How hot

There are two types of thermostats, proportional thermostats act more like a light dimmer (what you are talking about). They don't turn it off but rather tune the voltage to what you set the temperature at. And you can of course adjust them up/down according to your needs. They cost around $100 each, example Herpstat.

Non-proportional thermostats do turn them off once they reach a certain temperature, and they are more popular due to the lower cost. They are normally used by hobbyists.

What I don't like about most thermostats is that they turn elements onn and off which means there's a cooling period where your animal basically without optimum heat. The constant off and on of your uth will wear it out faster than leaving it on a rheostat that operates at a lower wattage which will actually in the long run make your uth last longer since you're not burning the heating element at 100%. Think of it like a car that you gun the engin to get to the next red light just to have to stop again. Kills your car pretty fast doesn't it. Thermostats also fail, esp. The cheap ones. The chances of a rheostat failing is a lot less, its a simpler piece of equipment.. no temp reader telling the thing when to turn off and on, then the element that does turn things off and on, there's 2 crucial things right there that if either one fails you're screwed. A rheostat,a simple current fow adjuster basically, only does 1 thing, control current. Not a whole lot to go wrong there. I've used my rheo, the same one for over 2 years and never a problem, keeps the temp consistant every time for over 2 years, no flux except for when the room temp changes so you gain or lose a few degrees.

It does come down to personal opinion and personal preference, but this arguement is mostly about what do you think the most reliable het control is for the money and how I it going to affect your herp. You know most people are cheap, they're going to invest as little as they have to to get by. For less than 35$ I got a top of the line cobra heat mat and industrial strength rheostat and couldn't be happier or feel more confident that my leo is safely and reliably heated. Besides with either method of temp control failing your leo simply has the choice to move to a cooler spot and remember most uth won't go over 110* at most unless there's a serious product malfunction.

Bottom line, its your choice, just like anything else with your herp from substrait, to heat control, to humid hide or lay box medium... there's always an arguement one way or another for why which one is better than the other.

Did you just have to guess at what to set the rheostat and then adjust accordingly to your temp probes?

Sort of killer... this is why I always recommend to people to have their vivs set up a week before they get their leo so they can test temps, see how all their equipment works before putting an animal into possible unstable situations. With rheos there's all the way down, 0%, all the way up, 100% and in the middle, 50%. Id start at 50% and go up from there until you're getting the proper readings from your probe. Make sure tho that the probe in OVER the heat mat, not off to the side, for most accurate temps and directly on the floor. Each time you up the rheostat, give it about 15-20 minutes to bring the temps up then keep readjusting till you get to your desired temp.

You couldn't have said it better. On one hand I can return my ReptiTemp 500r and get a rheostat and have stable temps with a minor dip at night when my daylight goes off, or I can leave it the way it is with a few degrees of temperature fluctuation but hit a constant peak throughout the day. I do agree though that the constant on and off will eventually cause the thermostat to fail. Also at 94-96 degree I am getting a 29-30% humidity readout. I use paper towel in the humid hide that I seem to replace daily or ever other day and always have a water dish out. If you go to my introduction page you can see my tank.

I keep my moist hide ontop of my hot hide, not sure if you've seen pix of my set up yet or not but I haveto rewet my moist hide which is also papertowels about once every 3 days. Its indirect heat, still steams up nicely but doesn't dry out as fast plus I have bark, natural river stone and sphagnum moss that helps with humidity. You want around 40%.

Thanks Kermit. May try it out in my
Spare glass tank to see how it works.

Kermit wrote:I keep my moist hide ontop of my hot hide, not sure if you've seen pix of my set up yet or not but I haveto rewet my moist hide which is also papertowels about once every 3 days. Its indirect heat, still steams up nicely but doesn't dry out as fast plus I have bark, natural river stone and sphagnum moss that helps with humidity. You want around 40%.

Is that what you see in your humid hide or your warm hide? I am talking about my warm hide.

I guess you'd need to see a picture of my viv to understand it. Sincei can't upload from my phone I'm just gonna post a link to the show off your set up thread http://www.leopardgeckoforum.com/t244-show-off-your-set-ups mines the first entry I use both a hot moist hide, there is nothing is his dry hot hide, there's a moist hide thatsjust off his heat mat midway thru his tank and the bark and moss also on his cool side leading up to his cool hide. All help keep his humidity proper. Hope that clears things up for ya

I see what you did there but what i'm asking about humidity is what is your reading inside your first level on the warm hide?It shouldn't matter really as long as he has the option to hang out in his humid hide. Right now he is in the humid hide which has a humidity of 46% compared to the warm hide which is 28-30%.

Ah now I got cha... To be honest I don't measure the humidity in his hot hide, just the tank overall but yours sounds fine.

I just caved in and ordered a rheostat. I am still debating if I should keep my thermostat for a safeguard or return it. I just unplugged it to see what the heat pad could max out and it was 106 degrees F. If the rheostat ever failed which is easily less likely than an on/off thermostat than it isn't the end of the world.

