Herpstat or rheostat?

[Neal]

Is the herpstat EZ2 lifetime as much as the snake’s?

I have no experience with the Herpstat EZ series, but if it's a herpstat I'm guessing it's a quality product. I've ran Herpstat 1's and now I have a Herpstat 6.

To the OP:
Rheostats (aka dimmer, aka lamp dimmer) are something I DO know about, I've used them extensively for 30+ years, I can't recall many failures & I still use them, to control overhead lights & Flexwatt heat tapes for my snakes (which are mostly colubrids). While thermostats are preferable in many ways, they too CAN fail. If one has the time & is vigilant, a rheostat is far cheaper & may work just fine...much depends on your set up, and YOU. But rheostats take some getting used to...it's basically a rotary dial with no markings to indicate a specific temperature. (*the few rheos that I can recall failing me just failed to come on at all, likely due to a loose connection, seeing as I've moved several times over the years.) If you like to wire up your own, any hardware store sells them, or you can get the kind already installed in an extension cord, or the kind you install yourself on your own cord. I've used all kinds & wired up my own Flexwatt tapes. And I've never come close to injuring a snake with excessive heat, but I also do NOT keep the kinds (like BPs) that need higher temps where it pays to be more exact.

If you're using a rheostat with a light, you can SEE the output, but not so with a CHE, nor for that matter with a heat tape. What I do is monitor the temperature produced & put a few markings on the rheostat dial for my reference. You can really burn yourself (or start a fire) with a CHE that's running full-blast, so be aware of that. Flexwatt heat tape that's properly installed (vented as per instructions) does NOT get that hot and bear in mind that I'm using ONLY glass tanks...they do not melt or warp the way plastics can. Also, the heat tape is only under a fairly small portion of the cage floor.

Safety first, always. If you need precise temperature controls, by all means use a quality thermostat. But if your experienced source suggested a rheostat for use on your CHE, the reason he gave makes sense to me. I can't speak for sure about the CHE since I don't use them, but the more times you turn a regular light bulb on & off, the faster it does seem to fail. But I think there's also 2 kinds of thermostats? the proportional kind, and the on-off kind?

Rheostats have a higher failure rate than a quality thermostat. A rheostat you have so many other factors that can cause an issue it doesn't "work just as fine". If you spend money on a snake and want to skimp on the proper equipment, then people don't have any business owning a snake.

If a rheostat fails, in the cases I've noticed them failing, the device they were controlling went to full power, this can kill your snake. Let's not even mention that they have other factors that the rheostat can't adjust for. An air conditioning unit has at least 4 common ways to fail to keep the house cool(blower motor, compressor, thermostat, leaking). Those 4 ways if you're using a rheostat and it gets hot can kill or cause issues for the snake. Let's not mention wiring, or the breaker tripping. The fact is if you have a quality thermostat like a Herpstat or Vivarium Electronics then when that temp rises, it will lower the power, or shut off which won't kill or cause issues for the snake.

Also when a Herpstat or Vivarium Electronic thermostat fails, it doesn't go to 100% power. They have fail safes.