First off, one t-stat can handle much more than one single cage load. BUT, if the cages and/or heaters are not the same, the t-stat will not control them properly. You can only closely control the heater the sensor is measuring. Any others are "piggybacked" and receive the same power level as the probed heater is getting.

With 421D's and a sweaterbox rack, I'd recommend seperate controls. The ranco backup is not a bad setup, so if you go that way, you'd need two of each.

I have many cages and racks most have stack controls and some are individually controlled:

two stacks of boaphiles, one helix per stack

two home made oak 8 enclosure cages switching over to 1 herpstat pro for each stack. The herpstat pro has 4 seperate probe/outlets and I plan on running 2 sections per probe/outlet. My BRB breeding cages.

3 30 slot rhinorax shoe box racks, one helix each.

2 48 slot homemade rack/workbench, one helix each

2 20 slot sweater box racks, one helix each

2 10 slot IRIS CB110 racks, one helix each

8 Sandmar industries melamine cages (only using 5 so far) each has two controllers, one for overhead heat and one for belly heat.

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>>Im going to get some new cages for my boas and ive pretty much decided on getting some boaphile 421Ds and a boaphile sweater box rack. I plan on using a Helix 1000 backed up by a Ranco Thermostat. My question is do i need to get 2 Helix (one for each rack/stack of cages) and a back up for each? so a total of 4 thermostats? or can i just use 2 helix and plug them both into the one Ranco?...or, do I only need 1 helix and 1 ranco to run the whole setup? So what happens when you have like 50 cages/racks like all you big time breeders? do you have like 20 thermostats? Ive never used thermostats before so im new to this. Thanks for any help you guys can offer!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
12.24 BRB
11.13 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

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