ALIFE 1000 THERMOSTATS - DEFECTIVE?

I have had 4 of the "cheap" ($25-35) thermostats malfunction on me in the past year. There's no getting around it; they're crap. It makes no sense to risk thousands of dollars of herps to save $80 on a thermostat.

So, before any more reptiles are killed by these incompetent pieces of junk, please don't buy them. I learned my lesson the hard way.

I agree with Rob. I was initially looking for a cheap thermostat for my racks. But, luckily I came to my senses. I spent well over a thousand on racks to house thousands of dollars worth of animals, many of whom are irreplaceable due to sentimental reasons. Why risk them all on a cheapo thermostat? I bought a couple of Helixes. The room that my racks are in experiences a lot of temperature fluctuations, but the temp in my racks stays virtually constant. They've been working great for over a year now.

I encourage everyone to read reviews and look for info on thermostats (you can use the search feature on this site to turn up loads of good info; it really helped me make an informed decision). Understand the difference between proportional and on/off. Find out what and why people like certain brands / types, and go with one of these proven models. With so much depending on your thermostat, it's worth it to do some research to ensure that you are buying a quality thermostat that meets your needs.

-Alice

http://www.mgreptiles.com/THERMOCOMPARE.html Here is our thermostat compairision page.. This is not based on only my ratings for the thermostats but the feedback I get from my customers...

THese things are really utter crap. I have used them for a while. I had a couple early on that contantly malfunctioned, I have more recently used a couple of them with better luck, but I was still zapping them many times daily, and rotating the knobs back and forth just to make sure they would turn on/off. I am now officially rid of them and will sell the 4 I have left cheap!

Originally Posted by MGReptiles

http://www.mgreptiles.com/THERMOCOMPARE.html Here is our thermostat compairision page.. This is not based on only my ratings for the thermostats but the feedback I get from my customers...

I found this discussion while I was looking for information on one of the standard pet supply thermostats. After looking at the information here and shopping around for prices I bought the Johnson Controls A419 thermostat from MG reptiles and I'm very happy with it. It's a solid industrial grade thermostat with a lot of features. By doing the wiring myself it didn't cost all that much more than the thermostat people were reporting problems with.

It looks like I could get a night differential with this thermostat by simply adding a clock switch, also sometimes called a timer switch. There are a lot of them out there, but I'm looking for something digital, cheap and easy. All it has to do is close a low voltage switch for the specified time period. Does anyone have any suggestions?