Temps in my rack are off

As the title says the temps in my (homemade) rack are a bit off and it bothers me a little. It's a BP rack built of plywood and it's 12 levels high.

This is what I use:

CB70 tubs from Visionproducts.
A Habistat thermostat.
Habistat Vivarium heat mats.

The thermostat probe is placed on the third level counting from the bottom, it was placed on the sixth before but I moved it to the third to see if that would solve the problem.

The problem:

The temps are more off the higher I go in the rack. In the bottom I can have 89-90 at the hotspot (measured with a Sentry tempgun) and at the higher levels it can be 95+ and sometimes more. Some of the differance is caused by the snake as I use a bedding similar to Aspen, some snakes burrow down to the plastic where it naturally is warmer and some leave it alone and get's the desired temperature. But still the differance (wich is in my opinion too big) is pretty big and I've tried everything I can think of.

Anyone got some bright ideas for me?

Thanks

Correct me if I'm wrong but, Are you saying your heating your rack with heat mats?

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Originally Posted by iCandiBallPythons

Correct me if I'm wrong but, Are you saying your heating your rack with heat mats?

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That is correct.

I would take the heat pads out and replace it with Heat tape. You are going to get a couple of degrees different from the bottem to the top no matter what you do. I would take the snake that enjoy it warmer and put them on the top and vice versa.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Henry

I would take the heat pads out and replace it with Heat tape. You are going to get a couple of degrees different from the bottem to the top no matter what you do. I would take the snake that enjoy it warmer and put them on the top and vice versa.

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And why would you do that, if I may ask? Is heat tape the superior heating device? You do understand that heat tape isn't the only way to warm an enclosure, right? And you do know (by Googling, of course) that the Habistat Vivarium Heat Mats are pretty much the same as FlexWatt? Im just saying.

Forgot to answer the question. It bothered (and still bothers) me too, you just have to accept that the temp will always vary from level to level. Best way to go about it is moving the thermostat probe around from level to level starting out from the middle and working down until you get a temp gradient that youre comfortable with.

Well it would of save you money instead of buying all those individual heat mats. It would be easier to hold accurate temps with one long piece of heat tape compared to a bunch of heat mats. Just my 2 cents. Just i think the consensus is to use heat tape.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Henry

Well it would of save you money instead of buying all those individual heat mats. It would be easier to hold accurate temps with one long piece of heat tape compared to a bunch of heat mats. Just my 2 cents. Just i think the consensus is to use heat tape.

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The dude is in Europe, hence the Habistat products. And as for me, my rack has Flexwatt running in parallel, so it's the equivalent of having 9 separate heat mats, only difference is I wired it myself instead of buyng prewired. Same difference. Saving money is irrelevant at this point, he's already invested in the heat mats.

Like i said before just get the temps as close as you can and put the snakes that like it a little warmer and put them in the top.

My suggestion is check the insulating factor in the rack and where the probe is.. I know the further down the rack the probe is the hotter the top tub is.. so If you have it set about half way and set at sat 95 then the bottom tubs will be about 92 and the tops as much as 100+ depending on the air circulation in the area the rack is in.

Thanks for the replies.

As someone mentioned I live in Europe (Sweden) so flexwatt is not an option, I tried heat cables but that wasn't reliable, hence the heat mats.

Do you think I would get a higher temp in the lower levels if I somehow insulate the sides of the lower levels?

I know everyone does it in his/her way but for me, I don't like my hotspot going over 95...

Thanks