# Any drawbacks to using a dimming thermostat on a ceramic heat emitter?



## supatips

I'm looking at upgrading my thermostats in the next few months. I'm currently using a couple of Pulse thermostats but I was looking at switching to digital ones with automatic temp raises and drops for day and night. One less job in the morning that way!

Are there any disadvantages to using dimmers with CHE's? I've had a quick look but can't find anything that suggests there are so I was wondering if anyone has done this and could give me some input?

Thanks in advance.


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## Athravan

I use the habistat digital dimming day/night with all my ceramics at home and they work perfectly


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## supatips

Thanks.

I was looking at these Habistat DIGITAL Dimming Thermostat (Day/Night & Timer) | Swell Reptiles I've read about the microclimate evo having short leads which has put me off them a bit.

I'm guessing they are the ones you are using too? What's the min/max temps you can get out of them? If you don't mind me asking. How many probes do they have I wondered if I could use them to control the heat in a couple of enclosures or just the one.

Do you use T5 lighting at all? I've read about issues with interference with these stats but it was a while ago so it might not be an issue now.


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## Herpetological Hoss

Im guessing they might be a tad heavier on the electric? Being on consistantly rather than pulsing?


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## Plutino

Both dimming and pulse are proportional control. That means as the temperature approches the disired value, it will send a proportionally smaller amount of heat to the output heater to keep it from over or under doing it. As such a dimmer or a pulse should be about the same in terms of power use. SOME ceramics and heat mats don't like operating at anything less than full power and may buzz. I've used Habistat Black magic CHE's and exo terras with dimmers without issue but the cheaper white cone ones sometimes buzz such as komodo or pearlco. I used to always recommend pulse as better than dimmer for ceramics until a Habistat rep told me he perfers dimmers for everything. Main reason to go pulse instead of dimmer is to save £5, but the 2 leading digital stat manufacturers on the market don't have a cheaper pulse version.


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## CloudForest

the main draw back is the lack of visual feedback, a pulse stat tells you how hard the heater is being pushed to maintain temps, a dimmer stat wont do that...with a light it doesnt matter, as you can tell from the bulbs brightness, but with a ceramic you cant be entirly sure if the heater is running at full power all the time, indicating that a more powerful heater may be needed so that the life of the heater isnt reduced

(if you have an IR gun thermometer, you can check the tempreture of the ceramic to see how hard its working - run the ceramic without the stat for an hour, see what temp it reaches, then put it on the thermostat and check again, as long as its lower than when running at full power, then its not working too hard and wont have a reduced life span)


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## Plutino

Both digital stats say the output power as a percentage. How do you see output power on pulse stats?


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## CloudForest

Plutino said:


> Both digital stats say the output power as a percentage. How do you see output power on pulse stats?


missed the "digital" bit


pulse stat LED on/off length tells you how hard the heater is having to run (LED on long, off short = working hard, LED on short, off long = not working hard)


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## Uromastyxman

CloudForest said:


> missed the "digital" bit
> 
> 
> pulse stat LED on/off length tells you how hard the heater is having to run (LED on long, off short = working hard, LED on short, off long = not working hard)


I didn't know that :2thumb:


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## tonychristofi1983

Herpetological Hoss said:


> heavier


 They drop the amount of electricity they consume when they in dimming mode so actually save money


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