Ugh, someone help me with my Ranco...

[SlitherinSisters]

I got my first Ranco, and I'm so not happy with it. I'm about to throw the darn thing away and buy another Helix. I wired it myself and got everything working, the catch is that the Ranco will not heat up to what I tell it to. With the probe directly on the flexwatt it still doesn't listen to me! If I tell it to heat up to 88 it heats up to 84, if I tell it to heat up to 98 it heats up to 87, if I tell it to heat up to 120, it heats up to 98....I'm so tired of this thing! Anyone have any ideas why it refused to reach the temp I want it to?

Yes I've read through the guide, yes I have it on the heat setting, and yes my flexwatt is working, it gets super hot if I just plug it into the wall.

[Twisted Reptiles]

Its only getting up to those temps based on the Ranco itself, or are you using some sort of secondary probe/temperature reading unit to read the temps?

[FatBoy]

What do you have your differential set on? I set mine on 1 and it works fine. I use 6 of them with no problems. I even run my new incubator on a ranco.

[mc5guy]

I also put the probe on the flexwatt. When I set the temp to 96, the temp inside will be 92. I don't know why but tried many different ones, always the case.

[Boanerges]

What do you have your differential set on? I set mine on 1 and it works fine. I use 6 of them with no problems. I even run my new incubator on a ranco.

The bolded part was my first question too. Also, I always set my thermostat to whatever it needs to be to get my desired surface temp hot spot. I always went off of a pro exotics temp gun for my surface temps. If I needed my surface temp hot spot at 92 but I needed to set my thermostat at 102 to get my desired surface temp then so be it (the 102 number was just a random number).

[SlitherinSisters]

Hmm...I rewired my flexwatt just to see if something is wrong with that. My differential is set to 1, I meant to write that.... Now that it's rewired and the probe is retaped to my flexwatt, it's set at 88 and reading 86 on the Ranco. I don't get it.... I guess I'll just have to plan for that 2 degree difference and set it 2 degrees higher than I actually want? It has yet to reach the desired temp, so it hasn't shut off from it getting hot. I took the probe off and it's now in the the tank (for a GTP). We'll see what happens I guess!

Thanks for the help guys, hopefully I'll get it figured out.

Oh and I have every digital thermometer I have in the house in the tank. The stupid Ranco says it's 78, but all my thermometers say 74.3-75, I'll have to keep a close eye on that, and maybe move the probe to the very top of the tank, as far away from the flexwatt as possible.

[FatBoy]

OK...maybe I got confused about the OP question. The Tstat will always have to be higher than the temps in the tub if you have the probe on the heat sourse. That will be the case with whatever brand Tstat you use. I thought she meant she sets the ranco on 98 and the actual reading on the ranco was 93. Maybe the OP will clarrify exactly what she meant. If you have the differential set at 5 and the probe on the heat sourse you will have to set the Tstat 10-20 degrees higher than the temps in the tub.

[SlitherinSisters]

OK...maybe I got confused about the OP question. The Tstat will always have to be higher than the temps in the tub if you have the probe on the heat sourse. That will be the case with whatever brand Tstat you use. I thought she meant she sets the ranco on 98 and the actual reading on the ranco was 93. Maybe the OP will clarrify exactly what she meant. If you have the differential set at 5 and the probe on the heat sourse you will have to set the Tstat 10-20 degrees higher than the temps in the tub.

No, I totally understand that, but even when I have the probe directly on the flexwatt, it still doesn't get all the way up to the temp I set it at. For example, when I put the probe directly on the flexwatt, with the Ranco set at 88, it only got up to 86 according to the Ranco, so it never shut off, it just kept running it at 86 like it's a proportional stat.

Now I have the probe in the tank, because that's the temp I want the Ranco to adjust for. I'm waiting for it to slowly heat up the tank as we speak and see how far it's off in temp.

Long story short, I think I'm sticking with Helixes from now on, lol. What a headache...