Agreed. There are several advantages to using the Apex rather than a heater thermostat.
First, heater thermostats are notorious for failing. I use the higher quality relay in my apex so the only ’wear and tear’ on my heaters is from the element heating up and cooling off, significantly extending their life.
Second, if you have more than one heater, it’s nearly impossible to get the thermostats calibrated and synchronized.
Finally, the Apex will have a much tighter control over the tank temp than most heaters are capable of achieving.
I understand the concern of causing the apex to wear out, but based on a large body of combined experience it really isn’t an issue.
@Sleepydoc, I'm not disagreeing but again, there is nothing to wear out on the outlets previously mentioned on an EB8, a whole different story on EB832. With EB832 even Neptune doesn't recommend tight heater control on that strip.
Outlets numbered 1-2-3-5-6-7 on an EB8 are controlled by triacs. As long as you don't overload it (keep your heaters limited to 300W) per outlet you will never have issues.