Seeking Suggestion for being alerted when Temps fall too low

[wny_luke]

Can anyone suggest an alarm or monitor of some sort that will sound if your temps drop unexpectedly? I was looking around online and didn't find anything.

If you are interested in reading more - the reason I'm looking for one is outlined below.


Well, a bit of surprise for me last night. As I was going to bed, I noticed the thermostat for my LG cage was reading 50F. When I went to adjust the temps of the thermostat or check the lows/highs it just blinked 50F. The separate thermometer I have for the warm side substrate was reading 67F.

I plugged the UTH directly into wall outlet and it started heating up immediately. I then reset the power on the thermostat and it returned to normal behavior. Once the thermostat was behaving correctly again, I plugged the UTH back into it.

Needless to say, this gave me quite a scare. I'm not sure how long the tank was without heat, but thankfully Leroy was fine. I held him while the tank was heating up because I thought it would be warmer than sitting in the cold tank.

I'm seeking the alarm/monitor to prevent this situation from happening again.

I know the thermostat I use now is suspect and I will be paying extra close attention to temps while I contact the manufacturer.

 

[Dog Shrink]

Most temperature alarm systems are generally designed for computers from what I've seen and cost anywhere from $75-$400. Not a cheap date. And at that they usually only alarm when temps go to high not too low, altho you can find what is called a "Freeze alarm" http://www.diycontrols.com/c-187-freeze-alarms-temperature-alarms.aspx?gclid=CIrb8_7wo6cCFUGo4AodKmuLBg&. Here's a site I found that does sell them. You'll have to read each individually to see which include an alarm feature: http://www.microdaq.com/data-logger/temperature/1.php?gclid=CMf71aDwo6cCFYh_5QodSGhCDg . Keep in mind tho that neither a freeze alarm or the other ones I posted were ever intended for use in a herp type environment so you'd have to rig it to meet your needs.

Honestly your best bet is to invest that money into a really GOOD thermostat and then things like this shouldn't be a concern.

 

[wny_luke]

Thanks for the suggestions Kel. I do have a very good thermostat, I didn't want to mention the manufacturer until I looked into the situation some more. It's from one of the top brands that start in $120 range.

I'll look into the sites you provided and see if I can find something that will suit my needs on the alerting side.

 

[Dog Shrink]

You're welcome. Let me know if you find something that will so we can make sure it gets remembered for future use in case someone else asks the same thing