After losing stickiness UTH has wild variation in temp

After removing partly to get thermostat probe under UTH (I installed wrongly at first) and covered it in aluminum tape as recommended, I'm monitoring temps on top of the glass and I see wild variation (15 degrees by temp gun) I guess at least impart b/c the UTH isn't uniformly making contact with the glass. So I have it set where the hottest part is 95, but ranges down to 80.

Should I:
1. Press something onto it so it makes contact? I take it no since there's supposed to be ventilation.
2. Use hot glue or something else to increase contact?
3. Pull it off all the way so perhaps it will uniformly NOT make great contact, and then I can turn it up more?

Didn't find much useful on this past discussion on stickiness:
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...pad-stickyness

I cleaned tank 2 days ago and while empty, checked several locations and the UTH showed a range of temps. I think it's just going to be warmer directly above where the wire is running through it and warmest at the bends.

http://i60.tinypic.com/2cegh0w.jpg

That's a good thought, but it's really one end that is hotter than the other so the pattern is much broader than the zig zagging of wires. It's a gradient but it's not well defined at all. And besides, 15 degrees is ridiculous. It's really like one hotspot (not centered though) and then a medium zone all around that and lower temps around that. A heatmap would show it best. I think part of it is due to the surface contact or lack thereof, which I am trying to resolve.

If you are using a tstat that has a big probe you may try placing the probe under the uth so the probe actually keeps the uth against the glass instead of causing a gap.

Of the solutions you list I'd probably try putting something under the UTH to press it up against the glass. One more use for Reflectix !

The idea of pushing it up against the tank with the reflectix sounds reasonable. Just make sure there is some ventilation as you don't want to fully insulate a heat source (fire risk, etc). Personally, I would just replace the mat. I have read horror stories of damaged UTHs causing house fires and killing animals. I may just be paranoid, but I would be losing sleep like crazy over the risk of an extreme temp fluctuation causing damage to the snake in the night or while I was away. I have read that the wiring inside these is very fragile and that they recommend not removing it and reusing it because it can be dangerous if the wires are compromised. I am not sure what size tank you are using but I have a 30 gallon UTH that I got on amazon for $20.00. If replacement is not possible for whatever reason, I would just recommend monitoring it extremely closely for a while. Keep in mind though that the cost of the reflectix roll alone would be about 20.00, so it really may be a comparable investment to just get a new heater.