how do you keep cool side temps right?

[geminibutts]

I'm always battling my snake's cool side's temperature! The warm side is fine, possibly even a tiny bit too high sometimes, but the cool side gets colder than it should. The UTH isn't too small because it covers a bit less than half of the cage. The ambient temp likes to stay on the low side too sometimes and it very annoying. I can't raise the UTHs heat though because then the warm side will be too hot! She has three hides, a large water bowl, and a rock outcrop thing that she climbs on. Her enclosure is a large sterilite tub. I can't remember the exact measurements but it is 38 gallons and very long. It isn't very tall at all and I use two layers of paper towels as substrate. I'm going to be switching her to a slightly larger glass tank soon and I don't want this issue with the glass either. I will be getting a bigger UTH for the glass tank though, don't worry. Any suggestions? As an example here are the temperatures I just recorded with my temp gun:
Warm side: 93 on the warmest spot
middle: 75
Cool side: 68 on the coolest spot

[piedlover79]

I wouldn't worry too much about a spot of 68 on the far end. Don't let that 93 get any warmer that is a too warm. This time of year my females with seek out the 70 degree end of the tub and 'chill' out there.

I do find that using reptibark, or mulch spreads out my temps a little better. you can also move the UTH more towards the middle rather than the far end to keep the ends

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If you only have 1 or 2 snakes simply use a second UTH with a second T-Stat to maintain optimum temps on the cool side during the winter.

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[piedlover79]

I like Deborah's idea, that way you can also bring down the 93 a bit.

[geminibutts]

I wouldn't worry too much about a spot of 68 on the far end. Don't let that 93 get any warmer that is a too warm. This time of year my females with seek out the 70 degree end of the tub and 'chill' out there.

I do find that using reptibark, or mulch spreads out my temps a little better. you can also move the UTH more towards the middle rather than the far end to keep the ends

If you only have 1 or 2 snakes simply use a second UTH with a second T-Stat to maintain optimum temps on the cool side during the winter.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

I like Deborah's idea, that way you can also bring down the 93 a bit.

i agree, the 93 is high and i would like to bring it down. that's why i love the idea that deborah has! and it's very convenient too because i'm about to buy a new, larger UTH for the glass tank i'm getting so i can use the old one for the cool side! and i have a spare T-Stat too. and thank you piedlover79! i was worried because i thought that she would end up getting an RI or something, so i'm glad it isn't as bad as i thought.

[Sauzo]

You gotta remember too, a UTH will only heat a spot on the floor, not the air. If you are looking to heat the air, you need to either use a CHE, RHP or raise the rooms ambient that the snake cage is in. A lot of people don't realize this and assume a UTH will work fine alone in a cold house.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You gotta remember too, a UTH will only heat a spot on the floor, not the air. If you are looking to heat the air, you need to either use a CHE, RHP or raise the rooms ambient that the snake cage is in. A lot of people don't realize this and assume a UTH will work fine alone in a cold house.

Heat travels up from the UTH and therefore warms up the air , additionally the floor temp where the BP spend is time is what truly matter, I will even go further by saying that the animal body temp is what matter.

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[Sauzo]

Heat travels up from the UTH and therefore warms up the air , additionally the floor temp where the BP spend is time is what truly matter, I will even go further by saying that the animal body temp is what matter.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

I do agree with you on the snakes temp mattering but I personally don't see how a UTH could heat the ambient above a couple degrees at most. I mean if the snake room is 75F, the best you could hope for with a UTH would maybe be 77F. This is assuming the cage is a small cage that is well insulated and you aren't using a fluorescent light which will heat the enclosure a couple more degrees. I don't really use UTH so maybe there is something I am missing as I only use RHPs in PVC cages and CHEs in glass cages.

From what I have seen from people who use UTHs exclusively like in racks is they have an oil heater in the reptile room controlling the overall ambient temps and the UTH is just creating the 90F hot spot on the floor for digestion.

[LittleTreeGuy]

If you only have 1 or 2 snakes simply use a second UTH with a second T-Stat to maintain optimum temps on the cool side during the winter.

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I just did this in my new rack I built. It definitely helps quite a bit. My room (I don't have a snake room) is fairly large and stays around 68-70 degrees. I still wasn't happy, so I got a small oil filled radiator style heater and put it about 3' in front of my rack. Now my cool side ambient temps are about 77. My UTH on the cool side is set to 81.

[HanabiraAsashi]

Heat travels up from the UTH and therefore warms up the air

Not exactly true. If you take a heating blanket, turn it on high and put your hand over it, you'll barely feel anything unless you are directly touching it. Sure there is some heat coming off of the UTH, but it isnt nearly enough to maintain ambient temps.

Sure, another UTH with cool side temps will work because the snake will be in contact with it, but it is different from raising the ambient temp.