Tragic day for my snakes.

Being a keeper of many snakes is hard. Most people dont understand it nor do they really care, which I can deal with just fine. But last night I came home from a long busy day, and found something terrible. Most people wont really understand it, but, I was devastated to find my thermostat failed to shut down once reaching the temp to which it was set. As a result it ran the heat tape all day non stop. I found 1 one my snakes, the caramel albino male dead. He was my daughters snake and truly a wonderful little. I also found my female pastel taking her last breath. They died from too much heat for too long. All of my other snakes seem fine, but I am completely devastated. These snakes are my pets, loved and cared for as people do dogs. I am really at a loss for words so many people just dont get or understand it, and some think im crazy for being so upset. My Daughter handled it fairly well, better than I have. Its just terrible. both in the fact I lost two loved pets, and that they were lost in such a horrific way.

I havent been on here in a good long while, but I wasnt sure where else to go to talk about such things.

In the wake of this tragedy, I will not let my love and care for my pets be broken. I plan on using this event as a catalyst for change, growth and new beginnings. I am going to see if I can find or build a thermostat with a raspberry pi or similar device. I want it to monitor and control temps on a per tub basis, have fail safe programming logic, and email/text alerts when something goes wrong. Too many times have i seen or heard of times that people like us loose animals, or worse a house burns down.

So I ask of anyone reading this that if they know of any thing similar that is out there, please let me know. If not let me know if this is something you may be interested in, and suggest features, or functions you would like. I cant promise a thing, but I know I as a keeper cant let this sort of thing happen to my pets again.

Really feel sorry for you man. Even for someone who has just one snake, I always freak out to see the temps are extremely off. Hopefully this never happens to you (or anybody) again. Best wishes!


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I am truly sorry for your loss. I wish I had something to say about thermostats but I'm a newbie myself and I'm barely getting my thermostats tomorrow. Reading this just gave me another reason to triple check my temperatures every day. I hope you feel better, I know how some people dont understand how we can love a snake, but everyone here does.

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So sorry for your and your daughter's loss.

Maybe chain two Herpstats together for the rack?

i'm so sorry for you and your family's loss. i can't begin to imagine how you feel, but i know what it's like to feel people don't care about our beloved scale babies. i hope you're able to find peace and resolve, and to continue to love our legless pets the way you always have.

we're here for you. 😊

So sorry that's happened to you! :( That's so sad... I would be crying my eyes out.

What thermostat were you using? Herpstats are currently the hobby's top of the line thermostat with the most precise temp control and the most reliable... But being an electronic, of course things could still happen. Just a very, very low chance.

If you buy a herpstat 6 (or whichever one you need for however many snakes you have), you can technically control per tub if you make a separate plug for each heat tape for each level, or just buy multiple UTH's of the same size.

I was using https://www.amazon.com/Zilla-Reptile...ank+thermostat which did a wonderful job for 5 years. until it didnt. I just check to verify what the failure was, it runs the heat no matter what, and turns the led indicator off once it reaches the set temp. there simply was no way for me to know beyond checking the obvious.

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Originally Posted by tcutting

I was using https://www.amazon.com/Zilla-Reptile...ank+thermostat which did a wonderful job for 5 years. until it didnt. I just check to verify what the failure was, it runs the heat no matter what, and turns the led indicator off once it reaches the set temp. there simply was no way for me to know beyond checking the obvious.

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Exactly the one i was gonna buy, but i received advice from people here and i went for the Jumpstart


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by tcutting

I was using https://www.amazon.com/Zilla-Reptile...ank+thermostat which did a wonderful job for 5 years. until it didnt. I just check to verify what the failure was, it runs the heat no matter what, and turns the led indicator off once it reaches the set temp. there simply was no way for me to know beyond checking the obvious.

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Oh no.. Yeah, I've learned not to go cheap on thermostats, but thankfully nothing terrible has happened with mine.

I started out the hobby with 3 jumpstarts. They just gradually became very inaccurate, and thankfully I was only able to keep track of this using a digital temp gun. They all became useless/dangerous to use within a year, so I updated to herpstats.

It's really true when people say not to go cheap on thermostats. If you want to invest more money in anything at all, the first thing should be the thermostat.

