Help // Snake rack temps are varying in the snake rack

Hello looking to find some help for my snake rack set up,

The snake rack is equipped with a herpstat redline 1 and is running continuous strip of 6 in cheat tape on a 6 level rack. The temperature is different for almost every other tub when checking with a heat temp gun. The probe is secured to the heat tape with some heat foil (not covered completely). Just looking for some tips to get this solved as quickly as possible. Thermostat is set at 97f to get an internal temp of 90f (thick tubs) but when i checked some tubs where 99f and some up too 101f, while some where 89f. Thermostat was set on dimming mode.

Is the heat tape daisy chained or is it a continual strip wrapped around?

sorry I see it is continuous. Sounds like bad heat tape to me, but I never had to deal with that issue so unsure.

i would definitely drop the temps on the thermostat. Also what level is the probe placed on?

it is one continuous strip of heat tape. The rack is a 6 slot and its located on the 3rd rack from the bottom.