UTH with dimmer switch?

Let me start out by saying my husband and I are newly weds and first time home buyers so money is and will be for quite awhile, tight. I can't afford to spend $99 on a herpstat. We have less than that to spend on two weeks off groceries! I currently have my T8 with a heat lamp on a dimmer. I monitor the temps but never have a change of more than 2 degrees but I know an UTH is a better option for belly heat which is what they need more than ambient heat. My question is, would it be worth it to use an UTH pad with a dimmer switch that I manually monitor or just keep what I have? Our house temp only fluctuates about 3 degrees all day so that's less of a concern.

Opinions please?

You could spend 20-30 bucks and get a zoo med or hydrofarm TStat so you wont have to constantly monitor and adjust your dimmer.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

I was told those were prone to overheating and causing fires

I would stay with the heat lamp. Cheap tstats are just that CHEAP! If the cheap tstat was to fail the vet bill will be much more than a Herpstat. Using either a dimmer or a cheap tstat I would be constantly checking them. I would honestly rather a dimmer than a cheap tstat. I've had two cheap tstats and both failed. My 4 Herpstats have never had an issue.

Stick with the lamp and make sure to keep an extra bulb or two for those cold rainy nights they like to burn out on.

if your house temperatures are constant enough, you could set it up with a dimmer.

a dimmer limits the energy-output, so that the UTH, if it runs 24/7, only heats to a level of something like "5 degrees above room temperature" or "10 degrees above room temperature". you need to do test runs and find just the right setting for the dimmer, and it all hinges on the ambient room temperature being constant.

i would not recommend cheap thermostats, they sometimes fail, and when they fail, they can fail in a bad way, so that the UTH runs at 100% and your snake gets burned. good thermostats fail less often, but more importantly, they are designed to fail into the off-state. so when they break, they dont burn your pet, they just switch off.

so a dimmer (set up correctly and with constant room temperature) may be safer than a bad quality thermostat.

i guess in your situation i would go for UTH + dimmer first, and later, when the budget allows it, replace the dimmer with a good thermostat. how is the humidity? heat lamps are quite notorious for ruining humidity, if you have issues with that, a switch to an UTH might allow you to get rid of the heat lamp.

While they are cheap and I agree with KMG a vet bill is more than an expensive TSTAT i keep "cheap" ones as a backup for temp enclosures and havent had any issues with them...I will say i do check my reptiles twice a day at least just because. Maybe I havent had any issues because they arent in constant use either...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

I've used a lamp dimmer, a heat pad and a cheap digital thermometer with a probe (I found one at Walmart for $12) for quarantining and temporary housing for unplanned snakes, like the time when my neighbor brought me an "albino boa" (turned out to be a big female snow corn) he found roaming around in his yard... [emoji13]

I wouldn't recommend it in the long term but it'll work in a pinch until you can upgrade your setup.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

The humidity is definitely difficult to keep up which is why I was wanting an UTH. I already check the temps when I walk by the tank (habit) so checking it frequently isn't really a problem. Right now my T8 is about to be divided so I can do some testing on the unoccupied side while my new ball is in quarantine.

Does anyone have recommendations on an UTH pad that is relatively cheap (preferably no more than 40ish) that would work well for a divided T8? What size pad am I after?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RobertsKitty

The humidity is definitely difficult to keep up which is why I was wanting an UTH. I already check the temps when I walk by the tank (habit) so checking it frequently isn't really a problem. Right now my T8 is about to be divided so I can do some testing on the unoccupied side while my new ball is in quarantine.

Does anyone have recommendations on an UTH pad that is relatively cheap (preferably no more than 40ish) that would work well for a divided T8? What size pad am I after?

---

Forget heat pad, and this idea for now, And try to put 10$ a week away. (what you have now is ok! and if its worked dont fix what isn't broken, yes humidity is a pain but spraying 1-2 times a day is less worrysum then making sure temps rnt cooking snake) Dimmers have NO failsafes. and you cant look past that, when a mistake happens nothing is there to stop it if your not there, It takes less then an hour for a heat pad to get to its hottest point, and if your not there with a heat gun checking you'd never know? There's no noise/lights/dings to tell you.

