The Big Debate v3.0 lol

[Nate]

One other thing that's not been mentioned...Rancos are the on/off t-stats which means they *CLICK* on and off....if you're like me and sleep in the same room as your reptiles and you're trying to sleep at night and you hear CLICK......CLICK......CLICK......it gets rather annoying. The proportional Helix/Herpstat t-stats control the heat electronically, so you never hear power being turned on and off....

[neilgolli]

I use and highly recommend rancos. I really like helix and herpstates and if my snakes were in my bedroom yes the clicking would probably really annoy me. However for an incubator I really really recommend rancos. Its nice to be able to control to a 10th of a degree your incubator however if your say in Florida where I am and you loose power you will find that the proportional theremostats don't work well on a generator as they need constant good power. A ranco being on / off will run and hold temps on a generator and possibly save your eggs.....

[rabernet]

One other thing that's not been mentioned...Rancos are the on/off t-stats which means they *CLICK* on and off....if you're like me and sleep in the same room as your reptiles and you're trying to sleep at night and you hear CLICK......CLICK......CLICK......it gets rather annoying. The proportional Helix/Herpstat t-stats control the heat electronically, so you never hear power being turned on and off....

When I got my first Ranco, the click sounded like my oven thermostat, and I kept getting up to see if the oven was on. Now I don't even notice it!

[Freakie_frog]

I have to agree with Judy and Kara here first of all the price of the thermostat is relative to what you want to do and how easy you want it. Second I'll just say that I use the Helix DBS 1000 for all my racks, it runs around 125.00 plus shipping. 125.00 is worth it for me considering I had a run in with a lesser quality one that caused a burn. This is the great thing about or hobby!! There is something for every level hobbiest to be able to enjoy. But just like with any hobby as your involvement grows so will the expense. Lets face it everyone want every morphs out there. But not everyone can afford to house feed and keep 50 - 400 snakes.. Find a level that your happy with and work from there.

[KIBPLOVER]

what is a good thermostats i can hook up 2 tanks and a rack with, i kmow of herp stat pro but is there any others???

[Nate]

I believe it's been mentioned in another thread that as long as 2 or more are the same size and are heated the exact same way, you can plug more than 1 enclosure into that t-stat. The Ranco I ordered from ReptileBasics has a power strip that allows up to 6 units to be plugged into that one t-stat. As long as you don't go over the recommended wattage and your enclosures are the same, you should be fine.

Also, there's the Herpstat II which has 2 outputs rather than 4

http://spyderrobotics.com/products/herpstat2.html

[KIBPLOVER]

right but don't you want a probe in each tank and one on the rack for a total of 3 probes???

[Nate]

You want a theromometer in each rack/enclosure to make sure temps are right.

If you have 2 or more of the same rack/enclosure, you put the probe on one rack/enclosure and plug both heat supplies into the thermostat.

[rabernet]

right but don't you want a probe in each tank and one on the rack for a total of 3 probes???

Your rack will need to be on one thermostat, and if your tanks are set up identically (same size tank, same size UTH) then the two tanks can be run on one thermostat, the probe would go on one of the tanks and control both of them.

[KIBPLOVER]

can the herp stat 2 be used on 3 setups, say 1 probe for 2 40gal breeders, and the other for the rack... since it has 2 out puts...