Having trouble getting UTH to increase temp?

[thefifthdentist]

Installed a newer and larger UTH underneath the bp's warm hide... the ambient temp in the room is 75 and i cannot get the UTH to raise the temp higher then 76? I mounted the probe right to the glass above the UTH so it is at the point where it should be the hottest. The old smaller UTH that came with the cage and bp is having a better time keeping the cool hide at 80... any ideas?

[anatess]

You might have a lot of temp leaks... You got a glass tank? Are you keeping the hot side under 95? If you can't get the ambient temps higher without cooking the hot side, you can do 2 things:

1.) Insulate the viv (if you're using a glass tank, you can line 3 sides of the tank with cork board or some other insulation material)
2.) Use a dimmable ceramic heat emitter in addition to the heat pad to raise the ambient temps. A 60-watt bulb should be sufficient and dim if it is too high. Note that ceramic heat emitters could impact your humidity, so you'll need to strike a balance there.

Hope this helps.

[Argentra]

Avoid using CHEs as they suck the moisture out of any enclosure.

By probe, do you mean the thermostat probe or the thermometer probe? The controlling thermostat probe should be taped directly to the UTH outside the tank, and the thermometer temp reading probe should be directly against the glass inside the tank.
Also, these pads take a few hours to heat up fully. Give it time and test it as it goes.

With any glass tank, insulation of the back and both sides is essential for keeping temps stable. Foam insulation board or cork are the best materials for this.
Make sure, also, that your screen top is covered with either foil or plexiglass. Wood, towels, and plastic wrap do not cut it.

If, after you've made sure that everything is in the proper place, the UTH still isn't heating up properly you may have a defective one. Take it off the tank and plug it directly into a wall outlet to test it. It should get up above 100 like this. If it doesn't, then you should contact the manufacturer to get a replacement.
Hope that helps.

[thefifthdentist]

I have had it plugged in for 5 hours and it has not increased the temperature more then a degree.. so I guess I will have to pull it off the tank and check it before I try and get a new one...

So until I can get to the store and fix this issue with the UTH I am trying to use a light from my leopard gecko's cage to get the temp up because Its 77 now and I am struggling to keep it there. Also maybe a space heater placed far enough away to just keep the temp in the area higher? As long as I make sure that it cannot get hot enough to burn?

[anatess]

Sounds like a plan!

By the way, my UTHs are stuck to the bottom of the tank using aluminum tape. I realized that the sticky that came with the UTH is a pain in the neck to remove - especially in cases like these when you get something defective, or when you need to upgrade the tank. Just thought I'd mention it.

[mrshawt]

Do this and you won't ruin the UTHs when removing them:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=66262