I'm so so sorry for your loss. I know if I ever came home to that my heart would stop... I'd be devastated. I can only imagine what you're going through right now. :(

So sorry for your lose :( I have 3 jump starts with 2 snakes. One is just a backup just in case something like this would happen but now I'm thinking of just getting a herpstat taking the still in package jumpstart back and selling off the others...


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Originally Posted by Gc99

Exactly the one i was gonna buy, but i received advice from people here and i went for the Jumpstart


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I ran it for 5 years no problem. I wish i had at least some sort of alerting or monitoring to know. everything was reporting fine, although i did not have digital on each tub. not that it would have done anything since I was away for the day. :tears:

I was working on a caramel glow project and would frequently use the caramel male and the pastel female to teach my daughters friends about snakes. This was like losing my show case core snakes. Im just so upset about it.

@ OP- I'm really sorry for your family's loss. I'm sure this lesson will impress upon the rest of us the importance of maintaining and regularly monitoring our husbandry and having the proper equipment. I've used several hydrofarm thermostats for the last 4 years without any issues. I use Ultratherm UTHs which purportedly don't get hot enough to harm your snake even in the event of a t-stat failure. I also check my hot spot temps with a temp gun twice daily. We can't prevent every tragedy but we can take every precaution.

Sorry for your loss.

I'm so sorry, that's terrible. :( I keep/breed fish and people never understand why I'm upset when one of my older ones (I have a couple that are nearly a decade old) dies, so I totally understand. I made a similar mistake with my thermostat a few years ago. One of my leopard gecko vivs got up to 137 degrees Fahrenheit and the only reason two of my breeders survived was because they buried themselves under the water bowl. It really tore me up knowing what they'd gone through. So sorry, and I hope your other snakes do well.

So sorry to hear the news. I know what you meant when you said people just don't understand. There's really no explaining our passion for reptiles to some that have that irrational fear. I get some people just don't like reptiles, but when some use words like "slimy and disgusting" to describe them, their ignorance infuriates me.

As others have stated, and I hope it never happens to me, it appears as though Herpstat is the only way to go for that fail-safe in the "off" position.

Sorry for your loss. I personally only use Herpstats as they have safeties to them that you can set to do different things. Anything from shutting off power to the port in question to shutting down the whole unit. And either from some error or from a user set min and max temp setting. Plus if the unit has some catastrophic disaster, it will fail in the closed position which means no power is supplied unlike a lot who when they fail, it goes wide open full power.

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Originally Posted by tcutting

I was using https://www.amazon.com/Zilla-Reptile...ank+thermostat

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Theres your problem. If there is something you don't want to skimp on its definitely a thermostat. I recommend vivarium electronics and spyder robotics. I honestly wouldn't trust anything else.

So sorry to hear about your loss, I can't even imagine. I started with the Hydrofarm / Jumpstart thermostats until one of them failed in the on position. Luckly I didn't damage any of my snakes. I quickly upgraded to two Herpstat 4 and one VE-300, so now I have one controller for each of my 9 levels in my rack. I also have separate high / low temperature alarms that let me know if the temps are off. If the power cord comes unplugged from a Herpstat no matter how good it is it won't alarm, but my backup alarms will.

My backups are cheap and I actually had one of them fail and scrambled the LCD screen, but no harm is done. They are cheap backups. My thermostats and temp alarms cost an arm and a leg (about $1,000) but it's much better than the alternative and gives me peace of mind, many of my snakes are worth that. By the way, I also put a temp alarm on my rodent freezer. I accidently unplugged it once and the alarm saved all my rodents!

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...ront_store.gif

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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I'm so sorry. I had this happen with an electric heater in my viv room last winter. I've learned that every heating device needs to be on a thermostat. I use all Herpstats.

I'm still new to the hobby so I unfortunately have no words of advice on the matter, but I wanted to say that I am terribly sorry for your loss. I too would be absolutely devastated if something happened to my little babies. Best of luck from here out and I hope so much you find peace.

I actually switched from the cheap Jumpstarts to the VE-300 and tried to control my whole rack with it. I also added separate temp alarms to each level, but I found that no matter what I did I couldn't get the VE-300 to get consistent temps from the top to the bottom of my rack, the temps were really different from level to level (as much as 10 degrees), that's why I switched to the dual Herpstat 4 setup.

