VIVOSUN 10"x 20.75" Seedling Heat Mat and Digital Thermostat Combo Set, UL & MET-Certified Warm Hydroponic Heating Pad for Germination, Indoor Gardening, Greenhouse

Bought VIVOSU Heat Mat with external controller & temp probe to use with Ferry Morse seedling tray & seedling containers. Also using blue & red LED hanging light, not shown Added Ferry Morse humidity dome. VIVOSUN mat under tray. Probe from controller inserted into one container at a time. Display can stay on continuously for easily walking into room & immediately seeing soil temp. Display & controls are very visible & easy to operate correctly. Obtaining very good seed growth due, in part, to good warmth contribution from mat. First bought VIVOSUN mat w/o probe. Controller was not controlling heat accurately. For a test, set to 100 deg F on setting display. Actual mat temp display showed 100 degrees but could touch mat & it was only slightly warm. Also, power cord inside mat, on top, on that mat protruded above overall mat height towards center. Required adding cardboard shims on cord side to have level tray with consistent temperature & light. Returned 1st mat and bought Seedling Heat Mat and Thermostat Combo Set. Delighted with performance of Combo Set!

I have 10 gallon glass tanks set up as terrariums. Since the substrate stays moist at all times, this gently heats the soil slowly. It's just a backup/booster as the house gets cold in the winter. It will not keep the air in the terrarium warm, but it does keep the soil warm. (which is how it's designed - a low and slow heater, which works best on water due to it's high heat capacity) Placed under the tank, with the soil probe set to "70F" it kept a range of 68-72F in the soil even if the room is 60F. My substrate is 4-6 inches deep, well aerated, and kept moist. Surprisingly, it works on tanks that have 4 little feet raising the tank up. (such as the Thrive brand 10 gallon open front vivarium tank) I assumed all the heat would simply rise up, hit the bottom of the tank, and proceed to leak out the sides. Without any significant warmth added to the soil. But it actually warms the soil just fine. Remember that very cold water shouldn't be poured into a glass tank with a heater touching it, because the temperature difference could crack the glass. That being said, these heaters heat very gently, without touching the glass (in my set ups), and I pour room-temperature (60F) water into the tank to water the soil. Pro - if you hang the controller up, you can easily see the current temperature of the soil reported by the soil probe. Downside - it's not quick/easy to change the temperature setting. It is a strange design, where you do NOT press the up or down arrow buttons to adjust the temperature up or down. Instead, you must hold down the setting button for a long time until it blinks. Then press up/down buttons to chose the temperature goal. Then hold down the setting button for a long time until it goes back to showing the current temperature.

I use this heat mat and thermostat as a sourdough proofer, and it works fantastic. I set it up inside an old soft cooler with a small rack to hold my jars and dough, and it creates a perfectly controlled environment. The thermostat maintains a consistent temperature, which I’ve confirmed by checking the internal temp of my starter and dough. It’s reliable, easy to use, and does exactly what it should. This is a very effective and economical alternative to expensive proofing boxes. Highly recommend for sourdough baking.

Thermostat sensors are finicky. Have 2, 1 works as it should the other off by 4 degrees at times. Timmers work great and heating pads work as they should. Just that dang temperature probe

Love this combination thermostat and mat. I don’t know how people can use the mat without the thermostat though. I accidentally left the probe outside of the seeding packets I was germinating, so the mat did not shut off. When I discovered and checked the temp in my packets it was 91 degrees. The mat certainly works! Luckily, since I am germinating hot peppers I think they will be fine. Point is, the mat heats up for sure! And the thermostat is easy to set and shuts off the mat as soon as the soil or whatever you are measuring reaches the temp limit you set.

Works well! Seedlings germinate faster and I don’t have to worry about it getting too hot with the thermostat regulating temps. I do wish it was slightly larger just so two trays can fit side by side on it. One tray ends up a couple inches off the mat. Also worth noting it doesn’t work the best in the greenhouse just because my shelves aren’t that wide but it did work well on seed starting shelves indoors.

Update to my review—I received the new replacement unit today and the new thermostat is working. Amazon and Vivosun quickly resolved my issue and sent a replacement that took only two days to arrive. Thanks to both Companies for taking care of this! I’ve increased my original 3 star review to 5 stars! Testing it out—you set the thermostat to a temperature, I.e. 74 degrees (Fahrenheit) and insert the temperature probe into the soil or growing medium. If the probe is reading less than the desired temperature it will run the heating pad until the medium is heated to the temperature you want it. My new replacement unit shows all this in degrees Fahrenheit, and let’s you program the temperature in Fahrenheit. The first “defective” one only showed it in degrees Celsius and could only be set to temperatures in Celsius before displaying the Fahrenheit Temperature. The new heating pad, like the previous one works, no issues there. Keep I’m mind though it plugs into the thermostat, the thermostat does not set or regulate the temperature of the heating pad. The heating pad will be warmer than the temperature displayed on the thermostat—as the thermostat is only monitoring the temperature of the soil or growing medium. Once it reaches the set temperature it shuts off power to the heating pad. My older review from earlier this week dealing with the defective thermostat: I am in the process of returning the combination seedling heating pad and thermostat because the thermostat doesn’t work. The unit I received did not supply power to the heating pad. I had set up everything as per the instructions and kept an eye on it, noticing that the “heating” light never came on with the pad plugged in. So I took a non contact thermometer and checked the pad temperature—it was room temp and nothing more, then plugged in an outlet tester (in the photos) to check the thermostat plug in for the heating pad and there was nothing. I’m assuming it’s not wired correctly and contacted Vivosun’s support via email. I emailed them Sunday and have not heard anything back yet, so I decided to exchange the item through Amazon—which had a very easy and efficient way of handling the exchange—they are sending me a new one which I hope works correctly and I have to drop the defective one off at my nearest Kohl’s store customer service department to be sent back to Amazon. I’ll have to update this once I get the replacement unit and can better judge the thermostat. The heating pad works very well and I had to manually regulate the temperature to sprout my seeds. It seems very heavy duty for the wattage it works on and should last a few seasons. I know it’s offered separately from the combination set I had ordered. If it had worked right, the thermostat was easy to set to the temperature on and I like how the probe is designed. The only other complaint I had was that you have to set the temperature in Celsius—but it will display the temperature in Fahrenheit. Some conversion work needs to be done if you want to set it at 80 degrees F for tomatoes. Had it worked and controlled the heating pad, had Viviosun contacted me back with their advice on what to do (it’s rumored on Facebook they are not responding to emails possibly because of being located in China and not working due to current events), I would have given this a 5 star review and written how well it works. Hopefully I can post that review once I get a properly working replacement.

easy to use i got it to start out pepper plants since my basement is cold need something to add heat in so got this works good turns off when soil gets to program temp by putting thermometer in soil of plant.

ich habe es gekauft um den Akku meine PV Anlage im Winter zu wärmen und im betriebs Temperatur zu halten. Der verbrauch von der heizmatte war unter der erzeugte Strom von PV Anlage somit hat es sich selbst er heizt.. TOP

Pad y termostato muy buenos

Had this heat mat for just over a month now. It’s fab. Controls the temperature for my chilli’s and sweet peppers great! Really happy with it! Will be ordering another for my tomato’s

Excelente

Excellent heat mat. I use it to propogate my chilli plants, and the thermostatic heater ensures a consistent heat it maintained. Easy to set up, and easy to program the thermostat.