the temp gun gave me 83 at the same time (which is why I didn't find out until now... not sure how long this has been happening). While yesterday when I checked, the temp gun gave me 93 at one point when the numbers on the thermostat were showing something lower. So I guess I can assume it's more broken than it should be. :s

So the fluctuations are wide not because of the off-on in itself, but because something in the probe or temperature detecting function that turns it on/off is broken.

My other two Hydrofarms are offing and on-ing correctly, and though it has a wider fluctuation than a better quality thermostat, it generally stays within 88~92 on the hot spot and will show the correct temp accordingly on the thermostat.

If all 3 heat sources are IDENTICAL you can plug them into a power strip and plug that one strip into a thermostat. Probe goes to one mat and fine tune with Temp gun.

I would double check that thermostat and make sure its not a heat mat problem. Any electrical item can fail, I don't care how much you spend on it.

I'm going to test this tonight... As a temporary fix, would plugging two UTH's into an extension cord, and plugging that into one Hydrofarm be too much to handle for the Hydrofarm? (I'm just assuming it's a weak thermostat...)