Thermostat(s) for 8-10 high rack

[the_rotten1]

Most of my racks have either a single heat source (in the form of a single piece of heat tape, or a single heat cable wound throughout the rack) or several identical heat pads all wired together. No matter the setup, all of my racks have only one plug, so they only need one probe/input. I've seen some people wire all the levels separately, but it's not a setup I'd prefer.

Usually there are a few degrees of temperature variation, but not enough to cause husbandry issues. In most of my racks I put the probe somewhere near the middle and try to shoot for 90F. The tubs on the top and bottom may get a few degrees higher and lower, respectively.

There are some exceptions. I have one rack that has perfect temps in the first four tubs, but I can't seem to get the bottom tub over 85F. So I keep my kingsnake in there. It was a homemade rack I bought off another breeder, so I'm not sure why it does that. Then there's the rack with identical heat pads, (another homemade rack I bought off a diffferent breeder) which was setup ins such a way that the tubs completely cover the pads everywhere but the top, so I had no choice but to put the probe there. I set the thermostat a bit higher and it regulates temps just fine.

There are also a lot of variables that come into play. A closed rack will hold heat better than an open one, and the room's ambient temperatures will influence the ambient temps in the rack to some degree. I generally prefer closed racks, since I keep my room around 75F.

So in short, you will need a probe for every power plug. You could wire each level separately and probe all of them if you're super anal about temps, but it seems like a lot of unecessary work to me when you can use a single heat source on a single probe for the whole rack.