But as i said try to save 10$ a day, And spend some time on your local reptile forum with classified section(over here in Canada its reptilescanada.com) Im sure in US you have something similar. On there you may be able to find Local breeders who are getting ride of herpstats or VE electronics thermostats!

You can usually pick some of them up for 80$ or less! With that look for or ask them for a Sheet of THG/Flexxwatt heat tape (12inch) and you can use 6inchs each side (for 2 snakes) or get 6inch and put it on the hot end. It is much cheaper then store bought heats pads (4-5$ vs $40.99) aswell much more stable and reliable.


You should never look for the cheap easy way for a pet, as mistakes DO happen and when they happen they arn't cheap. So best way to avoid any errors is do what your doing for now, and try to put 10$ a day in a piggy bank and in a couple weeks you can find yourself a new/used thermostat and heat tape =)

I've used dimmer switches on UTH's for decades with no problems. I've had more Thermostats go bad on me than rheostats. I hate heat lamps for heat for ball pythons because they dry out the air so much so I definately recommend a UTH. I prefer using thermostats myself but as long as you check the temps regularily dimmer switches are a prefectly acceptable alternative.


Personally, I prefer the Ultratherm heat pads for use in a single cage application (IE: not a rack) the heat pad should cover around 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottom of the cage so that you have a gradient from warmer to cooler. Here is an example of the type of heat pad I prefer. http://www.reptilebasics.com/ultrath...ater-uth-6-x11

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MarkS

I've used dimmer switches on UTH's for decades with no problems. I've had more Thermostats go bad on me than rheostats. I hate heat lamps for heat for ball pythons because they dry out the air so much so I definately recommend a UTH. I prefer using thermostats myself but as long as you check the temps regularily dimmer switches are a prefectly acceptable alternative.


Personally, I prefer the Ultratherm heat pads for use in a single cage application (IE: not a rack) the heat pad should cover around 1/4 to 1/3 of the bottom of the cage so that you have a gradient from warmer to cooler. Here is an example of the type of heat pad I prefer. http://www.reptilebasics.com/ultrath...ater-uth-6-x11

---

That was the kind I've been considering. From what I understand they don't heat well through the AP cages but I read they can be placed inside the tank so I'm considering that. I figure since the girl is so little she can stay in her tank for a bit longer. I can put Loki on one side if the divider, get the heat pad stable then move him back to his side then do the same for my girl then move her into the T8. Do they have any physical stores that sell them? I would prefer not to wait on shipping.

I found a local seller that has flexwatt for pretty cheap so I might try that. I've read a lot of different posts on the forum that all say a dimmer is fine if your house doesn't fluctuate much. Our thermostat is set to 74 and the coolest it's gotten is 69. If I set the dimmer for 95 while the house is it's hottest then even with the fluctuation it will only go down to 90ish so I think that will be ideal. I have to go get a new feeder for my baby Saturday so I'll probably pick up the flexwatt then.

Personally I never put anything with electrical connections inside a cage if I can help it. Too much chance for it to get wet and short out.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MarkS

Personally I never put anything with electrical connections inside a cage if I can help it. Too much chance for it to get wet and short out.

---

FlexWatt / heat tape should never go into the enclosure as it's not safe if wet. There are sealed heat pads that are designed to go into enclosures with a thick floor that wouldn't transmit heat from a UTH, but they are outside the OP's budget - and they still need to be on a t-stat.

Two Flexwatt questions: First is one strip of flexwatt 11 wide and 24 long big enough to heat a divided T8 and second how long does it take Flexwatt to get up to full temp. I know my friend had a cheap UTH that took 13 hours to get fully 'warmed up'.

Also, is does anyone have any info on if hydrofarm is any good? I've heard they caused fires but I don't know if this is true.

I've never heard of a fire started by a hydrofarm thermostat. ANY electrical device can catch on fire, but I've never heard where hydrofarm is any better or worse then any other device.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RobertsKitty

Two Flexwatt questions: First is one strip of flexwatt 11 wide and 24 long big enough to heat a divided T8 and second how long does it take Flexwatt to get up to full temp. I know my friend had a cheap UTH that took 13 hours to get fully 'warmed up'.

