Probe placement

I am using a small UTH to heat the warm side. I have the warm hide directly over the UTH and pretty much covers it up. When i put the probe on the floor, the temperature gets up to 98 F. I started using it as a humid hide with moist papertowels. If the probe is under the papertowel the temperature will drop to about 90 F until it dries then the temp goes back up. I just moved the probe between the sheets of papertowel sandwiched in there and it reads 88 F. Is that giving me an accurate temperature. The papertowel is covering the entire UTH inside the tank (UTH is under the tank).

That's running more than 10 degrees too hot for a leo. You need either a thermostat or a different substrate that would soak up some of that heat in my unlearned opinion.

i'm not sure i'm completely understanding your temps. are you saying that the temp is 90 degrees in the hide, with the paper towels being moist, but when they dry the temp goes up to 98? and on the floor of the cage the temp is 98?

as long as the leo cannot get under the paper towel you want to measure the temperature on top of it. are you using a glass tank and is the uth stuck to the bottom of it? you want there to be some air circulation between the uth and the glass--you can elevate the tank higher off of the uth to bring the temps down (i used to use blocks of wood for this).

Right now the temps are good. I think it just got too hot in the house which raised the temps. It is usually suppost to be kind of cold this time of year but we just had a warm spell where it has been 70 degrees the past couple of days. Ill go ahead and put some blocks under it to raise it some. It has rubber feet to raise it some that came with the UTH. It has pretty good gap under it now for air circulation.