Heat tape concerns

I just loved both of my guys into a Reptile Basics Iris rack with a VE 300 thermostat. The probe on the thermostat is set to 103 to make up for the aspen I have in the tubs.

When I used the thermal gun to check the hot spots in tubs they ranged from 80-92 with the substrate moved completely out of the way. This kind of puzzled me to I decided to take the tubs out and read the temps I the actual tape itself. Some sections of the tape read 103 and others varied up to 112.

Is it normal for my heat tape to have so much variation? Any advice would be great. I would really like to get the temps right so that I don't have to put them back in their tanks.

i have this same problem. im no expert but from what i gathered either the tape is reflective and it bounced infrared back to ya at an increased rate or it was reading the electricity. or i bought a cheap infrared and so did you lol

Well crap ha

How/where do you have your thermostat probe secured to the heat tape?

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...3/6/2/rack.jpgI bought my first rack used an AP with a Johnson control T stat. Back heated. Heres what I've noticed. When I first re setup the rack the slot with no tub is the one with the temp probe. The temps with a laser gun at the probe read 120 degrees. I filled a tub with substrate and put it in that slot and the temps dropped. The tub with substrate acted as a heat sink. My T sat has as much as a +5 degree variation from thermostat reading especially when the T stat is open and heating. I regularly check the tubs with the heat gun. Variation in each tub can occur depending on the depth of the substrate...my corns will move all of the substrate around. Also the temps are lower in my top two slots...not sure why so that's why I have my corns in them.