VE-200 Thermostat

Just got my VE-200 thermostat today in the mail! Woo! I've been playing around with the temp settings all day today to try and get it right. I initially set it to 92F (ambient temp in that room is about 75F). I left it for a couple hours since I didn't know how long it would take to get to the right temps and found hot spots ranging from 98F to 102F (animals were not in the rack during this time)! It is a 3 shelf rack, the top two racks have 2 15qt sterilite tubs and the bottom rack has a 32qt sterilite tub. This rack has always had hotter temps on the bottom and lower temps on top, so I placed the probe in the middle rack, hoping to kind of meet in the middle.

I don't know if it makes a difference but I live in Florida so it is already pretty warm here. What do you guys have your tstat set to to get the perfect temps? I reset it to have a high of 85F just so that it would cool down enough for me to put my animals back in the rack. First time with such a precise device! I was using one of the cheapo zilla ones before.

Sorry for the rambling, I'm just a little lost when it comes to working this thing!

It depends on what kind of flex watt you're using as well, what size and wattage is in the rack?

I usually have to set mine higher. Mine set to 95 i think and the hot spot is 87-89.
What type of substrate are you using? How thick of a layer?

I am using paper substrate, live in South Carolina, 4 tub RBI Iris rack, and have mine set at 97 to get a constant 90 hotspot.

When most t-stats first turn on they deliver 100% power until the probe stabilizes. Did you give it some time to stabilize? There are no specs to speak of on the ve series so I have no notion of the probes response time or rates. Typically I would wait at least 30 min for the temps to stabilize. A t-stat set to 92 there should be NO way for anything to be above this.

Where is the probe placed exactly and how? (what tape? under the flexwatt or over the flexwatt?) Is that strip of flexwatt coming to heat properly?

The VE200 there has been reports of them failing to take input. It will say it is setting a temp and appears to accept it but it does not enter. Have you double checked that the temp you think you entered is actually entered?

On a side note I would suggest a failsafe. I do not personally feel it is optional especially if the T-Stat is NOT internally protected against failure and protected against sudden drops in temp (only the herpstats currently have both)

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Your old zilla would make a reasonable failsafe BTW...

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