Between the Herpstat 1 basic and intro plus I would go with intro plus bc of safety relay but it's well worth to pay the extra money for the Herpstat 1 for the added features, wattage, and it looking better sitting on top of a cage, rack, etc. I have a Herpstat 6 and an old Herpstat Pro and neither have let me down yet, I also have a few VE thermostats and they have not let me down either. If you do go with a VE don't get the VE-100, it would be a downgrade from the helix bc it's on/off and Helix, Herpstat, and VE-200 and higher models are all proportional. Also if you are running light emitting heat sources you must get a dimming proportional bc pulse will have the light constantly flickering. If your running non light heat sources then any stat will work. I believe all if not then most Herpstats have a setting for on/off, pulse, or dimming...I run mine on dimming even for non light emitting. I bought the Herpstat 6 right from spyder robotics and the Pro I found used cheap. A lot of times you can find Herpstats on Craigslist and fauna classifieds used so you could save some money.

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