# Herpstat or HerpKeeper



## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

Anyone have any experience with either device? If so, is it worth the money?

Spyder Robotics

Digital Aquatics

Thanks


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

if i was going to get a viv controller it would be the EcoZone

EcoZone Vivarium - Vivarium Controllers provide Naturalistic Habitats for Reptiles and Herps. Programmable proportional Temperature, Lighting, and Mister Control

what exactly are you wanting to do? Lights and humidity control or much more?


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## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

control misting, day and night lighting, monitor temp and humidity


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

check out the EcoZone, if you going to go automated go full blown! does lighting day/night and even can dim up like sunrise and dim down if your lights are dimmable, mister, fogger, fans, heat, cooling, temp, humidity, can be set up through an internet interface, can send you emails when parameters fall or go over certain tolerances, think it may even be able to cook you breakfast


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

J Teezy said:


> check out the EcoZone, if you going to go automated go full blown! does lighting day/night and even can dim up like sunrise and dim down if your lights are dimmable, mister, fogger, fans, heat, cooling, temp, humidity, can be set up through an internet interface, can send you emails when parameters fall or go over certain tolerances, think it may even be able to cook you breakfast


I am pretty sure Herpkeeper does all of these things as well.


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## mark c (Jun 17, 2010)

I have been using a Herpstat ND (a discontinued model) for 4 years continuously, and it has not failed. More expensive models have all the bells and whistles, and could be worth the investment.


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## SNAKEMANVET (Dec 14, 2011)

I have the herpkeeper,it's easy to set up.It can do more than what I am useing now.


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## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

after looking at all three, I think its between the Eco Zone and Herpstat, still not sure if its worth $350, thanks for the replies


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

there are several things i like about the EcoZone.

1. Totally configurable through the unit itself or internet interface (if you go on the site you can actually play around with the internet interface to see exactly how customizable it is. You can even have it do things differently depending on the month of the year for things like seasonal changes and much much more

2. You can have your mister or fogger system kick on when humidity drops under a certain point, also can have it come on at certain times of the day for a set number of seconds/minutes, or both. If you have it on a timed schedule you can also have it check at times you dedicate the humidity level to see if it needs to kick on or not.

3. Any outlet can be used for anything. Herpstat i'm pretty sure you can only have humidity devices / control on outlet 3 or 4 where with the Ecozone any outlet can control heating/lighting/humidity/ etc. Also i like the probes the Ecozone uses. Closed probes are a must in misted / humid vivs, open style will quickly start to give false readings (i'm not sure what style probe the herpstat uses but its pretty big from what i can tell from this video 




4. Ecozone has ramp up option meaning say you want to simulate the sun coming up or going down you can decide how long in minutes you want the lights to take to go from no power to full power and vice versa.

5. Also has I/O outlet so you can even hook a mistking mister up to via I/O leaving you and extra outlet to hook up something different

If you search youtube for EcoZone you will find some videos where the owner actually shows you pretty much everything it can do. In my opinion the EcoZone has all the bells and whistles but the Herpstat 4 should do fine for simple humidity / temp / lighting needs. The internet interface for the EcoZone is very appealing to me. Also i know with the herpkeeper you have to buy certain modules for it to do certain things, not sure about the herpstat, but the EcoZone you pretty much don't need anything else unless you wanted more than one probe for say sticking a probe in another tank or two (EcoZone can support 4 temp/humidity probes so you could monitor 4 tanks temp and humidity, but you can only control a humidity device on one probe meaning that if say you had 4 tanks all hooked up to a mistking system, the mister would only run depending on the readings it is getting from 1 of the probes (whichever one you specify it to work off of), but thats pretty much standard practice with any viv controller out there.

If you have any specific questions on exactly what the ecozone can do you can email the owner and he is very helpful in answering questions.

Again though i have expensive taste and love bells and whistles, and if i was going to purchase one (i will be in the future) i would be going with the ecozone. Oh another thing i forget to mention is that the ecozone is very easy to update so when Todd ( i believe his name is) comes up with new tweaks for it you simply can update the unit via internet. The cool thing about the internet interface with it is that you can monitor you viv from anywhere, say you go on vacation and want to see the status of your viv, easily down via the web. I believe there's even an iPhone app for it


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## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

Great post Josh, thanks for the info.


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## Turningdoc (May 24, 2012)

I just set up Herpkeeper. It works well, is lower in price, but directions can be hard to figure out. I have running an exoterra 36 x 18x 24 tank w mistking, humidifier/fogger, lights, fans, and led moonlights(from Herpkeeper). Once set, it is awesome. I do agree w others that only problem is large ap1 probe if placed in small Viv. It is about 1 by 2.5 inches, but very accurate.


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## ndame88 (Sep 24, 2010)

So I had the idea to make the probe look like a fake vine silicone and ecoearth, emailed Eco they said its a great idea, just don't cover up the sensor at the end. Now to come up with the money.


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## J Teezy (Jan 25, 2012)

Turningdoc said:


> I just set up Herpkeeper. It works well, is lower in price, but directions can be hard to figure out. I have running an exoterra 36 x 18x 24 tank w mistking, humidifier/fogger, lights, fans, and led moonlights(from Herpkeeper). Once set, it is awesome. I do agree w others that only problem is large ap1 probe if placed in small Viv. It is about 1 by 2.5 inches, but very accurate.


is the probe open or closed? From the picture i've seen of it it looks like it has slits on it making it an open probe. I'm interested in knowning how accurate it will stay in a very humid / tank that is misted.

** Just got confirmation that it is open styled probe. I personnally would be weary of using this kind of unit on a tank that is very humid and uses a mister. Moisture with an open probe = potential faulty readings. I noticed this with my open probe thermometer/hygrometer i have now. I'll never use an open style probe again on any dart tanks. I think this open style probe systems are best off for snakes and stuff where people tend to use foggers over misters.


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## SNAKEMANVET (Dec 14, 2011)

The sensor has slits in it.I keep the sensor away from the misting nozzles.It seems very accurate.I can move my glass top about .5'' and watch the humidity drop on the display.The humidity is around 95% to 98% in the viv.


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## Turningdoc (May 24, 2012)

Probe is open and can't be directly under misters. I used GS to built a rock formation or back wall and stuck underneath it. Seems to be working great 3 months in.


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