Herpstat II questions/help

[dahlhouse23]

Hello! We have a herpstat II that we have been using for our rack. No problems until we added a second rack and now the temps on the screen are off by alomst 10 degrees to what the two digital ones we use to check say! Not sure what to do. We e-mailed the company but I am wondering if anyone has had any similar issues and if so how they resolved it. We already double checked the probes. Thanks!

Michelle

[jason_ladouceur]

Hello! We have a herpstat II that we have been using for our rack. No problems until we added a second rack and now the temps on the screen are off by alomst 10 degrees to what the two digital ones we use to check say! Not sure what to do. We e-mailed the company but I am wondering if anyone has had any similar issues and if so how they resolved it. We already double checked the probes. Thanks!

Michelle

are both racks using the same heat tape? different tapes have different voltage so they will run at different temps with the same voltage output from the herpstat

[AndrewGeibel]

How many feet of heat tape do you have and what size is it? (I assume it is Flexwatt?) Is it possible you are trying to pull more current than the Herpstat can offer. Also, check all of the electrical connections on the heat tape. A weak connection wouldn't help.

[dahlhouse23]

Thanks! They are both 3 inch flexwatt. We currently have it set for 96 (only this high to get the belly heat up at this point....it was previously on 91 without any deviations) on both racks and the top tub (under the shavings and directly on top of where the tape is) reads 88 while the bottom tub reading is 82. I am also worried to leave it at 96 in case it decided to kick in fully sometime overnight but when it was at 91 the top tub belly heat read 79!

[AndrewGeibel]

That sounds like a weak connection to me. How do the temps compare in the two different racks? Are they both reading low?

[dahlhouse23]

Both racks are reading low with the tubs that are higher up reading higher than the ones on the bottom (they are seven tub racks with 41qt tubs).

[AndrewGeibel]

Do you have the racks on different channels? That seems odd. It's normal for the higher tubs to read hotter but the fact that both racks are running low seems like a lack of power. Do you have a multimeter so that you can measure voltage and current on each length of heat tape?

[dahlhouse23]

We have a multimeter called innova 3320 but my husband doesn't think it will work (usually for auto purposes). There is 13 ft of tape on one side and 8 ft on the other side. Each rack is on a different channel. We had no problems with it until we added the second rack (and second channel). We got the Herpstat II so we could hook up two racks to it but now I am wondering if it is worth it. Thanks for all your help! I appreciate it!

[amnesia]

I think your problem might be running two different lengths of tape.