How to get the heat up?

So I bought a T8 AP cage, set it all up and I have a 11x17 ultratherm heat mat on a thermostat under it.

but I have the thermostat set to 100 degrees but inside I can't get it over 83. On the hot side? I haven't had a chance to measure the cool side yet but I'm assuming it's somewhere in the 70s. How can I get the heat up? Do I need to buy another heat source? The mat is flush against the bottom right now and the probe is reaching up to 1"" as its set to but my inside thermometers aren't getting over 84 ever. They're just going back and fourth between 83-84

Do you have a temp gun handy by chance? Because thermometers are probably not going to get the most accurate reading as far as surface temperatures go.

Is there any "lift" at all from the probe thats preventing the heatmat from resting flat against the bottom of the cage around the probe area?

I'm also using an ultratherm(6x11 and 7 watts) for my AP cage and I have no problem getting my hot spot to 89-91. So I'm pretty sure yours is more than efficient.

Hey, I live in Asheville, and I have an infrared thermometer gun and a lot of experience with heating... maybe I could come take a look sometime and help you tune-up the enclosure. :)

I would say if there are air gaps between the ultratherm and the surface of the T8 it wouldn't be radiating heat optimally. Also, how are you measuring the heat? On the surface of the substrate or directly on the inside of the T8 bottom? T8 has a bottom area of 4 feet by 2 feet and you have an 11 inch by 17 inch mat where the hottest spot is going to be the middle 75% or so and you could be measuring the heat at the outer edge of the heat mat's influence. So if the mat is on the say back 50% of the cutout of the UTH and you are measuring in the front 50% with the thermometer and you are doing so from the top of say 2 inches of substrate, you may not be measuring the accurate hot spot.

Just a thought but I could be terribly wrong. I doubt the probe is an issue so long as you have it fit properly in the cut out channel they make for them.

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Originally Posted by SDA

I would say if there are air gaps between the ultratherm and the surface of the T8 it wouldn't be radiating heat optimally. Also, how are you measuring the heat? On the surface of the substrate or directly on the inside of the T8 bottom? T8 has a bottom area of 4 feet by 2 feet and you have an 11 inch by 17 inch mat where the hottest spot is going to be the middle 75% or so and you could be measuring the heat at the outer edge of the heat mat's influence. So if the mat is on the say back 50% of the cutout of the UTH and you are measuring in the front 50% with the thermometer and you are doing so from the top of say 2 inches of substrate, you may not be measuring the accurate hot spot.

Just a thought but I could be terribly wrong. I doubt the probe is an issue so long as you have it fit properly in the cut out channel they make for them.

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http://i67.tinypic.com/15eu59i.png

That's basically how it's set up, I don't have any substrate in there it's currently just an empty box with a digital thermometer laying on the floor inside, the probe is in the slot and the cage is flush against the table, it hangs over ever so lightly and the rounded part of the heat mat's cable part forces the whole mat to hang out ever so slightly, the mat also had a tiny bend in it so this might effect the heating. It's been running since last night.

The probe is slotted into the channel and my thermometer is sitting on the flight where the middle of the mat is.

Depending which model your thermometer is, it's probably only reading the ambient temp near the ground rather than the true surface temp reading. I still highly reccomend obtaining and using a temp gun because it wouldn't surprise me if the surface temp is actually higher (possibly up to a 5 degree difference)than what the thermometer is displaying.

As for the heat mat slightly hanging out, you can always try using thin slabs of styrofoam to press against the areas where there is a bend.

Temp gun the FLOOR of the enclosure.
UTHeating is ONLY for a hot spot. A properly regulated heat source will do little to nothing for ambient temperatures.
What is the ambient temperature?

FYI SDA.... You can have a gap between your under tank heater and the enclosure, all racks do. ;) This is where a temperature gun and thermostat adjustment comes into play.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Temp gun the FLOOR of the enclosure.
UTHeating is ONLY for a hot spot. A properly regulated heat source will do little to nothing for ambient temperatures.
What is the ambient temperature?

FYI SDA.... You can have a gap between your under tank heater and the enclosure, all racks do. ;) This is where a temperature gun and thermostat adjustment comes into play.

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Correct me if I am wrong but rack plastic is much thinner than AP PVC right? I was just making an assumption so you are most likely right in this case.

Just had a thought, should I put substrate in now? So I'm measuring more than an empty cage? In my boa's I didn't until it was measuring solidly but he's using a heat panel and nothing from below.

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Originally Posted by Brixxart

So I bought a T8 AP cage, set it all up and I have a 11x17 ultratherm heat mat on a thermostat under it.

but I have the thermostat set to 100 degrees but inside I can't get it over 83. On the hot side? I haven't had a chance to measure the cool side yet but I'm assuming it's somewhere in the 70s. How can I get the heat up? Do I need to buy another heat source? The mat is flush against the bottom right now and the probe is reaching up to 1"" as its set to but my inside thermometers aren't getting over 84 ever. They're just going back and fourth between 83-84

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It's the type of heat mat you are using (Ultratherm). Those mats do not put out enough heat. When I first got into reptiles I did a search on what type of UTH to use. Came across Ultratherm and thought okay... but when I set it up it wasn't providing heat temps where I needed them. Thats exactly what happen it never seem to get over 85 degrees. Maybe it's just a thing with these heat mats but not my cup of tea!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jus1More

It's the type of heat mat you are using (Ultratherm). Those mats do not put out enough heat. When I first got into reptiles I did a search on what type of UTH to use. Came across Ultratherm and thought okay... but when I set it up it wasn't providing heat temps where I needed them. Thats exactly what happen it never seem to get over 85 degrees. Maybe it's just a thing with these heat mats but not my cup of tea!!

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I personally swear by Ultratherms because you can move them around and they aren't ruined when you want to move them to another enclosure or switch the decor etc.

They aren't hot plates like the zoomed sticky ones though so you have to do things a bit differently if you want them to work out for you.

The key with using them properly in my experience is to use a larger mat than you would think you'd need, for a 20 gallon for example I have one of these mats that is basically covering just close to half of the enclosure and my thermostat set to around 82-83 degrees F giving a gradient of 78-84 degrees F from where there is no heat element to over the heat pad. I don't use hotspots however so keep that in mind if it's something that you desire.

I disagree that heat pads are useless for helping with ambient temperatures, particularly in an enclosure like an AP. I've had pretty good success with them in screen top enclosures as well as long as your room wide ambient temps aren't lower than 72 very often, however I don't ever use air conditioning so that's not something I have to compete with when it comes to keeping temps up so keep that in mind if your house is typically colder. I only had to switch to CHE when I started using 5-6 inch deep soil substrates for my bioactive setups which really renders a heatmat useless.