Need more heat!

[kneepoles]

I'm currently using a 20L critter tank, between 1/4 and 1/2 inch of eco earth and the "medium" 8 watt exo terra rainforest UTH. I have a thermostat, but it has nothing to do with this. I have the accu-rite like everybody else, and I have the probe stuck on the glass directly over the heater. The probe hasn't read higher than 88 degrees since it's been hooked up. SO I remove the thermostat and plug the heater directly into that wall (never fear, no snake in it yet) and leave it over night. I get up this morning (6-7 hours later) and it's reading 85 degrees. Obviously I need more heat, but is this a normal range of operation for this particular heater? anyone else using it have any issues? Maybe I should buy another higher wattage heater and convert my hot side to my cool side? Do these things really take days to reach actual heat? I don't know. Any thoughts?

[Rapture]

Depending on your thermostat, the temp of your basking area could vary during warmer and cooler times of the day. I would place the probe on the bedding instead of taped to the glass, or maybe bury it in the bedding a bit, it could be warmer down there, and your snake can easily manipulate the bedding to that he can get closer to the UTH. 88 degrees is also not a bad basking temperature.

[Gloryhound]

What size UTH do you have? A" X B" You may need to get a bigger one but never fear the other one can be used under the cool side to help maintain an ambient air temp around 78 to 80 degrees. You just need to add an inexpensive on off type thermostat to control the second mat at a lower temp than the larger mat!

What are the ambient air temps?

I know some of the UTH mats are designed to never go over a certain temperature. Is yours one of these?

To get the glass on the bottom of the tank up to around 92 degrees you will need to get the mat to around 95 degees or so as the glass dissipates the heat into the room the tank is in pretty fast.

If you haven't yet, you could look into covering the top of the tank in Aluminum foil. Cut out a small section to allow fresh air to enter or poke a dozen or so 1/8" holes in the aluminum foil on the cool side.

[kneepoles]

ok, lemme rephrase my original post a little...
I have a 10x11" UTH on the underside of a 20L ( left side, not that it matters) which is the exo terra "rainforest" 8 watt heater. Directly on the opposite side of the glass from the heater is the temp probe( the glass is sandwiched between heater and temp probe). I DO have a thermostat, however, I purposely unhooked it just to see how hot the the UTH COULD get while plugged directly into the wall. With or Without the thermostat, the hot side temp (the probe ON the floor under the substrate) is at best 88 There is NO snake in this enclosure....yet. Don't worry about the animal. I'm trying to get every regulated BEFORE putting an animal in there.