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Big Apple's Proportional Thermostat

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Wilson

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I purchaced Big Apple's Proportional Thermostat about four months ago. I have the thermostat hooked up to a five foot strip of heat tape. This thermostat is dead on. Whenever I am taking care of maintnance on my cages, I make sure to take a temp reading from the heat tape. The temp is always right on. This product cost me 100 dollars (give or take a few). At the time I thought it was a little much compared to the dimmers I was using, but it is well worth the money. The peace of mind that this product has given me has been worth the price. I worry a lot less now about cooking my snakes. The thermostat takes a temp reading every so often and adjust the electricity accordingly.

I am a big fan.

Justin Wilson
 
I have one of these thermostats also. I agree it's a very nice unit, and compared feature for feature, it's a better value that the helix.
The built in night drop feature is handy, and it's very accurate.

My only fault with it is the single outlet. While it's easy enough to use it on more than one cage, and I do, I just think for $100 an added outlet is called for.
While it's not something I have plans of converting my entire collection over to, I am pleased with its performance.
 
Hello,

Is there a web address I can get the Big Apple's Proportional Thermostat?

I have had major headaches with ALife 1000 thermostats, one lasted 7 days and was defective in that it failed to switch off the heat when cages reached the desired temps. The other lasted 6 months and did the same... makes for losing a lot of sleep!

Thanks, Scott Collien
 
To Clay Davenport

Thanks for the link.... maybe this will provide some sleep!

Much appreciated!!

Scott Collien
 
Do you really think it's better than the Helix systems? I am about to invest in a thermostat... and I am torn between the BigAppleHerp one, and one of the Helix controllers...
 
I dont' think the Big Apple model is necessarily a better unit, just a better value.
I have two Helix controllers in use now and they are working fine. My only complaint is an error message on the digital read out of one that will not reset. It still controlls the temperature normally, but the fault light burns all the time. I'm going to have to contact them about that.

What makes the Big Apple a better value though is that it comes equipped with a night drop capability as standard on the $100 model. Helix requires the purchase of extra equipment to be able to do this.

They're both good units, but if I were to be buying another one I would buy a Big Apple.
 
Thanks for replying, Clay. What snakes are you using the night drop feature for, exactly? I am curious if it applies to what you're using it for, versus what I am... Thanks =)
 
Boas mainly, but the feature can be used by any snake. Although most people do it, keeping a uniform temperature 24/7 is not natural, and I believe there is a potential benefit in using a nighttime temperature drop with any species.
It comes in the most useful with boas and pythons though, particularly during the breeding season.
 
I have switched from useless Alife 1000 thermostats to Ranco thermostats. These also have a night drop feature and have proven to me to be very reliable..... good buy to the Alife 1000 snake killers!
 
Night Drop in Ranco?

You mentioned a night drop feature in your Ranco Thermostats. I recently purchased 2 of these thermostats and did not notice this feature. Could you provide more info on model and such. All we do here ,for a night drop, is turn off the systems. Room is typically at 78 degrees. Drops the warmest area of caging/racks to room temp instead of the daytime 88 degrees.
 
NIGHT DROP

You will have to go through your options and then you should come across a another number after setting the desired temp and then do the drop. You can drop as low as 30 F, but you wouldn't want to, just select what you want to drop.
 
That number after setting the desired temp is the temperature differential. It is not a night drop. That number can be set from 1f - 30f. What it does is tell the thermostat how tight to hold the temp.

For example, if you set your desired temp to 90f and the temp differential to 1, the thermostat will turn on at 89f and off again at 91f. You can see the problem if you set it for 30. Yes it will allow it to drop the temp significantly but it will also allow temps to reach 120f before it shuts off.
 
I've been using one of these thermostats for about a month now, and I'm really pleased with it as well. To solve the one outlet inconvenience, I plugged a 6-outlet surge-protector strip into it, and then plugged my heating cables into the plug strip. Just make sure that you don't overload the capacity of the thermostat if you're using multiple devices.

Annie Hemstock
 
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