I'm looking at putting in a warming mat in the floor of my bathroom when I remodel.

I've looked specifically into the SunTouch floor warming Mats and have a general electrical question.

The mats require you purchase a thermostat (70 bucks nonprogrammable one or 175 for the programmable one). They mention the thermostats have a built in 15A relay and obviously a link to the thermocouple set directly into the floor.

What I'm wondering is if anyone has used a generic thermostat for these mats? For 175 bucks I'd like to see if I couldn't wire up a regular thermostat to it instead. Would I need to wire in another relay? Would the thermocouple be completely out of range for a normal house one?

And maybe the better question is. Even if I could get another one wired up would it be worth it? Maybe the ones they come with have programming more suited to the floor mat or are they just trying to make an extra buck on the thermostats when I could buy a 40 dollar programmable one from the store?

I understand your point about trying to save money,and a standard stat with sensor will work electrically.

However, keep in mind you need to find a stat with a similar sensor, and a builtin GFI, to try to take the place of the SunTouch stat.

Anything you find that works the same will probably be very close in cost.

I strongly suggest that you use their stat with their product.

Good point. I never thought about the unit having GFI built in. I guess by the time I found a unit with similar limits and GFI and all the same functionality the price would probably be similar. I'd also probably void the warranty on it as well.

I'll probably take a look around for any generic tstats but I'll probably go with their model.

Thanks.

Thread is almost 3 years old.I would think the project is completed.

Please refrain from answering questions older than a few months.

Thread Closed.