I also added the temp probes with the Jumpstart, with that cheap thermostat I found that the difference between the high and low temps were as much as 10 degrees. With the more expensive Herpstats and the VE-300 the difference is only a few degrees. I also like that I can put different types of snakes in each level and control them separately now, so if I decide to breed just a few snakes I can totally control that level separate from the rest.

I've read a lot of horror stories similar to this one and it scares the heck out of me, especially since I have so much invested in my snake collection (probably about $30,000).

So being as how this is been heavy on my mind and within 24 hours of finding out about it, what helps me deal with such things is trying to problem solve it. My biggest issues with any of the main stream systems such as vivarium, is they lack notifications and require hands on site to check them for either warmth or if they are off.

From the info i gathered thus far about a raspberry pi and some crafty wire work, this can be done fairly easily. I can make my own quality thermostat, WITH automation updates, logging and web front end to manage all of my animals. I have found electronic circuit relays and temp probes that should work perfectly for this. so my next part is physical fail safes, like fuses, and then the code to run it all, with logic based fail safes. basically, if any part of my rack detects 5% or more over heat to shutdown and text me.

First off, I'm so sorry for your loss. My heart hurts for you, and I know what you mean about others not getting it.
Second, if you're successful with this t-stat construction you're talking about, you may be on to something.
I like your attitude, looking to create a positive out of a negative situation. Good luck, man!

I am truly sorry for your loss. A lot of people would say it was just a snake but to us it is more then that, it is a life and a pet. I hope you are able to peace soon.

So sorry to hear about your loss - that is terrible.

I have heard of this happening so I recently bought backup thermostats for my setups. I run a VE300 and back it up with the cheaper VE100. Maybe not fool safe but at least I have some comfort knowing I am doing all I can for my babies.

Hugs go out to you. Keep the faith.

I"m so sorry about your loss! It prompted me to replace my Jumpstarts...I've got two Herpstats one the way.

It's tragic and I am sorry you have to go through that, for years I have warned people about those thermostats and their tendency to fail and when doing so failing wide open. You were lucky to get 5 years out of it way back when I used those (not for snakes) they would fail after a year or two.

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Originally Posted by tcutting

I was using https://www.amazon.com/Zilla-Reptile...ank+thermostat which did a wonderful job for 5 years. until it didnt. I just check to verify what the failure was, it runs the heat no matter what, and turns the led indicator off once it reaches the set temp. there simply was no way for me to know beyond checking the obvious.

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I have a direct replacement of what I had coming to get me through for the next few days. But I am ordering the raspberry pi now and relay system to begin developing a better solution now.

I wish i had done this years earlier. Those two specific snakes were really special to me. They were the ones that were my go to for my daughters friends to be introduced into snakes. They were also among my most colorful and since they each were parents to a clutch, it was nice when i would show pics of eggs or bring out a baby snake.

and thank you everyone for your support. It means a lot. again most people think im crazy for having snakes, even more so for being upset when they pass. I do have one hold back from the Male Caramel albino from last year to keep his legacy alive, and he was paired up this season for a few months as well. I hope that the female he was paired with lays another clutch of eggs from him. would be nice to still be able to carry on the caramel glow project I was working on. but without him, or a male to come from his pairing this year, it may be lost. Not sure I would really want to continue the project if it doesnt pan out with another clutch of double hets this year.

I recently set up some sterlite tubs to put my 2 snakes in when we have a power outage and I want to move them to another location. I bought Hydrofarm thermostats for those instances - would that be okay?? These would just be for an emergency - short duration kinda thing.

The VE's can and do fail. A friend of mine lost a rack of retics when his VE-300 failed wide open.

A thermostat is like any other electronic device; it can break. Running two in line is one way to help ensure that you don't end up with overheated critters. A cheaper option is to put a dimmer switch between the thermostat and the heating appliance. Set the dimmer so the appliance gets uncomfortably warm but not deathly hot if the thermostat fails. The critter's behavior will let you know there's a problem.

Note that dimmers do have power limits so while you can put one on a whole rack running heat tape, if you have a four-high stack of 8' enclosures with 120W RHP's, each RHP will need its own dimmer.

those are decent thermostats. you should be fine with that. but keep an eye on it. have an additional monitoring source on it and keep tabs. I had my digital thermometers batteries die semi recently and never replaced them. Not that it would have prevented what happened, but perhaps i could have seen a warning sign earlier.

