Rack Temps

I have a CB70 rack from RBI, can anyone tell me why my temps in the top rack are always different from the middle and bottom one? For instance, right now my top hot side is 84 and cold is 79 while the bottom and middle are both at 89 hot and 84 cold?

I would have thought the top would have been the hottest. I have a Helix thermostat set at 94 and am using a Ranco as backup set at 96, I also have a temp probe set right next to the Helix probe and that reads 96 and for whatever reason even before I purchased the backup t-stat the digital temp gauge always read 1-2 degrees higher than what the Helix was set at.

All probes are taped directly to the heat tape just to the right of the top tub and temp were measured with a heat gun from inside the hides.

Any ideas?

ETA: I am using aspen as substrate and it is as evenly layed throughout the tubs as I could have got it, if that makes a difference.

The top tubs are warmer as heat rises.( Thats why I use a ceiling fan) There is either less heat cable than the lower tubs, or a bad flexwatt section. Look for a dead spot in the cable or flexwatt.

I checked the flexwatt with the temp gun and the hottest spot on the top 101, middle 106, and bottom was 110. Is this supposed to be like that? Am I measuring wrong? What I did notice was the middle and bottom rack have flexwatt lined on the side where the top is just lined on the bottom.

If your probes are on the heat tape directly then your flexwatt should not be reaching the 100 degree plus range because you only have your thermostat set to 94. Your heat tape should never get hotter than what you have your T-Stat set to. I would re-check your probe placement and make sure its taped down real well, you may also want to place your probe in the middle of your rack to help you get a more even temp spread among your tubs.

Put the probe on the center most section of the middle rack on the tape.

Thanks for all the replies so far, I appreciate the help.

Should I tape over the entire probe? Right now I just have the tip of the probe showing and if I tape the probe to the center won't I have problems with the tub rubbing it when I open and close it?

I would make sure you have the probe completely covered aginst the flexwatt with tape. You don't want it exposed to the air, only the flexwatt. I would personally not put it in the middle because like you said the tub could rub the probe off and then you could have cooked snakes. I have my probe off to the side on the heat tape and have no problems.

RBI has two little bars on top of their heat tape which is also lower than the shelf, so the tub does not come into contact with the flexwatt. I put mine directly in the middle with great results.

I completely covered the probe with tape and still my temp read over 100 on the flexwatt. Really not sure what else I can do. I really don't see what else I could be doing wrong.

Try one T-Stat at a time and see if you can isolate your problem to either of the Thermostats. If both thermostats on their own are having the same problem then I would think its the heat tape thats acting improperly.

i have the same rack and use a ranco tstat and always notice that the bottom 2 tubs are hotter than the top one.

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Originally Posted by raphymartinez

i have the same rack and use a ranco tstat and always notice that the bottom 2 tubs are hotter than the top one.

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I think it's pretty weird. My bottom two hides always read 89 taken from inside the hide and the top is always at 85-86.

Have you tried anything to fix it? I don't think I am going to mess with it anymore. The snakes eat well and the snake in the top rack just shed all in one piece so I think they are doing ok.

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Originally Posted by CaneCorso

I think it's pretty weird. My bottom two hides always read 89 taken from inside the hide and the top is always at 85-86.

Have you tried anything to fix it? I don't think I am going to mess with it anymore. The snakes eat well and the snake in the top rack just shed all in one piece so I think they are doing ok.

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I'm having similar issues with my 32 QT RBI rack right now. The temps were doing fine for me for a while but now that the winter is coming and the ambient temps have gone down a bit in my room I've noticed that the rack seems to have a hard time getting up over 87 degrees on the top but the bottom will be a toasty 93-94. I'm gonna try messing around with it tonight. I want to get this fixed soon because I'm going to be adding another one of the racks on top of it Thursday so I want to have everything regulated. I think what I might do is just have the very middle rack empty and set the probe inside the tub on top of a layer of newspaper. That should allow me to just set the temp I want all the tubs to be at and leave it but we'll see. I'll experiment with that on the empty rack before I try it.

Definately let us know how you make out with that. I was wondering if the aspen had something to do with it but I doubt it since the bottom two are spot on. Mine has been like this since I plugged it in.

I was having the same issue with my ambient room temps dropping since it has gotten chilly here at night. I went to Home depot and bought a small electric oil heater for about 35 bucks and my snake room is nice and toasty. My cold side reads 82-83 since I bought the space heater. If I had to do it over again I would have spent a little more money and bought a space heater with a thermostat already on it, mine only has low, med, and high with a number dial to set the temp.

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Originally Posted by CaneCorso

Definately let us know how you make out with that. I was wondering if the aspen had something to do with it but I doubt it since the bottom two are spot on. Mine has been like this since I plugged it in.

I was having the same issue with my ambient room temps dropping since it has gotten chilly here at night. I went to Home depot and bought a small electric oil heater for about 35 bucks and my snake room is nice and toasty. My cold side reads 82-83 since I bought the space heater. If I had to do it over again I would have spent a little more money and bought a space heater with a thermostat already on it, mine only has low, med, and high with a number dial to set the temp.

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Yeah I actually have a nice little electric space heater with a built in t-stat going in my room but it's so damn drafty in there that it's working overtime just to keep the room around 75. I'm trying to find a way to seal the room up a lot better so I can trap some heat (it's my bedroom too so it would be very nice to have a nice toasty room.)

If the flexwatt strips are connected in parallel then there is a chance they could be putting out different amounts of heat, even if they are the same length. The resistances could vary slightly causing the flexwatt with lower resistance to output more heat. Take an ohmmeter and measure the resistance of each individual strip of flexwatt.

If they are connected in series then this isn't the problem.

we had the same problem when we first got our rack set up with flexwatt. The temps were readign up to 107. We figured out it was because the edge of the flexwatt, where we had the probe placed, was much cooler than the center. So when that reached 94, the center was at like 110 or something! So we moved the probe to the center and taped it down and now the temps range from 88 on the top tub, and 93 on the bottom tub. We just have to be careful when taking out the middle tub (where the probe it). we lift it up kind of so it doesn't hit the probe. Hope this helped :D