So, I'm a little frazzled

I have a UTH heater mounted on the side of the tank. The directions that came with it (ZOO MED product) said side mounting was preferred.
My BP loves to put his belly right up against the glass. I've thought that was fine, but it felt warm to touch, and I have dial thermometers in my tank reading basking and ambient temps, but not the temp of the heat pad itself.
Needless to say, I unplugged it, but it's almost time for bed and I'm going to have to plug it back in. I plan on visiting the pet store tomorrow to pick up a digital thermometer with a probe, and a lamp dimmer for the heat pad.


Is it possible to get an accurate reading off a heat pad with a probe? I should have bottom mounted the :cens0r: thing, but I didn't and without the substrate between him and it, I'm afraid of burn or digestion problems. If anyone has an easy idea to set this up so I don't end up causing him any problems, please share.
I love that snake man, I feel like such a bad parent.

Oh and BTW, he isn't leaning against the glass right now, but it's like his favorite thing to put his belly right smack against it.

Not having the heater on a thermostat or at least a dimmer is placing your snake in great risk.

A uth does nothing to heat the air and having it on the side of the tank is doing nothing for the snake. It can be removed if you do it slow and easy. However even if you get it mounted to the bottom it is really useless until you get a thermostat or dimmer.

A thermostat is your best bet and I don't mean the options at the pet store. Those are junk. I like Herpstat and they are widely used in the hobby.

Don't think that placing a thick layer of substrate over the uth is a fix to having the uth get to hot. Snake CAN and WILL borrow to get to the heater. Placing a thick later of substrate over the heater will not allow the heat to get to the snake and it will go looking for it. The substrate over a uth should be a 1/4 inch or less.

Do the proper research and set it up correctly. This has been discussed a ton here and there are plenty of threads that you can check out. Also while you are at it Google burned snakes and see what an unregulated uth can and will do to a snake when it is not used properly.

Yes, a probed thermometer can read the temp of the uth. Having a proper tstat will do the same thing. I would recommend skipping the thermometer and getting a IR temp gun. It is far more useful.

If I was you the two items on my shopping list would be a Herpstat and a temp gun. Amazon has plenty of cheap temp guns.

When it comes to a tstat, which is the most important thing you will buy for your snake you should not go cheap. Buy it right the first time so you have piece of mind. http://www.spyderrobotics.com/

should i unplug it for now?

I would.

I forgot to answer your question so I added some info to my first post. Make sure you read the updated version.

I did. Thanks for the information.

Pretty much what KMG said. I would also like to add, imo Zoo Med UTH suck. I like a lot of Zoo Med stuff but not their UTHs. I actually had one short out on me under my dubia roach colony. Luckily it just turned off and didn't catch fire or melt the roach bin. I prefer heat tapes or heat tape style UTHs like Flukers or Ultratherm. Now I generally don't even use UTHs at all as I use RHPs and CHEs but I have used them in the past.