Always have more than one way to monitor things. I learned the hard way that just because one system says its off, doesnt mean it is. without backup monitors running I didnt notice the problem. but given the nature of how I have my snake room, even if I did, i would not have noticed the monitors anyway.

I use Vivarium electronics V200 or 300s on all of my racks/cages. I love these and have yet to have a problem. I do however back them up with a Ranco ETC-111000-000. This is set before the VE stat (therefore closer to the power outlet, and is set around 5 degrees high than the VEs. So if I am running a VE at 90oF< it is set to 95oF. Therefore, if the first fails, the second catches it, and visa-versa. Its better to shut down than fry.

Most people are happy to spend hundreds, or even thousands on snakes, but scrimp on the things that actually keep[ them alive. I'm sorry you had this happen. Be lucky that the heat tape did not cause the tubs to melt and ignite. That has been reported more times that I can recall, and the results are catastrophic (entire houses burning down).

Warren

so upon further analysis if found the exact root cause. and as it turns out this is something that can happen to ANY thermostat, good or bad. The good ones will certainly last longer and function better, especially over time, but my problem was that the relay, the electronic on/off switch within the unit fused in the on position. NONE of the systems that exist have a fail safe for that, at least not that I am aware of.

Based on those findings I worry that all of the thermostats are a ticking time bomb. basically they seem to be a self life on the electronic relays themselves. after learning this I would think that most of us in the hobby should consider replacing thermostat units once every 4-5 years maybe longer for the better units, as a best practice. even the system I was planning on building would not have a way to account for this. I will have to go back to the drawing board to see what else I could do to prevent a relay fusing on issue from doing what happened.

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Originally Posted by Warren_Booth

I use Vivarium electronics V200 or 300s on all of my racks/cages. I love these and have yet to have a problem. I do however back them up with a Ranco ETC-111000-000. This is set before the VE stat (therefore closer to the power outlet, and is set around 5 degrees high than the VEs. So if I am running a VE at 90oF< it is set to 95oF. Therefore, if the first fails, the second catches it, and visa-versa. Its better to shut down than fry.

Most people are happy to spend hundreds, or even thousands on snakes, but scrimp on the things that actually keep[ them alive. I'm sorry you had this happen. Be lucky that the heat tape did not cause the tubs to melt and ignite. That has been reported more times that I can recall, and the results are catastrophic (entire houses burning down).

Warren

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How do you wire/plug these combinations up?

I know you can purchase two Rancos that are wired up with one another and then you plug the heat source into the first one. The second one is set at a higher temp.
But they are wired up together, not plugged into one another (the 2 thermostats)

So..if I just buy a second thermostat, what do I plug into where to use it as a back up?

Lets say, my heat tape has one power plug. I plug that into the thermostat and the thermostat into the outlet. (like everyone does).

So what do I plug into the backup thermostat? If my heat source only has one plug ?? How does the second thermostat control the heat source ?

Or do you plug in the first thermostat into the second and the second into the outlet ???

I'm so sorry for your loss. It's always very upsetting when these things happen (I've had this happen about 10 years ago. However, it was with tropical fish).

Although it may seem like a lot of money initially, I'd recommend getting a quality thermostat. I love herpstat. I do have a jumpstart that's kept around in an emergency if needed.

As an FYI, I keep a separate thermometer probe an inch or two from the thermostat probe for comparison. I also take random readings with a temp gun. The tubs higher up on a rack will be a bit warmer since heat travels upward.




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so at this point I have figured out most all of the logic and design parts that I need to have figured out. All parts are on their way many are here now. Once I get everything I will begin a full build log of all of the things I do and share the code and things I learn from it. At this point it seems fairly straight forward just need to start on laying out how things will fit inside a project box of sorts.

The only thermostats I would use are Herpstat which is my first choice, then Vivarium Electronics. Helix's are good too but I've never used them.

Herpstats have a fail safe, that if something goes wrong it kills the power. These cheaper thermostats Zilla, jumpstart etc.. don't have that. So when it fails, it gets blasted wide open. This is why I never recommend those thermostats because once you factor in the cost of the snake it's not really worth it to cut cost on a thermostat. Sorry this happened to you.

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Originally Posted by Neal

The only thermostats I would use are Herpstat which is my first choice, then Vivarium Electronics. Helix's are good too but I've never used them.

