Defective thermostat for uth

[CrabbyLover77]

I just bought a thermostat for my new uth. It arrived from Amazon Friday. I first noticed that I would set the temp to 78°F, and it wouldn't click on even though the temp read 77°. Today I had it at 78° again. I went back to check a few hours later and the temp on the thermostat read 76.2°, but the device never kicked the uth on. I'm assuming I got a dud and will have to ship it back. In the mean time. Does anyone have any good recommendations for a thermostat?
Thanks!!!

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[CrabbyLover77]

I guess I should have read the description better. Just found that it says "Note: the controller is designed to have a 2-3 degree buffering zone before powering on again after reaching set temperature". Is this a normal thing for all thermostats? If so, I'll just keep the one I have and set the temp a little higher.

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[wodesorel]

It depends on the model and how much you want to spend. I use Herpstats which claim to be accurate to within 0.9 degree. Their cheapest one is also $140. (And they have a lot of other bells and whistles that made it the right choice for me.)

Other brands that are very basic are not going to be that tight with the temp, but for hermits it doesn't really need to be. Anywhere between 75 and 85 degrees is good, so I would suggest setting yours to 80 and see what happens.

[CrabbyLover77]

It depends on the model and how much you want to spend. I use Herpstats which claim to be accurate to within 0.9 degree. Their cheapest one is also $140. (And they have a lot of other bells and whistles that made it the right choice for me.)

Other brands that are very basic are not going to be that tight with the temp, but for hermits it doesn't really need to be. Anywhere between 75 and 85 degrees is good, so I would suggest setting yours to 80 and see what happens.

Thanks so much! I'll set it at 80 and go from there.

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[Enson]

It is normal for thermostats to have a buffer zone between the set point and the turn on point. The reason being that if you set one up without a buffer zone, it would constantly turn on and off as the temperature hovered around the set point. This would be hard on the thermostat and your heater. On average 2-3 degrees is a reasonable range, but that may change depending on the surrounding ambient temperature.

Ok now if you want a technical explanation.. you can keep reading.. lol but I don't recommend it unless you're as nerdy as I am.

With my thermostat you can set three temperatures, Th, Ts, and Tl. Or high, set, low. When heating from a temperature below Tset, the thermostat provides power through the "hot" outlet. When the temperature reaches Tset, it cuts power to that outlet. It remains off until Tlow is reached. At that point, it turns back on and the cycle restarts. It also has a "cold" outlet I don't use that does the same thing in reverse using Thigh and Tset.

With an adjustable range, the goal is to maximize the time that the heater is off while keeping your pets in a comfortable temperature range. This will increase the life span of your heater and decrease your power bill. I just played with mine until it seemed like it was off a good portion of the time and left it, but I technically could do a heat transfer analysis and pick an ideal range for minimizing the duty cycle of the heater. It's just been a while since I had heat transfer in undergrad. I didn't feel like digging out my old book/notes.

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[wodesorel]

It also depends on how your thermostat works. Not all are a hard on/off. Mine can do that, but it can also work as a rheostat (dim the power), and ramp up and down slowly. The basic models just switch the power off and on.

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[Enson]

Good call Wodesorel! Mine also has a proportional controller for the output. I didn't think to include that in my ramblings but I definitely should have. That part unfortunately is not adjustable on mine. I wish it was.

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[CrabbyLover77]

Thank you Enson and Wodes! I appreciate the replies. And I'm nerdy too Enson and like to read, so thank you for the technical reply! Lol

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