Burn point...

If you can't get around to buying a rheostat or thermostat anytime soon you could prop the tank up so that there is more space between the glass and the actual heating mat. This way not all the heat energy from the mat reaches the glass and the tank won't get as hot.

I've got him a rheostat and I'll be hooking it up here shortly.

I think I'll thin the substrate down again so that I'll be adjusting the hottest he can get to. He won't be able to really burrow down to something hotter then. He's really good about doing his business in other parts of the cage so I don't have to worry about having alot of absorbency there.

Sounds good! :) Remember, it can take a few hours for the rheostat to fully affect the temp, and if the room's temp rises, so will that of the heat pad.

I had some problems with the dimmers from home depot. On the near-highest level, I could not even get the pads to feel warm, let alone get to the proper temp. :/ Zoo-Med rheos are great, but temps in the room can never change and have to be the temperature you want the cool side to be. If temps go up and down, the rheostat is not going to adjust and can cause some high temps.

Yep, true dat. ;) I haven't had any issues with the zoo-med ones, I have them for both my corn and my BP's cages and have maintained proper temps. :)

Yea, the room temps shouldn't change much. I've got one from Lowe's. I tried it out on his heat lamp and it seemed to work pretty well so moved it over to his UTH.

I'm tweaking it now. I thinned his substrate back down and misted everything really good to cool it down and then I set the rheo on low. I'll creep it up over the evening.

So far so good. With the substrate thinned down to about 1/8"-1/4" and the dimmer turned all the way down I get about 93 degrees. If I turn it up to about 1/3 I get about 94/95.

good deal, glad to hear you got a dimmer. Should do the trick

Yea I'm still getting it tweaked. I have the probe from the Accurite right in the bedding. In fact, Snakey lays on it when he's in there. But I had it adjusted to about 93 degrees and when I went in there to check on him he had burrowed in so almost the whole hide was exposed glass. He never does that. I'm concerned that it might be too cold for him. Everybody gave me a hard time but I swear he's been really healthy for 6 months now. eating, growing, etc.

He had a fairly regular routine of hanging out in the hot hide for a while and then coming out to cool off. I had to push the temp to about 101 for him to do that after I got the rheostat. After that I backed it off to about 93. Now the temps are over 10 degrees lower then he's been living with ever since I got him and I'm worried that he might not be warm enough.

The accurite seems to work OK. I tested it by clamping the probe in my armpit for a while and I got just under 95d which seems reasonable.

Mid 90's is fine, Rheostats are not reliable and you should look into a thermostat and read up on correct husbandry. Vet bills are much more expensive than the themostat will ever be, trust me i've been there. Best of luck.