UTH better without thermostat

My room always stays between 68-70 degrees. Before I got a thermostat for the UTH, the substrate was 2-3 inches thick and it remained a perfect 90-95 degrees. No problems, but as soon as I put on the thermostat on, I'm lucky enough to get a 88 spike. It mainly ranges between 78-86 and I had to remove a lot of substrate to cover up the heat pad to an inch. On the cool side, I have a heat lamp that warms that side up to 80, rarely it gets up to 82/83.

I'm stressing with this thermostat. I know I shouldn't constantly check it but I have too for at times it doesn't get to where I feel comfortable that she's not getting the right heat. Things were so perfect without the thermostat... So I'm not sure what to do.

Where were you measuring the temperature prior to getting a thermostat? On top of the substrate or under it, closest to your heat pad?

Your temp at the bottom of your enclosure, under the substrate should be around 90F to prevent burns. Your snake will burrow and find the heat. You can adjust the target temp on your thermostat to be whatever you need it to be in order to achieve the optimal temperature.


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Above the substrate was reading 90-95. My balls never / rarely burrow because I keep the top that warm. I use Cypress mulch, so I know it takes a while for it to warm as well.

95 is getting too hot. You don't want the hottest surface your bp can reach higher than 92, which means under the substrate. Even if you haven't seen your bp burrow doesn't mean they won't.

What are you using to measure your surface temps?

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Originally Posted by canineskiba

Above the substrate was reading 90-95. My balls never / rarely burrow because I keep the top that warm. I use Cypress mulch, so I know it takes a while for it to warm as well.

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95 even without the substrate is actually a bit too hot.

I keep the substrate to an inch at the thickest, so that you don't have this problem with the temperature difference. And measure below the substrate when adjusting your thermostat, because they WILL burrow or move the substrate aside. I would have it so below the substrate is no higher than 95, and above the 1" substrate might be 88~92.

I have and use a temperature gun.

I'm afraid that when we lost power a few times before going completely out during a bad storm a few days ago might have caused issues to the thermostat that it's not reading temperatures right. I had to remove the prope, unplug both so I could take the tank upstairs where it was warmer. We don't have a generator right now.

Your substrate is too thick and you always want to take the temperature at the hottest they can touch.
They can and will burrow.

I agree that your substrate is too deep. I suggest aiming for about 3/4"-1" for your substrate depth above the UTH. Also, measure the glass directly above the surface, because like mentioned above, your snake can and will burrow. You should be aiming for about 92 degrees.

As for what to do in the meantime, I would DEFINITELY leave the UTH plugged into the thermostat. If the house is cold and ambient temps are a bit low your snake will most likely be looking to find a warm spot, and over the UTH will possibly be her only option. A UTH running in a colder room may run full power and spike to temps that can burn your snake.

We're new to the hobby and experienced a similar problem when we first set up our habitat. First we were told that we should be safe using a 6x23 Ultratherm UTH without a thermostat 'because of it's low wattage". When we couldn't get the belly heat in our hot hide to the proper temp we were told that we probably should reduce the depth of our substrate.

It was then it occurred to us that regulating belly heat by adding or removing substrate made no sense. When we actually measured the heat generated by our UTH directly on the bottom of the habitat (110 degrees!), we realized that it not only didn't make sense, it was dangerous.

So... we added a Herpstat, set it to 92 degrees, and lowered the substrate around the hot hide to about 1/2" (our boi usually pushes it out of the way). The rest of the habitat has 1" or more of substrate, which does help with the temperature gradiant. A 40w CHE manages the ambient temp.

Basically, our first lesson was that substrate looks pretty, is useful for managing humidity, but it should never be used to regulate temperature.

To reach up to 95 degrees ON TOP OF 2 to 3 inches of Cypress Mulch means the temp on the surface is VERY VERY hot.

Ball Pythons do burrow. Even if they do not burrow per say, by moving around and circling in their hide (plus their weight) they can push substrate aside. Perhaps not 3 inches of mulch, but I wouldn't be so sure that the snake doesn't get down to unsafe temps. Even another inch down would be to hot. All the way down, and you are looking at SEVERE burns.

There is always the first time. And that could end tragic.

Having that much substrate on top of a UTH is also not safe. You are basically not allowing any of the heat to dissipate. You are "super insulating" that heat tape, it could reach unsafe temps and burn out in best case scenario, but fires have been started that way, too.

No need for that thickness of substrate. Like others have said, knock it down to 1 inch. Measure on the bottom, under the substrate, and shoot for 92 degrees AT THE MOST on the surface.

:)