Zoo Med UTH

[nca1979]

New to the forum here, and will be a future first time owner of a bp soon hopefully...

Temps and humidity have been right around where everyone seems to say is "good" for a bp. Temps have ranged from 90-87ish during the day and low 80s at night. And humidity has been consistantly around 60%.

I can't tell if the UTH pad is even working though. The glass seems to be 'warm', but the pad itself on the back is not very warm.

How warm does the pad usually get when working properly? Is it possible I have a bad one?

Thanks in advance

[giaach]

My zoo med UTH usually gets up too 115 degrees if I don't control with it a thermostat. It could depend on how long you have had it plugged in, it takes about 2 hrs for it to really warm up....

[NightLad]

Did you stick the pad directly on the bottom of the tank? When doing this, did you bend or otherwise crunch the pad, or remove it a few times to reposition it?

The ZooMed guidelines for their UTHs warn against this, because it can damage the wires inside and cause malfunctions and 'dead zones' on the pad.

Have you measured the ground temp on the hot side? If it is around 90-95, then your pad must be working. Do you have a thermostat to regulate the temps on the pad?

[Argentra]

Do you have it on the 'back' of the tank or underneath? They don't work well at all when you side mount them. The only reason it recommends that on the package is because stands and stuff used to be vulnerable to heat damage.

The best installation of the pad, especially for a BP, is under one side of the tank bottom outside. Then plug it into a rheostat if not a thermostat, because they can climb up to really high levels if not controlled.

EDIT: man I guess I'm too slow a typer

[nca1979]

Thanks for all the quick responses, this site is awesome....

You know what, it is possible I damaged the pad the first time of using. I originally side mounted the pad because I was concerned about placing the UTH under the terrarium at first because of what i had the terrarium initially on. Was worried about a fire hazard, etc.

But i switched surfaces, and then moved the UTH underneath the terrarium as it should have been in the first place but it hasn't really seemed like it has been working at all.

Thankfully i have a receipt, so it should be returnable. Do local pet stores like petco's etc have rheostats to control temps? I haven't noticed them there, but then again, I haven't really looked.

Thanks to all again, sorry for the novel...

[giaach]

Answering you question about rheostats/thermostats. I have seen zoomed thermostats but there pretty crappy. Unless you have an accurate digital thermometer with a probe over the hot side your pretty much guessing on the actual temp.

[dalvers63]

Thankfully i have a receipt, so it should be returnable. Do local pet stores like petco's etc have rheostats to control temps? I haven't noticed them there, but then again, I haven't really looked.

Thanks to all again, sorry for the novel...

Yes, you can usually find the ZooMed Rheostat at Petco/Petsmart, however I would suggest that you save your money on that one and purchase a Ranco, Helix or Herpstat thermostat. The ZooMed ones, while they work, are not reliable and tend to fail in the "ON" position.

You can pick up a Ranco for around $75 and a Helix or Herpstat for just over $100. In the long run you will be much happier with it

[snake_guy]

If you can't afford a thermostat right now I would definately recommend getting a dimmer switch from Lowe's or Home Depot. They are about 12$ and work better than the rheostat sold at petco and petsmart. One thing about the dimmer though, it requires constant monitoring as temperatures vary depending on the temps in the room.