Herpstats have a fail safe, that if something goes wrong it kills the power. These cheaper thermostats Zilla, jumpstart etc.. don't have that. So when it fails, it gets blasted wide open. This is why I never recommend those thermostats because once you factor in the cost of the snake it's not really worth it to cut cost on a thermostat. Sorry this happened to you.

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from what I have seen I am not sure if they do detect the type of failure I had. Plus their alarm is a local one, meaning either visual or near by audio based one. I travel enough for long enough periods of time, that having a text/email alert when a relay failure is detected is needed.

The other thing I am doing is building a 12 zone system, one for every single snake so I can manage each animal individually. Granted I see where thats a bit overkill, but I would rather do this once the way I want it, than halfway do it and wish i did more later.

So when all said and done the value perspective of the herpstats is great, the key features I am after, multi zone and text/email alerts and remote control, there simply is nothing that does it. to get the zone coverage I am looking at close to $1,000, without the other features.


Separate of that, phase 1 of recovery is complete. I have a digital thermometer on every tub, replaced ALL heat tape since some warped from over heat, and replaced the thermostat with a single zone to 'get by' until I complete my replacement system. I have all the parts for the replacement system, I just need to start building it out and writing code.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

The VE's can and do fail. A friend of mine lost a rack of retics when his VE-300 failed wide open.

A thermostat is like any other electronic device; it can break. Running two in line is one way to help ensure that you don't end up with overheated critters. A cheaper option is to put a dimmer switch between the thermostat and the heating appliance. Set the dimmer so the appliance gets uncomfortably warm but not deathly hot if the thermostat fails. The critter's behavior will let you know there's a problem.

Note that dimmers do have power limits so while you can put one on a whole rack running heat tape, if you have a four-high stack of 8' enclosures with 120W RHP's, each RHP will need its own dimmer.

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That's is exactly what i do; heating device into dimmer into thermostat (jumpstarts for now) Since i only have 2 snakes each one has its own complete setup, i even have 2 separate dimmers one each tank for the UTH's and the RHP's. For $11 at home depot, i figure why not have each device on its own custom stetting?

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../rpi-diag1.png

The above is the logical base diagram of what I am building. I did leave out the bulk wiring for the probes simply because the idea of the probes making it back to the parallel bread board. but really outlines the general design. physically wiring is starting now, doing some tests before I start making things form fit.

I feel you man. I lost my 2 balls this summer to heat pad malfunction. One of them I'd raised since a hatchling and got her the month this site was founded before it even had a domain name. Sucked pretty bad. I don't think I'll ever trust anything but bulbs after that.

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Originally Posted by tcutting

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../rpi-diag1.png

The above is the logical base diagram of what I am building. I did leave out the bulk wiring for the probes simply because the idea of the probes making it back to the parallel bread board. but really outlines the general design. physically wiring is starting now, doing some tests before I start making things form fit.

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Wow, I see a diagram of boxes, lines and letters. I wish my brain could comprehend what you are doing. Kudos to you for having a working knowledge of that sort of stuff.
I gotta say, it's admirable how dedicated to fixing this problem you have been. I'm still so sorry for your loss, but you should be proud of the way you're reacting and putting in the due diligence to ensure it never happens to your animals again.
Also, like I said before, you may really be on to something. You could be a few years away from a hugely successful business. If you can get yours up and running with proven success, you could venture into a side business and watch it grow. You may be saving the lives of many reptiles and eliminating headaches and stress from many keepers in the near future...

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Originally Posted by craigafrechette

Wow, I see a diagram of boxes, lines and letters. I wish my brain could comprehend what you are doing. Kudos to you for having a working knowledge of that sort of stuff.
I gotta say, it's admirable how dedicated to fixing this problem you have been. I'm still so sorry for your loss, but you should be proud of the way you're reacting and putting in the due diligence to ensure it never happens to your animals again.
Also, like I said before, you may really be on to something. You could be a few years away from a hugely successful business. If you can get yours up and running with proven success, you could venture into a side business and watch it grow. You may be saving the lives of many reptiles and eliminating headaches and stress from many keepers in the near future...

