Uth?

[ac5202002]

I brought this up last week and it's about to drive me crazy. I have 3 balls, 3 tanks, 3 Accurite Termometers with probes. One tank is using heat tape with a thermostat, have it set at 92 and on my thermometer is only reading 81 degrees. On the second tank, I have an exo terra heat mat on a dimmer, with a temp of around 84 degrees and the dimmer will not work with it. On the third tank (which is killing me), I have a zoo med with a dimmer as low as it can go with a temp of around 108 degrees. Please tell me why this is. I tried both the zoo med and exo terra with the thermostat and neither one would adjust. Help please.

[Crawdad]

Different UTH run at different wattages, with different resistance, and some run hotter than the others. Also, quality control doesn't seem to be very good with a lot of these mass produced reptile products.


Regarding the thermostat, which are you using, and where is the thermostat's probe placed? As long as you trust your thermometers, it doesn't matter that the thermostat says -- you heat based on the thermometer readout, not the thermostat, as they tend to be less accurate -- the cheaper ones in particular.

Sounds like you have a bad dimmer too, by the way. I have a ZooMed dimmer too (probably the same as yours) and it is a pile of crap, I wish I had just taken it back.

[ac5202002]

The thermostat is a BAH-1000, got it and the flexwatt tape off of BigApple's website and the probes are all on top of the substrate (cypress).

[Kaorte]

The BAH is kinda junky.

Are you sure you are using your dimmers right? Plug them into a normal light (not a CFL, those will explode if you dim them) and see if the dimmer works on the lights.

The probe for the thermostat should be OUTSIDE of the tank right on the heat tape. The probes for the thermometers should be under the substrate on the glass where the heating source is.

[BP-NJ]

Sorry, another noob here--the thermostat should be on the outside? I thought it should be placed inside, on the floor above the UTH like the thermometer probe. Wouldn't it be working with the wrong temp if on the outside? Thanks, I just want to be sure I'm doing this correctly.

[Kaorte]

Sorry, another noob here--the thermostat should be on the outside? I thought it should be placed inside, on the floor above the UTH like the thermometer probe. Wouldn't it be working with the wrong temp if on the outside? Thanks, I just want to be sure I'm doing this correctly.

No. if it is in the inside the snake can move the probe or pee on it causing the thermostat to get a false reading and just crank the temp up.

Put it on the outside and adjust it in order to get a temp of 90-92* on the inside of the tank. You might have to put the thermostat higher than 92* to get the right temperature.

[BOWSER11788]

hijacked again, i didn't know you keep the probe, uon the outside of the bottem, wow, i have mine under the newspaper, and he doesn't move it, but i will change it tomorrow

[Crawdad]

Put it on the outside and adjust it in order to get a temp of 90-92* on the inside of the tank. You might have to put the thermostat higher than 92* to get the right temperature.

OP, Kaorte has it right -- it doesn't really matter at all what the thermostat is set on, as long as the temperature at the hot spot is within range. The BAH you have is just about as inaccurate as my 500R. I have to turn the dial on mine to max to get it to hold 91-93f temps at the hot spot.

Be sure you secure the probe to the underside of the heating element with something like aluminum tape, otherwise the heat will eventually negatively effect the glue and the thermostat probe will fall, leading to snake burns.