Thermostat malfunction.

Hi, I just got home from work and checked on my snakes, my herpstat messed up and had the temps running around 97-98 in the tubs around 105 on the tape, it was set to 91 on the tape. I looked everybody over and they all seem to be okay, no burns and they're all acting normal, passed the flip test ect. What would some signs of heat stroke be so I can keep my eyes out for the next few days ? Thanks in advance.

Glad to hear that none of your animals seem to have been injured. Can you give a little more information and do you have an idea of why it malfunctioned? Was the probe dislodged from the heating source?

No, the probe was in place, it was reading 91 even (what it's set to) and it was actually 105-110. I switched the probes and it still did the same thing. It basically stopped reading heat on the probe, and allowed the temp. to ramp up. Being that no animals where burned it must have shut off at some point, or I caught it at the right time. It's done this before, I wrote it off as a minor malfunction the first couple of times but now I'm just going to exchange it, it's clearly defective. I was really lucky none of my animals where hurt, my male likes to pull his hide forward when he isn't digesting a meal and both my females where off the hotspot. I feel really bad for even putting them in this situation, I should've exchanged it the first time it screwed up, or at least the second.

Where is the probe placed and how do you secure it?

It is placed 3 tubs down centered over the heat tape, secured with electrical tape. It isn't in the tub, it's right over the tape as directed by the heat tape manufacturers FAQ.

Is the actual probe covered with tape?

What does the Herpstat show as the high and low?

If they had heat-related injuries they would be showing signs by now. Were your snakes on the heat, or had they moved up to the front of their tubs? If they were up front they probably didn't overheat, UTH's don't really raise the ambient temp much.

You can put a dimmer switch in between the t-stat and the heat source, and adjust the dimmer so that even if the t-stat fails wide open the dimmer won't let the heat go over the upper 90's. Your snakes would still get hot if the t-stat fails, but not to the point where they can get burned or have neuro damage.

Yeah they where mostly off of the tape, they're completely fine. The probe was not covered with tape and was placed over the heat tape. The t-stat would work for about 4-5 days at a time and then fail, it's never gotten quite this high though. I have a dimmer I'm going to do that, how high would you say I should set it, around 40%ish ?

The probe was not covered in tape, the herpstat probe its self never went above 91 (set temp) and the low is 84 I suppose from ramping it up. My temp gun was showing 105-110 on the tape where the probe was and was hot to the touch.

Strange. Keep us posted.

Will do. I'm hoping I'll get an exchange from the guy I bought it from, I payed in cash but I was told there was a warranty attached. Worse comes to worse I guess I buy another one. I had it on for about 10 minutes and it was fluctuating a lot but didn't get super hot, but I just can't bring myself to trust my animals health to it.

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Originally Posted by speedycat222

Yeah they where mostly off of the tape, they're completely fine. The probe was not covered with tape and was placed over the heat tape. The t-stat would work for about 4-5 days at a time and then fail, it's never gotten quite this high though. I have a dimmer I'm going to do that, how high would you say I should set it, around 40%ish ?

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Depending on the tape and the dimmer you will have to play with it to find a good setting. I would start at 50% and adjust up or down as needed.

Update: Person who sold me it was no help, bought a new unit and problems are persisting. It's something to do with the way I'm setting up the unit but I've spent well over 40 hours trying every possible way, keeping the probe under the tub, away from the tub, in the middle of the tape, near the edge of the tape, different types of types of tapes to secure the probe, a total of 4 different probes. The sensor is still wrong every time, it will stay at 85-87 degrees when the heat tape right where it is sitting at 130.

To risk stating the obvious, is the heat tape plugged into the thermostat?

Do you have an empty tub to tape it i to?

Haha, yes the tape is plugged into the thermostat.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Do you have an empty tube to tape it i to?

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Pardon my ignorance, what do you mean by tube in this content ? If you misspelled tub then yes I do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by speedycat222

Pardon my ignorance, what do you mean by tube in this content ? If you misspelled tub then yes I do.

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What are you talking about???? LoL

Yes tape it into a T U B and see how things work out.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

What are you talking about???? LoL

Yes tape it into a T U B and see how things work out.

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I'm sorry, I haven't slept yet haha. Stressful night (:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

What are you talking about???? LoL

Yes tape it into a T U B and see how things work out.

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Okay, I taped it to the tub with packing tape, it hit 85 when the tub was about 91, after being at 100% power for about 3-5 minutes or however long I was gone LOL.

Tape temp was 115 at this point.

My last question of this thread: What should I do over night ? Will my animals be okay at 72F overnight ? They don't have meals in them.

No, they wont.
What was the temp inside the tub. don't worry about the heat tape. Worry about what your snakes can touch.

It got about 90, the probe read 81 my temp gun read 90. I'm testing the second probe on a spare heat pad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

No, they wont.
What was the temp inside the tub. don't worry about the heat tape. Worry about what your snakes can touch.

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Okay the heat pad is 91 when it's set to 87, completely reasonable. The problem seems to be with my rack system ? Do you have any ideas because I am completely stumped... I've spent the past 12 hours on this and am still right where I started. :rolleye2:

If the probe is inside an empty tub and the tub is reading near 87(your set temp) with your temp gun then things should be fine. The heat tape will be warmer because you're heating through the tub.

I tried that, same deal. I've gone ahead and hooked my ve-100 up, everything is fine for now but both of the herpstats are malfunctioning when used on low wattage heat sources, as confirmed by the guy who sold me them.

Reading this Just got me out of bed to recheck mine...


Molly & Steve
0.1 normal BP 'Precioucess'
0.1 BCI 'Luna'

The fail percentage is literally .1, I think my issue is something to do with my setup, I just can't figure it out.

Tape probe to inside of a tub over the heat tape.
Set temp to what you want the hot spot to be.
Wait an hour and use temp gun on surface inside all tubs.
What did you set the stat at and what do the tubs temp at?
Stop temping the heat tape, it will be higher than the set temperature.

I understand that, but my tubs lay right over the tape, I only need my tape at around the mid to high 90s. I did as you described last night, the temperature inside the tubs got to 103 while the probe was set to 90, the probe was reading low 80s. I have my ve-100 set up to the rack and it is working fine, I'm using the herpstat to heat my lone hatchling, it's set to 90, is using 100% power. I have both set up to a dimmer switch.

How are you measuring the temperatures inside the tub? Air temperature inside the tubs will be a lot different from the surface temperature. Also make sure that your tub isn't see-through, otherwise your heatgun might be picking up the temperature of the heat-tape underneath it as opposed to the actual tub surface temperature. What I did was place a paper towel (or better, use whatever substrate you are using) and then measure the surface temperature of the substrate.

With my setup I have my heat-tape ramped to 97 degF but still only get 88-90 degF in the tub right above the heattape. Yep, a lot of heat loss with my setup. I would also suggest ordering a thermometer with a probe so you can cross-check the temperature readings with your heat-gun.

Also what width of heat-tape are you using to what size of tub? If you're worried about it overheating then down-sizing the heat-tape width might be something worth looking into.
Last of all, taking a picture of your setup and thermostat settings might help more than written explanations~