Heating issues in my rack

Hello all. New here, having some heating issues. I have a spider robotics herpstat hooked up to 24' of heat tape. I have had it up for three days and can not get the heat up.

Room is 70 degrees. I set the therm as high as 99 and at the tape surface will not reach higher than 86. I have the probe set between the tape and tub, about half way through the tape. I have also adjusted to the hi setting on the herpstat. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your help, snakes are coming tomorow and I need this thing ready.

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Originally Posted by Rockstar Reptiles

Hello all. New here, having some heating issues. I have a spider robotics herpstat hooked up to 24' of heat tape. I have had it up for three days and can not get the heat up.

Room is 70 degrees. I set the therm as high as 99 and at the tape surface will not reach higher than 86. I have the probe set between the tape and tub, about half way through the tape. I have also adjusted to the hi setting on the herpstat. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your help, snakes are coming tomorow and I need this thing ready.

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Are you using just a single tub or a rack? What are you using to measure the temps on the warm and cool side?

rack with 15 tubs. I am using a temp gun to measure them.

Is the prob touching the tape, If it is not directly on the tape you will not be getting the right readings.

It si touching the tape. it is wedged between the tape and the tub.

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Originally Posted by Rockstar Reptiles

It si touching the tape. it is wedged between the tape and the tub.

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Hmm... I dont see what it shouldn't be working or reading right. What type of rack are you using? maybe someone with the same setup can help.

Home built with plywood and 2x2s. I can't figure it out. Have moved the probe to a few spots and it just doesn't get there.

Maybe a couple pics of the rack setup and the heat and where you have the prob might help?

I would love to, but I don't own a camera (I'm a low tech guy). Thanks for your help though.

Do you have the probe completely coverd with tape?

I had a repti-temp 500R do this to me also.
I ended up taping the probe further away from the flexwatt, it seemed to bring the whole heat range up and I was able to hold 90 degrees spot on.

The problem is the heat tape is just not enough wattage to make it up to temp. The power matching on the Herpstat only affects the power when the temps get within a degree of your set temperature. The easy way to see the problem is to unplug the heat tape from the thermostat and plug it right into the wall and monitor it. Just leave the Herpstat's probe in place so you can monitor the temperature on it and you'll see the heat tape not make it to temp. 70 degrees can be tough for heat tape to overcome. For instance I have 1 foot cubes built out of 3/4" wood for test setups with 1 foot of 11" heat tape. With my room temp around 70 these cubes (closed off) cannot make it to 88+ degrees. For your situation you will probably need to up the room temp, add additional heat tape, or swap to heat tape that has more wattage per foot.

Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics

I use that same thermostat with very low wattage heat tape (8 watts) in melamine racks and have no problem but my snake room typically stays around 78 degrees. I maintain a warm side of about 88-90 with no problem. I agree, 70 degrees seems awfully cool for a reptile room. Get it up 6-8 degrees and I'll bet your problem is solved.

I use the 11" @ 20 watts per foot from reptile basics and it keeps the temperatues fine at nite when we lower the A/C to 73 degrees.

Im guessing you need heat tape with higher watt rate, But untill you prove that is the case, dont go crazy and buy alot of it :)

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Originally Posted by spyderrobotics

The problem is the heat tape is just not enough wattage to make it up to temp. The power matching on the Herpstat only affects the power when the temps get within a degree of your set temperature. The easy way to see the problem is to unplug the heat tape from the thermostat and plug it right into the wall and monitor it. Just leave the Herpstat's probe in place so you can monitor the temperature on it and you'll see the heat tape not make it to temp. 70 degrees can be tough for heat tape to overcome. For instance I have 1 foot cubes built out of 3/4" wood for test setups with 1 foot of 11" heat tape. With my room temp around 70 these cubes (closed off) cannot make it to 88+ degrees. For your situation you will probably need to up the room temp, add additional heat tape, or swap to heat tape that has more wattage per foot.

Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics

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Thank you for the response Dion. I did that today and it got up to 117 degrees. However, I re-adjusted the probe a few more times and I seem to have figured it out, hit a "sweet spot" so to speak. Thanks again for your help there Dion, you have been a great help to me through this. Highly impressed! :gj:

No problem! Probe placement is always the most important part to setting up a thermostat. I'm curious as to where you ended up with your probe. I can't figure out how having the probe between the heat tape and tub wouldn't get up to 86 if the setup is capable of 117. Maybe I can learn something. :D

I'm glad you got it working though and feel free to shoot me an email if you have any other questions.

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Originally Posted by Rockstar Reptiles

Thank you for the response Dion. I did that today and it got up to 117 degrees. However, I re-adjusted the probe a few more times and I seem to have figured it out, hit a "sweet spot" so to speak. Thanks again for your help there Dion, you have been a great help to me through this. Highly impressed! :gj:

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Originally Posted by spyderrobotics

No problem! Probe placement is always the most important part to setting up a thermostat. I'm curious as to where you ended up with your probe. I can't figure out how having the probe between the heat tape and tub wouldn't get up to 86 if the setup is capable of 117. Maybe I can learn something. :D

I'm glad you got it working though and feel free to shoot me an email if you have any other questions.

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I had it on the third shelf up, more toward the back end of the tape. I moved it half way through the 2nd shelf and towards the middle of the tape and it is going much better now.