Thermostat malfunction.

Hi, I just got home from work and checked on my snakes, my herpstat messed up and had the temps running around 97-98 in the tubs around 105 on the tape, it was set to 91 on the tape. I looked everybody over and they all seem to be okay, no burns and they're all acting normal, passed the flip test ect. What would some signs of heat stroke be so I can keep my eyes out for the next few days ? Thanks in advance.

Glad to hear that none of your animals seem to have been injured. Can you give a little more information and do you have an idea of why it malfunctioned? Was the probe dislodged from the heating source?

No, the probe was in place, it was reading 91 even (what it's set to) and it was actually 105-110. I switched the probes and it still did the same thing. It basically stopped reading heat on the probe, and allowed the temp. to ramp up. Being that no animals where burned it must have shut off at some point, or I caught it at the right time. It's done this before, I wrote it off as a minor malfunction the first couple of times but now I'm just going to exchange it, it's clearly defective. I was really lucky none of my animals where hurt, my male likes to pull his hide forward when he isn't digesting a meal and both my females where off the hotspot. I feel really bad for even putting them in this situation, I should've exchanged it the first time it screwed up, or at least the second.

Where is the probe placed and how do you secure it?

It is placed 3 tubs down centered over the heat tape, secured with electrical tape. It isn't in the tub, it's right over the tape as directed by the heat tape manufacturers FAQ.

Is the actual probe covered with tape?

What does the Herpstat show as the high and low?

If they had heat-related injuries they would be showing signs by now. Were your snakes on the heat, or had they moved up to the front of their tubs? If they were up front they probably didn't overheat, UTH's don't really raise the ambient temp much.

You can put a dimmer switch in between the t-stat and the heat source, and adjust the dimmer so that even if the t-stat fails wide open the dimmer won't let the heat go over the upper 90's. Your snakes would still get hot if the t-stat fails, but not to the point where they can get burned or have neuro damage.

Yeah they where mostly off of the tape, they're completely fine. The probe was not covered with tape and was placed over the heat tape. The t-stat would work for about 4-5 days at a time and then fail, it's never gotten quite this high though. I have a dimmer I'm going to do that, how high would you say I should set it, around 40%ish ?

The probe was not covered in tape, the herpstat probe its self never went above 91 (set temp) and the low is 84 I suppose from ramping it up. My temp gun was showing 105-110 on the tape where the probe was and was hot to the touch.

Strange. Keep us posted.