Zoo Med Environmental Control Center
$88.44
Price: $88.44
(as of Oct 10, 2025 14:11:01 UTC – Details)
The RT-1000 is Zoo Med’s most advanced habitat automation system, designed to give reptile and amphibian keepers precise control over temperature, lighting, and humidity. It’s like a smart home hub—but for your terrarium!
Compatible with Incandescent Lamps, Mercury Vapor Lamps, Compact Fluorescent Lamps, T8, T5, Halogen Lamps, LED, Ceramic Heat Emitters, Under Tank Heaters, Misters, Fogger, and More!
Program natural temperature fluctuations and nighttime temperature drops
Programmable alarm when temperature reaches extreme high or low levels
Built-in memory storage saves your settings
Controls up to 1000 watts
Customers say
Customers find the environmental control center well worth the money and appreciate its controllability, with one customer noting it can control up to three lights and a fogger. The temperature and humidity features receive mixed feedback – while some say it maintains temperatures better, others report the tank being too cold, and while some find it easy to set up, others find it difficult to program. The functionality and durability also get mixed reviews, with some reporting it works well while others say it stopped working, and one customer noting it broke within three days of use.
mickeycrack18 –
Best by far.
Donât waist your money on the cheap imitation knockoffs. They will let you down. This has run my close to 500 watt setup reliably for months now. Thereâs two temp plugs. One on a rheostat which controls the intensity of your heat bulb, and the other is on a on off temp switch. Thereâs also a humidifier/dehumidifier plug. As well. The last 3 plugs are time controlled. The interface was tricky at first but made sense in the end. What I like the most about it, is that you can set the range that the plugs activate my heat is set to come one on a 2 degree drop which maintains the temps better, where other manufacturers systems. activate at around a 5 degree drop. Last but not least the alarm warning can be set to any difference of humidity or temperature you desire that way your not hearing alarms in the morning when everything turnes on and has to get to temp. I recommend this for any reptile setup.
Tristan –
Peace of Mind
Firstly I don’t think this is always necessary for every type of reptile. In my case the room I’m going to have my beardie in is always very dry, even with a humidifier so I decided to give this a try.I originally planned to return this as I thought it was overkill for a bearded dragon but when coupled with a on/off mist/fogger, it went from 10-15% humidity to the perfect range. 35-37 during the day. I don’t recommend having the fogger on high. Just enough to humidify the enclosure. It has automated just about everything I could want. If you have the extra $100, then this is well worth the money. Gives me peace of Mind when I’m not home.I also added a mister that lightly mists twice a day for some hydration since I don’t think the fogger is going to help with that. You don’t need this, you can just use a spray bottle.
Isaac Smith –
Disappointed
The instruction are great, easy to understand, and assembly is a breeze. Thatâs all I can say on the positive side. Unfortunately, thereâs a lot of bad: I bought two units. The first one worked for about 3 weeks. Now itâs trying to cook my ball python, as shown in the picture I included with this review. The second unit never worked from the time I set it up. The heating pads did nothing while plugged into the second unit but were fine when I plugged them into a power strip. I tried plugging them back into the unit and they were cold within an hour, even though I set the temps to 80 and 90 and the temp probes were correctly positioned. I like the concept and Iâm willing to pay for a reliable system, but these things are garbage. Because there are so many positive ratings that I assume are real, Iâm going to try and give them another shot, but Iâm afraid I may just be wasting my time and money.
Fink –
Best value on the market
I’ve got 8 of these now, and I love them. They run everything except my plant lights, which have a built-in clock for simulating a ramped sunrise/sunset, and my mister, which covers multiple enclosures on a timer (but it could run the plant lights and the mister if I wanted). I did have an issue with the very first one I got, the jack on the controller broke, and I couldn’t see parameters or change them. The main unit maintained the settings I put in before the jack broke though, and ZooMed sent me a replacement controller quickly under the warranty. I’ll keep getting these for my setups as long as they stay on the market
Ansgar –
Great idea but the dimming thermostat is flawed
While everything else works fantastic, the dimming thermostat has some flaws that make it difficult to rely on. The biggest issue is that setting the temp to anything below 83°f causes very strange behavior. For one, its wildly inconsistent. One night I had to set it to 81f to keep it at a perfect 80. The next night I had to set it to 82 and it completely shut off at 80 and turned on near full blast at 79. In fact, most of the time it seems to act more like an on/off thermostat than dimming. I have yet to get it to keep a stable 90f day temp. All of my tests thus far result in the thermostat shutting off 2 degrees below the target temp. I might have to go back to my Exo Terra thermostat because thus far, this one is just woefully inconsistent and unreliable as a dimming thermostat.***UPDATE***After working directly with Zoo Med Labs, it turns out the issue is that the handset ONLY works in whole Celsius numbers. Setting the temp in Fahrenheit causes the unit to round your setting to the nearest Celsius in the background and target that setting. This makes it seem completely unreliable to those of us trying to use Fahrenheit temps. Once set to Celsius, the unit works as one would expect. The dimming is still not as even or as perfect as Exo Terra’s suite of thermostats, but it works well enough to justify the price considering all the other features.I am also giving an additional star because Zoo Med will send free replacement parts for the life of the product, no questions asked and even work with you directly on the phone if you are having issues.
Jason –
Confusing
This item works well once you sort out how to use it however, my son and I are still trying to sort that out after over a month so in effect some areas of it were great. It does a great job at controlling and telling you what the humidity is for instance But trying to figure out which outlet or how to set the range or if youâre on a.m. or p.m. these are all very confusing and sometimes too confusing issues with this item. Otherwise works great.
EC –
Mein Erstgerät musste ich reklamieren, da sich innerhalb von 6 Monaten der Akku aufblähte und der Luftfeuchtigkeitssensor ausfiel… Da Dieses Gerät über Amazon nicht mehr erhältlich war, musste ich ein Ersatzgerät über einen anderen Shop bestellen… Das neue Gerät wies ebenfalls nach ca. 9 Monaten einen aufgeblähten Akku auf und der Temperatursensor ist ausgefallen… Für den Preis ist die Qualität eine Zumutung. Ach im Erstgerät befanden sich ca. 4 unverarbeitete lose Schreiben…
Roger Q Pennybottom –
I have a bunch of automated enclosures, mostly using two or more systems including exoterra dimming, mist king, ink bird and herpstat.This controller does everything in one! I wish I had known about it sooner, dimming heat, humidity and light cycles all in one, plus a few other features, had I known about this product earlier I would have at least 4 of them and they would have saved me money.Was simple to install and worked right out of the box.It also looks very clean and aesthetically pleasing.The input box is a but bulky and if you have larger plugs then that could be an issue.But overall a great product!
Amelie Pressey –
I bought this in august and it was amazing at first. All of a sudden all the ports on the right side stopping working. This made all my heating and humidifier stop running all day while I was at work. The outlets are still broken and now it is basically useless. Donât buy! (Iâve attached a pic of my snake as Iâve already thrown out the device.
A. A. –
I have two of these units. One works great, the other one keeps clicking (faulty 2nd outlet). Been waiting on Zoomed for a replacement for over 8 weeks. I’ve had to relocate one of my heating sources to an outlet that is only regulated by timer instead of thermostat.
paul –
I’ve been through two of these now and the probes have a habit of failing making the entire controller useless. Replacement probes are not sold separately so the entire unit needs to be replaced. Amazon was good about replacing the first one but the second time I had to go through Zoo Med directly as Amazon and the seller were both useless in helping. I only use this product because my terrarium is set up for this otherwise I’d be going with something different. It’s garbage.