Thg wiring help.

I built a six shelve rack and wired each shelve individually. They are then plugged into a power strip which is then plugged into an older model herpstat 2. I'm having issues with the bottom two shelves not heating up. I replaced the bottom shelve and still nothing, that's when I discovered the one above wasn't heating up either. I have switched the plugs around and no matter the combo, they still won't heat up. Only when I move them to an outlet not associated with the thermostat will they work.

Is there a way to parallel them together once they're already wired up? If not, does anyone have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? I can't use the second probe as its inside my incubator.

You could splice the wires to make them parallel if they're already attached to the heat tape.

Here is how I wire all my racks, sorry for the bad pic. I use a European Terminal Strip from Radio Shack and wire them in parallel. The white wire on the left is power in from the wall outlet or thermostat, the black wires on the right go to each of the heat tape strips and the short wires on the left tie everything together in parallel. Hope this helps.

George

http://www.glkherp.com/terminalstrip7.jpg

Have you tried moving the probe down 1 shelf? Sounds like you are getting power to the bottom pieces and the connections are ok, just have a bit of a thermocline issue. You can experiment with moving the probe down a shelf or two and see how that effects your situation. Putting them in parallel with your wiring is electrically the same as what you have going on now so it may not help you out very much. Ideally you would have a small fan in the room to stir up the air in the room or break these lower shelves into a new zone or on a different stat.

Thank you for your reply. I actually bought a new power strip, and am no longer having issues. I am only seeing a 1* difference between top and bottom, where before the bottom shelve and tape were room temp.