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So that is the physical layout of the wires on the inside. I am going to build a box around it so it will all be contained in one unit with external connections so you can disconnect and connect things as you work on a rack or move snakes.

ideally for most small time keeper it will be nice to have a rack you can shut slots down when they arent in use, or cool cycle a female, or whatever. For larger scale uses imagine running ideally your whole building where wattage is almost unlimited with a system like this.

but the biggest win for this system will be without a doubt, the alerting system. something many of us need. Idea of prevent or catching a fire as early as possible or some other terrible event could save a lot of reptile lives and peoples homes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tcutting

So that is the physical layout of the wires on the inside. I am going to build a box around it so it will all be contained in one unit with external connections so you can disconnect and connect things as you work on a rack or move snakes.

ideally for most small time keeper it will be nice to have a rack you can shut slots down when they arent in use, or cool cycle a female, or whatever. For larger scale uses imagine running ideally your whole building where wattage is almost unlimited with a system like this.

but the biggest win for this system will be without a doubt, the alerting system. something many of us need. Idea of prevent or catching a fire as early as possible or some other terrible event could save a lot of reptile lives and peoples homes.

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Seems like a great idea to me!!! Keep up the great work!!!

I've looked into building a raspberry powered thermostat for a while, unfortunately as a programmer I have little experience with hardware.

One of the reason I really wanted this is being able to log all the readings and connect it to a monitoring and alerting system like it's done for server farms. That way even if you cannot 100% prevent a fail-open you still get an email or sms and rush home to unplug everything.

Are you planning to use proportional relays or write your own on-off function? I couldn't find high voltage dimmers online, so proportional would be the closest solution.

Keep us updated!

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Originally Posted by Aste88

I've looked into building a raspberry powered thermostat for a while, unfortunately as a programmer I have little experience with hardware.

One of the reason I really wanted this is being able to log all the readings and connect it to a monitoring and alerting system like it's done for server farms. That way even if you cannot 100% prevent a fail-open you still get an email or sms and rush home to unplug everything.

Are you planning to use proportional relays or write your own on-off function? I couldn't find high voltage dimmers online, so proportional would be the closest solution.

Keep us updated!

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I assume by proportional relays you mean solid state? No i am not using solid state. I am going with normal relays. but with a master high load to shutdown all if a overheat problem is detected. I will be writing my own code from start to finish on this including the logic to handle sensor failures, relay always on, and alarms. The way the heat will run is like I would without being on a dimmer. something that most of us do currently anyway.

Although I am not sure why you would need high voltage dimmers? normal 120v is all you need. Unless you mean high AMP/wattage dimmers? even still my entire system with 20~ft of 12inch heat tape is about 400watt give or take. if you separate out your heat tape to smaller zones you should be able to accommodate that fairly easily. Meaning, cut the tape and have the a dimmer per every X ft and not one long strand of tape, wire in parallel.

Since I got one of those thermostat with the choice of dimming and pulse-proportional I wouldn't go back to on-off. There are some relays that implement this directly and you control with PWM (like pc fans). The alternative is writing your own pulsing algorithm which might not be easy. I can't find digital dimmers for more than 12v, some suggest putting a servo on an analog one but I don't like the idea.

Any way in your schema to control the power absorption too? That would be an interesting stat to log and one more parameter to check for failures.

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Originally Posted by Aste88

Since I got one of those thermostat with the choice of dimming and pulse-proportional I wouldn't go back to on-off. There are some relays that implement this directly and you control with PWM (like pc fans). The alternative is writing your own pulsing algorithm which might not be easy. I can't find digital dimmers for more than 12v, some suggest putting a servo on an analog one but I don't like the idea.

Any way in your schema to control the power absorption too? That would be an interesting stat to log and one more parameter to check for failures.

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So on the dimmer side, when you say more that 12v are you talking DC or AC? because any dimmer light switch in your house is a 120v and should be able to handle this. Unless I am missing something here and what others have suggested as well.

regarding a proportional, or limited always on thermostat, those are made to hold a set temp of the tape and run it at all times if I recall. But I think your point and many others point would be to have a system that does both, limit max temp of the heat tape and turn off at a certain temp? so it would be a hybrid more than one type or the other.

example set dimmer to keep heat tape from exceeding say 100F and then have a thermostat with probe on tape set to 95? should be a slow steady climb to 95 vs the burst or all on/off? is that what you are talking about?

I havent considered going that route but could certainly work that into this design.



side note here is a 120v dimmer https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BYEF6..._t1_B01LXDFGHB that would run some heat tape. should handle about 2.5 amps at 120v.