PID controller for seed germination (replace ebay Rex C100)

[FrankE]

It's seed germination time again and I found one of my heated bed temperature controllers has a Rex C100  PID controller with dead display. The PID Cx'er is also putting out 183V a.c. to the 40A SSR which is rated at 3-32V d.c. Oh well, it lasted a couple of seasons.

I think I may have left it switched on open load.

The heated beds are polystyrene leek boxes with the long sides cut off, joined together, a bottom liner inserted, a soil warming cable buried in sharp sand and a top liner to keep growing media out of the sand. They each take a 60cm by 40cm commercial eurotray. (sorry  don;t have a digital camera). The thermocouple probe is poked in one of the cells to sense actual soil temperature rather than the bed temperature. Those keep rusting to hell and the threaded part is a pest.

I'm looking for better quality components before I commit to proper enclosures and more flame retardant base.

The Ebay Berne Rex-C100 controllers I understand are a rip off of ones made by RKC Instrument Inc (Japan)
I had a look inside and it's not worth my time or risk making up mains croc clip leads a a a jig to faultfind on it.

Are the actual RKC ones a different design and more reliable?

Any good value models of PID controller? I'm looking at Omega but they're quite expensive for my budget.