Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, I am not an electrical engineer. In fact, sometimes hooking up the DVD player can be a challenge . I am going to buy a UTH today and was curious where to find a thermostat and how to "hook it up" to the UTH. Can anybody give me some good brand names for thermostats, or even pictures? Where do you buy these things? I really can't envision how this works in my head.

P.S. The stores we have around here are: Walmart, a local building supply shop, a small local pet shop, etc. No home depot or petsmart or anything of the sort.

(this post is repeated in housing and enclosures)
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-Kristin

I have a Zoo Med Repti Therm 500R. Others probably work equally well. The 500R has two plug-in receptacles on it so you can power two heating devices. I use mine with both my UTH and with a ceramic heater from above.

The UTH plugs into the thermostat and the thermostat plugs into the wall socket. A wire from the thermostat leads to a temperature probe that you place in the bottom of your tank against the floor of the hot side. I weigh mine down by rubber-banding the probe to a small stone. The thermostat's heat setting is adjusted with a little knob on it's face.

There's no numbers listed on the thermostat though so you'll have to use a separate thermometer to set the on/off temperature.

It takes a little while for the temperature to stabilize while adjusting the thermostat and you should plan to check on your tank about every 15-30 min or so for the 1st couple of hours. After that you'll still want to check the temps once in a while to ensure the thermostat isn't stuck permanently in the off or on state.

Hope this helps! Some believe a thermostat is overkill but if you occasionally have the a/c go out or the room gets naturally hot it's nice to know you won't bake your critters alive (at least not more than necessary).

N.F.

Oh yea, and by "check the temps once in a while" I mean a few times a day for the first day or two then maybe on a daily basis thereafter.