Thermostat probe location

OK wait...now I confused myself. I have a thermostat probe (reptitemp 500) and thermometer probe for the cool side and the thermometer base in the cold side (accurate brand indoor/outdoor). Someone help! What should go where? Inside/outside thermometer and thermostat probes???

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Originally Posted by mhoover

OK wait...now I confused myself. I have a thermostat probe (reptitemp 500) and thermometer probe for the cool side and the thermometer base in the cold side (accurate brand indoor/outdoor). Someone help! What should go where? Inside/outside thermometer and thermostat probes???

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It depends on your setup. Usually the thermometer probe is placed on the warm side and the unit is put on the cool side. The tstat probe is best placed outside the cage between the uth and the cage bottom. That way it can not be moved.

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Originally Posted by rpandresen

Right now the probe is held in place and can't be moved by Loki. The substrate is already thin and my temps are fine. I'm laying down cage carpet as her next substrate in the new tank so she wouldn't be able to move the probe in that tank either. I'm kinda concerned that the probe will hold the uth off the glass enough that it isn't heating efficiently, that's why I have had the probe inside. Is that not an issue for anybody else? If it helps,this is the thermostat I'm using

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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The probe being dislodged is not your only concern, the snake could pee on it or spill water, either one could cause your sensor to sense a lower temp and cause a spike in temp from your UTH. For my glass enclosure I use heavy duty duck tape to make sure the probe is adhered to the UTH.

With your gear the probe should be sandwiched. It is not relevant where it is it MUST NOT MOVE. I always recommend a failsafe to prevent any issues if it ever becomes dislodged. A child or dog ect. can move probes as well.

A probe can be safely used inside but there are a handful of criteria that needs to be in place first. The first being that the sandwich method fails to control temps with stability. I have very erratic interior temps and in some of mine I use interior placement when I used the described sandwich I got 10 degree shifts when we had days like to day 83ºF inside temps during the day and 65ºF temps over night the probe is not effected by the air sandwiched so the gain cannot be predicted.

The steps for safe interior placement,
PROPORTIONAL control, a t-stat with NO hysteresis
The probe (regardless) must not move the probe and wires must be firmly fixed and may not move at all. I use high strength hot melt and/or structural silicone.
There MUST me a failsafe on the uth to prevent it from reaching critical temps.
Low wattage heat sources need to be used as well that do not get hotter than 100ºF maxed out.
I would strongly recommend a herpstat with a mechanical relay that will shut down power to the heater if the probe suddenly goes cool.

If the probe becomes pulled the t-stat shuts down, if that fails the failsafe shuts down, if that fails the heat source stays below a burn temp anyway.

It can be safe but requires a great deal of extra work and money.

I would not suggest batteries inside an enclosure they often leak under warm moist conditions I would place the probe under the warm hide and the unit outside and a second unit for the cool side.

I use a Radiant Heat Panel and keep my probe in the cage. Now I'm all paranoid, but I don't think there is another way to do it. What probe setups are RHP using? Hot glue gun?

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Originally Posted by BoxOfRain

I use a Radiant Heat Panel and keep my probe in the cage. Now I'm all paranoid, but I don't think there is another way to do it. What probe setups are RHP using? Hot glue gun?

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The probe for my RHP's are also on the inside of my enclosure, the only probe I wouldn't put on the inside is one from a UTH.


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Not to hijack, but I moved my probe to be sandwiched between the outside glass and uth, but when I checked temps with another probe (known to be accurate) there was about 4-6 degrees difference in the temps from the sandwiched probe and the probe on the inside touching the glass. Does that mean I should bump up the tstat cut off temp? It's set at 90. Right now it's reading 88.8 on the sandwiched probe and 84 on the glass touching interior probe.

Yes this is called gain. It is partially why this method does not produce as stable temps.

One reason why RHPs are such a bag of nails probe placement. If you are uneasy with a UTH probe a RHP which gets hotter should be a greater concern. In my test enclosure maxed out mine delivers a 138ºF hot spot and a 88º ambient. The new style UTH deliver 97ºF hot spot with 77º ambient. I would suggest a fail safe is required with a UTH as they have such a high max temp. (Unless it is in an arboreal set up where there is always a low temp retreat.)