No it really isn't esp. Since we provide a temperature gradient. Really no need to actually order a rheostat when you can pick them up right at your local hardware store.

I know but I got a credit for my thermostat so I'm just gonna swap out my units. You can get a light dimmer for $10 and you are all set.

Dangle wrote:I just caved in and ordered a rheostat. I am still debating if I should keep my thermostat for a safeguard or return it. I just unplugged it to see what the heat pad could max out and it was 106 degrees F. If the rheostat ever failed which is easily less likely than an on/off thermostat than it isn't the end of the world.

Just wanting to mention something real quick, not attempting to steer you folks from buying one thing over another. As Kermit said it's a personal preference thing, so you choose what works for you and your pets. But that's not how you test whether it's safe or not. The part that could fail isn't really the Rheostat. When folks recommend Thermostat over Rheostat it's due to the fact that Rheostat does not monitor the temperature. It does absolutely zero monitoring, zero cutoff point, zero prevention, so if your heating pad malfunction, a Rheostat will not turn it off before it overheats. A Thermostat on the other hand, will keep your reptiles safe by shutting the pad off (or lowering voltage if you use a proportional thermostat) if it reaches a certain degree.

A Rheostat can break just as a Thermostat can break, but that's not what people worry about when they get a Rheostat or Thermostat. People get a Rheostat or Thermostat because they want to control the temperature of their heating pads and to prevent overheating. An under tank heating pad may heat up to a certain degree while working normally, with no defects, as you have tested. But what people want to prevent is when a heating pad malfunctions (and there have been reported case of it happening), and overheats beyond what it's supposed to do, that's when a Thermostat will save your reptile from getting severely burned.

So, just wanting to bring this up real quick. I do believe someone using a Rheostat is better than someone not using a Rheostat at all. But personally, I like to recommend a thermostat to folks for real worry-free heating for their reptiles. A thermostat will keep the temperature down during hot summer days, it'll also bump the temperature up during cold weather days. Where as a Rheostat requires you to manually monitor the temperature, manually change the dial, and of course you always have to check the temperature just to make sure the under tank heating pad isn't malfunctioning. In my opinion that's a lot to ask for new leopard gecko owners and there's more room for mistakes since a lot of manual checking is involved.

We are talking about the difference of spending $10-$15 extra for a thermostat that actually monitors temperature for you, and prevents overheating. Or if you get the better proportional thermostat that combines Rheostat+Thermostat together, it's simply spending $100 for 100% worry free year round heating. To me my pets are worth that much.

Just my opinion

Good points to highlight. I am not familiar with product malfunction as some of you so if you could give me an example on what a defective heatpad can raise too would be useful. Obviously a dimmable thermostat is the best solution and a great investment. A cheaper thermostat has the highest risk of failure and will result in your heater maxing out. A broken rheostat will do the same but is less likely. Also I run a thermometer along with my thermostat since it doesn't have one and will do the same with my rheostat. As I mentioned earlier you could combine the two and be worry free. And in all honesty if you aren't checking your temps daily you aren't being responsible. If your tank is big enough and has the proper heat gradient then in case of a failure you leo will just hang out where he feels comfortable. When my heater hit 112 degrees thats all it did was move itself. I was slightly ignorant when I added the heating pad without checking the temp and he alarmed me by only hanging out on the cold side.

OK so I just finished adding a dimmer switch to my existing thermostat. My UTH is now sitting at a rock solid 96 degrees F. I have the thermostat(now my safeguard) set to turn off at 97 degrees F if the temperature in the room rises or if the UTH malfunctions.

Sounds good. My max temp is 98.5 Eros tends to like it warmer. He thrives best at 96-97.5-ish.

How do you tell that he likes that temp the best? My leo seems to like any temp I set it to. So far the only thing he doesn't like is me. LOL One thing I did notice is for the past two feeding I used short tongs instead of throwing crickets in and letting him hunt and by associating my hand entering the tank with food he doesn't hide anymore when the top opens. For the first time today he walked over to lick my hand.

Eros just functions best at those temps. He sheds properly, is more active, didn't brumate this season either keeping him at the warmer temps. So we didn't have the eating problems like we did last winter. He just seems to have more pep in his step, more natural curiosity. Just the little things that I notice that have changed from the previous year when I wouldn't let his temps go over 94*F. He def. Seems to like it on the warmer end of the scale. Juvies also tend to like it a bit warmer, but a lot comes down to trial and error I guess you could say... some like it warmer, some like it cooler, trying different temps for at least a month at a time and see how they react. If they're spending a lot of time in their cooler or moist hides your leo could prefer it on the lower end of the acceptable temp ranges. If your leo never seems to leave their hot hide they may prefer it on the warmer end of the temp scale. I use to be adament that absolutely 88-94*F was perfect until I started to notice on the days my temps would hit 96 since I use a rheostat and it would fluctuate with the different ambient house temps, he became more active so we started our temp trials.