Zoo Med Repti-Temp Rheostat RT-10

by **Tsuhei** Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:02 pm

Zoo Med Repti-Temp Rheostat
RT-10

The first item on my chopping block is the Zoo Med Repti-Temp Rheostat. This piece of equipment is used to control the flow of electricity to your equipment (e.g. heat mat), allowing the user to control the temperatures on the hot side of the tank by using the twistable dial with low, medium, and high settings.

Zoo Med Repti-Temp Rheostat RT-10 P-231703-47070-reptile

A rheostat is basically a device that controls the flow of electricity between the wall it is plugged into and the item that is plugged into the other side of the rheostat. For this item, when you have the setting on high, there is little resistance of the circuit (which looks like a tight metal coil/barrel in most cases) because the metal slider (called a jockey) that touches the metal barrel that is inside of the box with the dial is furthest away from the off setting of the device. Usually, the wire coil barrel (the circuit) is partially coated in a substance that is electricity resistant. As the jockey reaches the area coated in the most substance (usually carbon) toward the low setting of the device, the resistance increases, which decreases the amount of electricity allowed through the circuit. By limiting the amount of electricity that flows into an under tank heater, it limits how hot the heat pad can get. When you open the circuit completely by putting the rheostat on the high setting (this happens when you slide the metal slider as far away from the off position), there is no resistance and allows the heat pad to get as hot as it possibly can.

The maximum wattage this piece of equipment can handle is 150 watts. It is also lightweight, weighing approximately 0.40 pounds (181.4 grams).

I purchased this rheostat at my local Petsmart for a reasonable price (approximately $20 USD). I have been using this product for a small Zoo Med 8 Watt Under Tank Heater (UTH) for the past two months. Since my UTH’s temperature was incredibly hot, using a rheostat was definitely a must.

First, this product has an outlet with two available places to plug in a heater, light, or a heat lamp. I only use one of the plugs for my heater, but this feature could be very useful if someone were to keep two enclosures for their reptiles because the extra outlet would allow another heater to be controlled by the rheostat.

Secondly, my rheostat has yet to fail me. I have not had an issue with the rheostat not working or randomly turning off. In terms of keeping the temperature within an acceptable range for my leopard gecko to thrive, I give this item a thumbs up. The plug for my UTH fits securely in the rheostat outlet, lessening the chance of accidental disconnects and depriving my reptile of heat. I would also consider this great for safety. Since the rheostat fits snugly into the wall and my equipment plugs fit well into the rheostat outlet, this lessens the chance for accidental fires caused by sparks igniting anything flammable that the cords might touch. In my case, my carpet could catch fire from an accidental disconnect.

This item really isn't bulky and resembles the width of an extension cord. It’s easy to hide behind furniture without having your equipment plugs fall out of the rheostat outlet. I actually hide this behind my bookshelf without any problems and I can pull the cord out from hiding when I need to vacuum without it getting stuck.

I think this rheostat is also very easy to use since it is my first one. I think reptile enthusiasts of any experience can use this device easily control their tank temperatures.

However, I have found several downfalls to this item.

The first issue I noticed is with the outlet. It may be convenient to have two extra outlets that can be controlled by the rheostat, but the plugs are controlled together, not separately. For example, if you have two tanks with two different under tank heaters that are controlled by the Zoo Med Repti-Temp Rheostat and the dial is set to “low”, then both heat mats will have the same setting. Since I have a leopard gecko and my fiance has a corn snake, I thought if I bought this rheostat that we would be able to plug in our under tank heaters on the same rheostat. What I forgot to realize is that my leopard gecko that requires temperatures to be in the low to mid 90’s and that his corn snake requires the hot side of the tank to be in the mid 80’s. Also, when I upgrade my tank I won't be using an 8 watt Zoo Med under tank heater, so using two different brands and/or sizes of under tank heaters wouldn't work either because different products are wired in different ways. Using the rheostat to handle multiple pieces of equipment isn’t exactly a good idea for this reason. In my opinion, having the second outlet is a fairly useless feature.

The second issue is that the temperatures of my under tank heater tend to fluctuate randomly while using this product. I’ve had a week where the heater held a constant 92ºF on the low setting for the hot side of my leopard gecko’s tank until I cleaned the enclosure. When I turned the rheostat back on and let the mat heat up once more, the temperature would only rise to 88ºF on the low setting, which required me to find the right position on the dial for the ideal temperature that I wanted. I ended up setting the dial on the medium setting until the next cleaning. The temperature fluctuated once more with the temperature set at 95ºF on the low setting. Basically, turning off this rheostat for tank cleanings is like playing temperature “Russian Roulette”.

The main complaint I have about this product is that it does not have a built-in surge protector. Since I live in Arizona and the monsoon season likes to rob parts of the state of power time to time, I might have to replace my rheostat within the next year if I accidentally plug it directly into a wall and a lightning storm happens to hit.

Overall, for the price, ease-of-use, and reliability, I would recommend this to a beginner reptile owner up to a well-rounded reptile owner because this product is not meant to be used for large-scale projects or collections. For a rheostat, this item is pretty average.

Over all score: 7 out of 10

By Tsuhei