I know this has been asked already...But

I am sure the room we keep our BPs in will determine the ambient temp in their enclosure . Is that correct?What I don't understand is why the room temp will lower the hot spot We use Flex Watt with a thermostat and depending on the temp of the room the hot spot will either cool or get hotter. Anyone else have this problem? To keep the ambient temp consistent I would set the room temp at the temp I want my ambient temp? I tried finding this myself with research and didn't find what I needed to know.
Thanks!
Mike.

The colder the ambient room temps the more energy/heat that is lost to it. So your tubs are loosing heat to the room which in turns makes your hotspot a different temp because now the ambient temps of your tubs are lower. You would need to increase your thermostat to have your flexwatt make up for the heat that is being lost to the ambient temps or raise the ambient temps of the room.

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Originally Posted by Spaniard

The colder the ambient room temps the more energy/heat that is lost to it. So your tubs are loosing heat to the room which in turns makes your hotspot a different temp because now the ambient temps of your tubs are lower. You would need to increase your thermostat to have your flexwatt make up for the heat that is being lost to the ambient temps or raise the ambient temps of the room.

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I understand what you are saying What I don't understand is why the thermostat doesn't do the work of going up or down depending on the room temp.If I have the thermostat set to 92 even if the room temp changes why doesn't the thermostat do its job?Why do I have to manually change it?
Thanks Mike.

There are many many reasons that a thermostat/flexwatt would be affected by ambient room temps. They pretty much all are. Think about it. If your room is freezing your set up would be at 100% all the time. If your room is 100 degrees your thermostat would never kick on.

You are talking about efficiency. The most efficient set-up has a large area of flexwatt 1/3 of tub. And thin or no substrate. Insulation around the set-up will also greatly affect the efficiency.

I suspect your ratio of flexwatt to tub floor space is on the low side.

Also have another look at your probe placement!!!

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Originally Posted by BPMIKE

I understand what you are saying What I don't understand is why the thermostat doesn't do the work of going up or down depending on the room temp.If I have the thermostat set to 92 even if the room temp changes why doesn't the thermostat do its job?Why do I have to manually change it?
Thanks Mike.

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Assuming your thermostat probe in on the heat tape. Lets say you set it up when your room ambient temps are at 75. You figure out that setting the thermostat to 92 gets you 90 degrees in the tub, now your temps drop in the room to 70. 92 degrees at the tape now only gets you 88 degrees in the tub; the difference of 4 degrees can be attributed to the ambient air temps. No matter what your heat tape will only reach 92 degrees. Not sure if that cleared anything up but I tried.

Edit: The only way for you to get the thermostat to accommodate for changes in the air temps would be to have your probe inside the enclosure. Since this could cause major problems if your snake dislodges the probe almost everyone places it on the flexwatt.

Thanks to all! I understand better now.Yes I do have the probe on the flexwatt.
Mike.