---

i dont know the answer to question one, what i hear is that the UTH should cover something like a third of the underside of the tub, but then, some people boldly contradict that rule by installing it to the back or the sides of the tub or even at the top, so i dont know.

to answer the second question: this is not a question of quality, but a question of setup/wattage.

lets assume the UTH is decently powerful. when operated with a dimmer, you cut that power down, throttle it to a level that when running 24/7, it will maintain a desired temperature of some specific value above the ambient room temperature. so, yes, it will take very long to get to that ideal temperature when plugged in. if it would get to the target temperature in 5 minutes, your snake would be roasted after an hour.

when operated with a thermostat, a simple thermostat will run the UTH full steam at 100% until the target temperature is reached, and then switch off, and switch it on again when the temperature drops too far. a better, proportional thermostat will run the UTH at 100%, and throttle down to 80%, then 50%, as the temperature approaches the target, instead of on-off-on-off the thermostat will try to figure out the right value. in both cases, the target temperature should be reached rather quickly.

some UTHs are designed for a low wattage, ive seen UTHs rated as low as 5 watt, 8 watt, 15 watt, 20 watt. these might be enough if your room temperature is fairly constant and you want a hot spot that is just a bit above the ambient temperature. the beauty is that this low maximum energy output makes them incredibly safe. if your thermostat or dimmer has a catastrophic failure and the UTH runs at 100%, but the UTH only delivers 10 watt, it cannot reach dangerous temperatures because the wattage is too low for that. typical UTHs have a much higher maximum energy output, so that they can also be used in a chilly room in Alaska or whatever, but that means that they must be regulated and will burn your snake quite quickly if they run at full power.

(it happened here one time.... someone posted that in his pet store they run unregulated UTHs without dimmer without thermostat 24/7 and that it works just fine.... imagine the avalanche of posts this triggered :D . after he got tarred and feathered for risking crispy reptiles, it turned out they used these UTHs with a very low wattage and figured out which wattage needs to be used in which place to get the desired result.)

so, when your friends UTH takes 13 hours to reach the target temperature, maybe thats not bad quality, maybe that is what he purchased and it is behaving just like it should, and he just purchased one with a low wattage = low maximum energy output. ready-made flexwatt (meaning cut and connected) is available for all wattages, and the flexwatt that you can cut yourself will have a wattage like "8 watt per foot" or "20 watt per foot". the 11 inch version appears to be rated at 20 watt per foot.

since you said that your room is quite warm and at a very constant temperature, i dont think you will need lots of watts.

I'm so sorry if this seems super dumb, this is my first Foum response. Do I need a dimmer, because I put a Zoo Med heat mat on my 20L tank, and both thermometers are reading just around the 90 degree mark, no dimmer... I did in fact buy a dimmer, but I am now thinking of using it for a CHE to keep the temps on the cool side up a tad.

No problem! No question is dumb and asking makes sure you have the best information for your snake. The zoomed mats are set up to turn off at a certain point but I would definitely suggest checking often. While rare there are reports of them misfiring and turning the temp way high (like 130s). Unless you get a super pricey thermostat with a probe there isn't a way to 100% negate that risk. That being said monitor it for a few days and if it stays in acceptable ranges you should be fine to use your dimmer elsewhere.

Also keep in mind outside affects (is the heater on in your room making the tank hotter, or on the opposite side do you have the a/c making the snake room an ice box.) Those kind of things play a role when you don't use a thermostat. That being said I've had my 4 for years with no trouble so consider the risks vs what you can afford.

If you have any questions starting a new thread will let more people noticing :)

Unregulated a Zoo Med matt can go to 120*F. Yes it needs a thermostat or at least a dimmer switch.

Last year I took in ball python burned by an unregulated heat source. The vet bill was $400 and she still died due to sepsis after two weeks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mind_boy

I'm so sorry if this seems super dumb, this is my first Foum response. Do I need a dimmer, because I put a Zoo Med heat mat on my 20L tank, and both thermometers are reading just around the 90 degree mark, no dimmer... I did in fact buy a dimmer, but I am now thinking of using it for a CHE to keep the temps on the cool side up a tad.

---

90 degrees where?
You should be taking temperatures UNDER the substrate, the hottest area your animal can touch.

Uth always need to be regulated by a thermostat or dimmer....no exceptions.