Help with thermostat

I have my hydro farm set at 92 but my temp gun is reading my Uth at 82 can I bump up the temp on my hydro farm. A herpastat is on my list just not today ;)

Are you gunning the actual UTH, the glass above it, or the substrate over it? In theory you would up the stat, but that's a pretty dramatic difference.

I am moving the substrate and using my temp gun there are areas that are reading 75. I am putting my hand on the Uth it barely feels warm. Both the Uth and thermostat are new I did put a digital thermometer there and I am getting the same. It is about 10 degrees off.

How long has it been warming up? Is the UTH in direct contact with the glass/plastic of the cage?

Just trying to narrow down the possibilities. :)

It has been on all night. It is a zoomed so it is adhered to the bottom of the tank. The probe for the thermostat is between the underneath of the tank and the Uth. Maybe I should take the snake out and run the Uth without the thermostat see how hot it get see if the issue is the Uth or the thermostat.

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Originally Posted by lisafoster2510

It has been on all night. It is a zoomed so it is adhered to the bottom of the tank. The probe for the thermostat is between the underneath of the tank and the Uth. Maybe I should take the snake out and run the Uth without the thermostat see how hot it get see if the issue is the Uth or the thermostat.

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I think this would be a good test to run. I've had to set mine 5 degrees high before, but never ten.

I'm pretty sure ZooMed UTH claim they only get about 10* warmer than the ambient air temps.

I had a few laying around and was going to use one for a quick fix a couple of weeks ago. It hit 120* in about 10mins.
I threw them all out.

Lets see if we can narrow the range of possibilities down some. Can you place the probe of your thermometer beside the probe of the hydrofarm. If you want you could use the IR gun to check that spot just not the probe itself they cannot measure metals especially shiny metal accurately. (shiny plastics also can be problematic)

The second question is what is the room temp? This will have huge impact upon your surface temps.

The temps are cold here today it is 39 degrees outside my house temp is 68. Maybe I should bump up the thermostat 5 degrees ? I'm having a wicked hard time getting my temps up in the enclosure my house is 200 years old and the temps really fluctuate. Maybe that could be what's going on.
I can't get the temp gun next to the Uth the zoo med is stuck to the bottom of the enclosure. Plus I have several stacked and I am not strong enough to move them I need to wait until my husband gets home. When I put my hand on the Uth where my snake is I can feel it is not warm enough. I have an infrared bulb but I was told by my breeder not to use it I am struggling with my humidity my house is very dry. I turned it on for the last hour now my ambient temps are much warmer but the Uth still is not.
I just took it again after an hour with the bulb on it reads 86 so maybe the bulb has to stay on because it is so cold outside . so now the thermostat is off maybe 6 degrees.

What kind of enclosure is it? A tank from the sound of it.

It is highly likely that 68ºF is having an negative effect on the system. It is hard to maintain correct temps under this conditions (remember hot/warm spots are one 1/3 of the temps cool side temps at the surface and the air temp matter as well.) 90ºF/80ºF and high 70s to low 80s for air temps.

Hydrofarms preform poorly in cool rooms they just don't handle the rapid changes in cool rooms well. They also do not have good accuracy, the spec's are rated to 2ºC up or down that is about 4ºF over or under correct.

My guess and it is just a best guess is that some of the issue is accuracy of the hydrofarms (why I suggested getting the thermometer probe as close as possible to the hydrofarm to check this) some of the is from the rooms temps as well and some is possibly how much substrate you have.

I don't think they will be an ahha moment where one thing will solve all the issues I think it more likely a bunch of small things are acting together.

Humidity is a odd beast don't worry about that temps are critical and always will take priority, they are life and death issues. Remember that as ambient temps rise RH drops just because the saturation point of the air changes. It is likely the amount of water in the air is a constant with or with out the bulb.

RELATIVE humidity is exactly that relative not absolute.

The enclosure has a birch frame the door and bottom are glass and the other sides are plexiglass so it is not an aquarium. I got him at NERD in New Hampshire he was in an enclosure that is very similar but their room was much warmer. I have a feeling because of my room temps I may not be able to keep him in that kind of an enclosure. Do you think maybe I should raise the temp of the thermostat I am home so I can constantly take the temp of the Uth with a gun.

As far as the substrate I use cypress mulch I have been moving it to take the temp but I think maybe I have to much in the tank I am going to take some out.

I would suggest a room temp bump a few degrees perhaps. Nothing too extreme maybe to 71-2. This should reduce the range needed.

I bank the substrate a bunch on the cool side and only some on the hot 1/2 inch or less it ends up being pushed to corners and on the edge of the hide that is fine.

I would also put the lamp back on! This is likely to make up the difference. The humidity can easily be solved in other ways temps come first.


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I can't bump up the temp I can't stand the heat plus I go through $700 in oil a month now . I put the bulb on a few hours ago and the and the temps have come up warm side 85 and cool side 78 except oddly enough the Uth was sitting at 88 I bumped up the thermostat and I am now at 90 on the Uth. I think I am going to have to use the infrared in the cold months. Soon enough the warm weather will be here.

I know normally it is best practice to sandwich the stat probe between the UTH and the bottom of the cage (I use Herpstats on my established). I do on my T8s. But my glass quarantine tanks I run with the Hydrofarms as they are in there for such a short amount of time. I did find if I put the probe in the enclosure on top of the glass and laid the UTH mat flat on the underside, it worked much better and was only 2-3 degrees off. I use hot glue to secure the probe wire, but leave the probe itself entirely exposed and resting on the glass.

Oh I thought between the glass and Uth was the best place.

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Originally Posted by lisafoster2510

Oh I thought between the glass and Uth was the best place.

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It sounds like you solved your problem with the heat lamp. I wouldn't mess with the thermostat probe, especially since the UTH wasn't going to raise your ambient temps, anyway.

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Originally Posted by Willie76

I know normally it is best practice to sandwich the stat probe between the UTH and the bottom of the cage (I use Herpstats on my established). I do on my T8s. But my glass quarantine tanks I run with the Hydrofarms as they are in there for such a short amount of time. I did find if I put the probe in the enclosure on top of the glass and laid the UTH mat flat on the underside, it worked much better and was only 2-3 degrees off. I use hot glue to secure the probe wire, but leave the probe itself entirely exposed and resting on the glass.

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I wouldn't put the probe inside the enclosure, snake pees on it, moves the probe, water spills, all these these things could lower the temp the probe is reading verse what the actual temp of your UTH is and cause a spike in your UTH that could burn your snake. I have heard other posters that measured a zoo med getting up to 130 degrees, false probe readings and this could happen.


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Originally Posted by Annarose15

It sounds like you solved your problem with the heat lamp. I wouldn't mess with the thermostat probe, especially since the UTH wasn't going to raise your ambient temps, anyway.

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So the probe is in the right spot between the glass and the Uth. I need things spelled out I can be a bit slow :) I was not worried as much about the ambient temps they were good it was teh temp directly on the glass above the uth. I have been double checking the temp on the glass where his belly is with a temp gun. The hydro farm has to be a good 7-8 degrees higher in order to get that temp up. I have gotten the ambient temps up with the infrared bulb.
Thanks for all the hell everyone :)

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Originally Posted by lisafoster2510

So the probe is in the right spot between the glass and the Uth. I need things spelled out I can be a bit slow :)

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Correct :)