Heating?

[Syllvur]

Two things... For the regulator for the heat pad, what brand would you recommend me using? The only one that is actually in a store around me is Zilla. Second, with the regulators, what is the difference between the 1000 W and the 500 W? My heating pad alone has currently had the temp. at 97.6 degrees and has not raised any higher (I've had it on for over 4 hours now to keep a log of the temp.)

 

[Syllvur]

Or if my heater is on 97.6 would I even need a rheostat? I've seen people have their temps. to 100 degrees, but I also know that this could potentially harm my gecko.

 

[Neon Aurora]

You should always use something to regulate heat pads. It's not worth risking a burn, no matter what temperature you're getting currently. Sometimes things happen you can't control, like malfunctions of the heat pads themselves.

For just running a single heat pad, the Zilla one would be fine. I have one tank that contains my pet geckos that I control using a Zoo Med ReptiTemp 500 (I've had no problems with it) and I run my breeder racks on a Herpstat since I'm running a lot of heat tape. If you don't mind measuring the temps frequently and tweaking the controls, you can use a lamp dimmer (hardware stores sell them for around $10ish).

I'm terrible at explaining this, but the difference between the 1000 W vs 500 W is the amount of wattage it can control. If you plug a device that uses more than 500 watts into the 500 W thermostat, you would overload it. You only need one that can handle 500 W or less since most heat pads don't use more than 20 watts.

 

[Syllvur]

The temperature has gone down to 96.3 with the heater. I unplugged it for the night but I'll resume testing tomorrow