Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone familair with these thermoststs and the company that handles them ( Pets Parade ) ?

I'm building a few new racks which will run two 8' rows of 11" Flexwatt which totals 320 watts. The Helix and Big Apple are limited to 300 watts without a power booster. The racks will be at different temps and will not be close enough to each other for a power booster to solve the problem.

I looked up 'Habistat' theromstats as the Big Apple looked very much like an old one I used years ago.

A company named 'Pets Parade' had a listing of ten different heat controling items. I was impressed with several of them , one in particular was one that by itself had a 600 watt limit. They look just like the Big Apple.

Have any of you delt with this company and use these thermostats ?

I e-mailed the company a few days ago asking about these items and if they do really do handle 600 watts each but have yet to hear back from them. I'm really interested in them as it would prevent me from needing two thermostats for each new rack, which at $100. each is a considerable savings when needing three or four at once.

Thanks for any info on these thermostats and/or the compamy.

Are you the Jim who keeps Aspidelaps? You and I exchanged several e-mails a couple of years ago about these snakes. Unfortunately I had to get out of venomous and miss these snakes quite a bit (as well as my Jumping Vipers, my Wagler's, my Desert Horned...).

At any rate, these thermostats have been marketed or produced by a few different companies for at least 10 years. I still have one of originals from England that runs my incubator. A very good thermostat. Did not realize they had such a high wattage rating.

Since you'll be running heat tape I'd clarify that the model you are looking at is pulse proportional.

Hi Chris ;

Yeah, same Jim. How have you been ?

I still haven't heard back from Pets Parade with info on ordering and questions about the couple therostats I was interested in. These look just like some I still use that I bought many years ago and look very much like the Big Apple except they have a 600 watt ability without a booster.

The models I'm looking at are both pulse proportional , one having a night time drop while the other doesn't. It's noted that these aren't recomended for use on bulbs as thay have another model that is dedicated to light bulb use.

In my new racks I'm getting set to build I'll use two separate 8' runs of 11" Flexwatt on the back wall which totals 320 watts , just 20 over what a single Helix or Big Apple can handle which pushes me into using two thermostats or power booster per rack, meaning an extra hundred dollors per rack and I'm doing three or four. With one of these Habistats handling each rack , that would save me a hundreds of dollors on thermostats on this project.

If I hear anything from them I'll let you know. I'm just hestitant to order since I can't get a response from them in my intital inquiry about their products ... so what am I to expect in service ?