Product Review: Zoo Med HygroTherm

[bshmerlie]

Zoo Med makes a wonderful product called the HygroTherm that I use on many of my tanks. It is a Thermostat and Humidistat all in one. It has a sensor that you you place in the tank which monitors your temperatures and humidity inside the tank. Then you plug in your heatmats or heat lamps and your foggers/misters into the device and it will turn them on and off as needed to maintain the desired setting.

It monitors the temps from 50-122 degrees Fareinheight (10-50 degrees Celcius) and the relative humidity at 15%-95%. It has a "heat" mode which turns on or off your heatmats as needed depending on what you set it at. Or you can set in on "cool" mode which will turn on or off cooling devices such as fans. You can plug in misters or foggers which will help with the longevity of those products. The fogger won't have to be on very often and as a result it can last years.

You can also program it to have a night time drop in temperature for your frogs. The program has a battery backup in case you have a power loss so it will retain your settings.

This is a great device that will allow you to be more computer controlled so you can go on vacations with peace of mind. You don't have to count on parents, neighbors, or friends to mist your frogs while you are away. You can feel secure knowing that their needs are being met consistantly. The more things you do to help maintain your collection in a simpler way the more time you can spend enjoying your frogs.

[John]

Thanks for reviewing this, Cheri. I've heard all kinds of opinions on these. What has stopped me from getting one is that I've heard reports of them being inaccurate. Have you ever checked them against another product?

[flybyferns]

Zoo Med makes a wonderful product called the HygroTherm that I use on many of my tanks. It is a Thermostat and Humidistat all in one. It has a sensor that you you place in the tank which monitors your temperatures and humidity inside the tank. Then you plug in your heatmats or heat lamps and your foggers/misters into the device and it will turn them on and off as needed to maintain the desired setting.

It monitors the temps from 50-122 degrees Fareinheight (10-50 degrees Celcius) and the relative humidity at 15%-95%. It has a "heat" mode which turns on or off your heatmats as needed depending on what you set it at. Or you can set in on "cool" mode which will turn on or off cooling devices such as fans. You can plug in misters or foggers which will help with the longevity of those products. The fogger won't have to be on very often and as a result it can last years.

You can also program it to have a night time drop in temperature for your frogs. The program has a battery backup in case you have a power loss so it will retain your settings.

This is a great device that will allow you to be more computer controlled so you can go on vacations with peace of mind. You don't have to count on parents, neighbors, or friends to mist your frogs while you are away. You can feel secure knowing that their needs are being met consistantly. The more things you do to help maintain your collection in a simpler way the more time you can spend enjoying your frogs.

Cheri,
Are you still using this device?
If so, has it continued to be a product you would still recommend?
Lynn

[J Teezy]

I know Grif using them too. My question is what style is the probe or part that goes in the tank. is it an open or closed style?

[bshmerlie]

Yes I still use them and there is kind of trick to keeping it accurate. If you do it you will have no problem and I have used mine for a couple of years now. I keep one on my Cobalt tank at work and the other one on my 65 gallon Red Eye tank at home. I have measured them with other digital measuring devices and it seems to be within +or- one degree. Close enough for me. Now here's the trick. On the Dart frog tank due to the high humidity you have to keep it away from the plants. Once a week I blow dry it out with one of those compressed gas canisters you can get the office supply store or just leave it out for awhile to dry out. Every so often I take the one out of my Red Eye tank but only when I'm doing a major house cleaning. I have the Zoo med Repti-fogger hooked to them and then the heat mats. This also helps keep those cheap Repti-foggers working for a long time because they are only coming on for a few seconds at a time and even then only 3-4 times a day. So they are never consitantly running. I can go on vacation for a few days and I don't have to worry about my frogs. I feel it gives peace of mind and is worth every penny.

[flybyferns]

Thanks Cheri !!!!!

[GrifTheGreat]

I agree completely with Cheri's opinion of this product. I have 3 of them and they are pretty accurate and I like that there is a feature for a tolerance in temps and humidity so it allows you to let the temps drop or rise from 0 to 15 degrees or units of humidity before it will turn the heat mats or foggers on or off. This way also saves the more if the foggers and heating units you are using.

These are a great buy and I use them with my Pacman frogs. They maintain the climate according to my setting and my Pacs are happy and healthy.

[bshmerlie]

I can't stress enough how important it is to have your frog care as automated as possible. That could mean a misting system if you have multiple tanks, foggers, heatmats and have everything as electronically monitored as possible. For those of you who dont know I was seriously ill for the past eight months and there were times where I would go two or three weeks without being able to care for my frogs. It was something that came up rather quickly so I was unable to really prepare. If I didnt already have systems like the hygro-therm I would have most likely lost a good portion of my frogs. Did I lose some? Yeah...to be honest I did lose a handful....but nothing like it could have been. So think about your setups and what would you do if you had to leave them alone for one, two or three weeks....how would they fare? The $80 spent on the Hygro-therm is worth it.

[J Teezy]

you want automatic check out the EcoZone controller!!!

[flybyferns]

you want automatic check out the EcoZone controller!!!

Josh,
It's great ,BUT so $$$$.
Are you using an EcoZone?
We should start a new thread to see if FF members are using it.

[J Teezy]

I plan to get an ecozone when i get my 24" cube Protean tank