BN-LINK Digital Heat Mat Thermostat Controller for Seed Germination, Reptiles and Brewing Breeding Incubation Greenhouse, 40-108°F, 8.3A 1000W ETL Listed (Heating)

We raise chickens, and I have often wished there was a way to regulate the brooder temperature automatically. With baby chicks, it's critical to maintain high temperatures the first 4 weeks of their lives. Especially critical is the first week, as one day old chicks need to have temperatures between 95 - 100 degrees farenheit to survive. Mama hens allow their babys to warm up in their feathers, venturing out for periods of time, and the chicks scoot back in the feathers to warm up. It's up to us to replicate that if we don't hapen to have a broody hen handy around the farm.When I found the BN-LINK product, I thought that it could be perfect for what we do. So I set it up in one of our coops along with one of our brooder boxes, running the probe along the side and securing the wire with eyelets. You can see the setup in the first photo. I have three lamps in the brooder, one the main heat lamp with 250 watt bulb and the BN-LINK product attached, a second heat lamp as a backup and auxillary heat source, and a regular LED white bulb to simulate daylight. Even though we are in Central Florida, we are in the Osceola Ridge region, with hills and valleys, and we get frosts that the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg do not typically get.The BN-LINK product worked to perfection. I just set the desired temperature, and the thermostat turns the lamp on when the ambient temperature fell two degrees below the setting. When the temperature hit the desired setting, the lamp shut off. SO - the first day I wanted 100 degrees, and set the thermostat for 102. It worked perfectly, and I had healthy and happy chicks. For the first time in years, none of them developed pasty butt, they chirped and moved around happily, and didn't huddle under the light complaining about the cold. During the night, when temps fell below 40, I turned on the extra light, and all worked well. In the second photo you can see the happy, warm, chicks.I had one problem, and that proved to me what a great company BN-LINK is for their customers. One night the forecast was for temps in the 40's, so I turned on the auxillary. The problem was, a fog rolled in from the Gulf, and the temps did not fall below 55 degrees. When I got up at 5AM, I noticed that the BN-LINK controlled light was not shutting off. I turned off the auxillary, and raised up the main light higher to lower the temps. Then I emailed BN-LINK support. After getting an auto response email, I quickly received an email from Allen in their tech support. I supplied more information, and Allen offered to send me a new unit immediately. I decided to wait a while and see if the unit reset, and it did. I realized that I was to blame, as the combination of the two lamps cause the eyelets to overheat the temp probe. The chicks had been trying to roost on the wire, and yanked it out of position. I reran the line, and never had another issue.Since then, the unit had functioned perfectly, all chicks are alive and now ready to be taken out of the brooder and into the Main Coop, asyou can see in the third picture. I plan on rolling out this system into all of our brooders. I know I can trust it, and I can trust BN-LINK to back up their product and their customers.If you are thinking of using this product, don't hesitate. My one piece of advice is that the placement of the temperature probe is critical. Do NOT bury it someplace where it can overheat, or place it against anything metallic, or somewhere where your critters can play with it. Otherwise, your lamp or mat will overheat. But that isn't the fault of the BN-LINK product. That's what we called "Operator Head Failure" in the computer business!I rate this product 5 Chicken Wings up.Update May 25------------------My Brooder Coop BN-LINK stopped working this week. I have a new flock of chicks for retail sale in there, and it was critical to get everything working again. I blame myself for this, as we had cool weather two days after they arrived, and I hung an extra light in the coop. The new coop is smaller, and better insulated, than the large coop that I initially systems tested my setup with. It wound up overheating the sensor with the 250 watt Heat Lamps, and most likely blew out the fuse on the unit's board. The thermometer reading worked fine, but the unit was stuck "ON", and never shut off the outlet. I reported the issue to the Support desk, and they sent me a new unit, no charge, with a Priority Delivery status.I cannot speak highly enough of my opinion on their customer service- it's the best of ANY of our vendors. Again, I highly recommend their product, based on the way it functions, and on their service department. Do not hesitate to buy this unit - I have no reservations in trusting it to keep my brooding chicks warm during that critical first three weeks of life. RATING is 5 beaks up!

I've been using this thermostat for both my hermit crabs and my ball python for several months now. Although in the hobby most don't recommend an on/off thermostat like this for ball pythons, I do think it's a step in the right direction if you can't immediately afford the fancy dimming ones, or if you're using a heat source that does not give off light. Do NOT use this kind of thermostat with a lighted bulb. I use it on a CHE for my snake and a UTH for my crabs.These thermostats are super easy to use, the box does come with instructions how to change settings, you can set what maximum temperature you want your heat source to reach before shutting off. Once it detects roughly 2-3 degrees below that ideal temperature, it turns back on! It makes a quiet yet audible click every time it goes on/off. The cords are nice and lengthy, I have both tanks plugged into the same outlet source without struggling for space, and the probes are also easy to maneuver. They're decently skinny cords, I managed to shove it through the holes of my mesh tank lid, which is nice. The unit has two lights to show you that your heat source is plugged in, and if it is currently turned on and heating. I think the outlet on the unit to plug your heat source into is pretty sturdy, considering mine are hanging and gravity has not yet unplugged my heat sources!I do wish these were easier to mount, I used double sided sticky squares to hang mine on the wall but the back of the unit is concave, so it tends to fall. There is a small hole on the back that I assume is to hang on a hook, but it's not very big, and smaller command hooks probably wouldn't hold the weight of it well in my experience. Others may have better luck with that though! I have a picture with my hand for size comparison, the unit is just under 5 inches without cords, so it's easy to keep out of the way.Overall I love this thermostat, for its price it works great, I use mine with top-tier thermo/hydrometers and it seems to read temps pretty accurately. I would absolutely recommend this to any beginners in reptile/exotics keeping who need a low price point or for a quick emergency setup.

I have two of these over the past years and they are accurate and very dependable. This product can take the abuse from working in a green house , like liquid spills or dropping them, etc. I recommend this control . Well worth the price.

I’m very satisfied with this nice and sturdy thermostat. The case is very solidly built and it has a thick grounded power connection with a single grounded heater outlet. If I need to attach a second system It can switch 1,000 watts, which is far more than I need at this time. I always feel better having a grounded connection even if I’m not using it. The one little feature that I was impressed with is the hanger. When ordering I expected to cut a small sheet of MDF and attach the thermostat to it with a screw so it can be hung from a metal rack. You can see the screw hanger in the product photos. What you can’t see is that there’s a passthrough in the top of the screw hanger opening wide enough for a thick zip tie or something similar. That’s a great feature! I just hung it up with a zip tie. Simple! Setting the temperature is very easy and the sensor reading matches a lab thermometer within less than a degree. The 4x7-segment LED temperature display is nice and bright and easy to read if you want to obsess over the temperature.As usual I have some minor quibbles with the design that aren’t anything much. One is, the indicator LEDs are deep inside the case and not very visible. Some short light pipes might help without changing the board design. Also the buttons are bubbles, not solid plastic pushbuttons. The flipside of that is that they have a very solid clicky feeling and are more dirt and moisture resistant than molded buttons would be.