Flexwatt not staying steady?

[Black_Shark]

Hey all,

Well, I just bought a herpstat PRO and 3 11"X12" strips of flexwatt and its driving me nuts! The temps will not stay an exact temp but rather vary 0-4 degrees at any givin time. I know it's not the herpstat but rather the flexwatt that is causing this because of the hotspots on the tape itself. Anyone else have these problems?

* The temps aren't in the danger zone rather they vary between 90-92.5 for my BP, 83.7-87.4 for my Florida King and 83.8-85.5 for my corn.

I am not a fan of flexwatt.

Edit: Also the flexwatt is taped down in the back of the rack with the probe taped down on the flexwatt with aluminum tape.

Edit 2: These are the accurite probe thermometers that are varying btw. My temp gun usually only goes up by a degree and it is reading 89 for bp, 85 for king and 84.4 for corn. I wonder if the probe thermometers measure the pulses that the Herpstat gives off and that causes them to increase when the temp really hasnt?

[Black_Shark]

Hey all,

Well, I just bought a herpstat PRO and 3 11"X12" strips of flexwatt and its driving me nuts! The temps will not stay an exact temp but rather vary 0-4 degrees at any givin time. I know it's not the herpstat but rather the flexwatt that is causing this because of the hotspots on the tape itself. Anyone else have these problems?

* The temps aren't in the danger zone rather they vary between 90-92.5 for my BP, 83.7-87.4 for my Florida King and 83.8-85.5 for my corn.

I am not a fan of flexwatt.

Edit: Also the flexwatt is taped down in the back of the rack with the probe taped down on the flexwatt with aluminum tape.

Edit 2: These are the accurite probe thermometers that are varying btw. My temp gun usually only goes up by a degree and it is reading 89 for bp, 85 for king and 84.4 for corn. I wonder if the probe thermometers measure the pulses that the Herpstat gives off and that causes them to increase when the temp really hasnt?

Also using Aspen as my substrate with 41q tubs for the bp and king and 16q for the corn.

[kitedemon]

Are you suing an IR gun to measure the flexwatt? They will reflect off its surface a lot and also even the very best can read one degree high of correct or low of it.

That said yes being totally obsessive about such things myself I am not sure how much love I have of racks and flexwattt. The first issue is multiple pieces on a run of wire. even if every connection is perfect it still seems to drop a bit from beginning to end. I think better would be a single long strip. Even a short strip varies edge to edge and end to end (so does the UTHs and most others) Racks vary top to bottom as well just by thermal gain.

Self admitted spaz here, I ended up running probes to the top 2 tiers of the rack and bottom 3 slots and then ran a bumper pad on the bottom 2 tiers with a another probe there. Temps are now under my control and not the draft y wall's. But it makes it a complex system and uses a herpstat pro to control just a five slot rack and at that I still don't use the top and bottom slots.

I have looked at Kane pads and they are better than anything else I have tried, they have a edge that is lower than the rest but the middle bit is quite even. They had better be for they are comparatively very expensive, and not really the right sizes for a typical rack.

[snakesRkewl]

Double check connections short of that flexwatt will run a few degrees different from shelf to shelf and even on the same piece of flexwatt.

I just get the hottest spot on the flexwatt to 92 degrees and if a couple are at 90 degrees no big deal.

[SlitherinSisters]

Yeah the connects are what I would check first. It shouldn't be that big of a change. Top shelf to bottom shelf there will be a difference because heat rises. I would check your thermostat too and make sure it's not the culprit.

[Black_Shark]

Yeah the connects are what I would check first. It shouldn't be that big of a change. Top shelf to bottom shelf there will be a difference because heat rises. I would check your thermostat too and make sure it's not the culprit.

I've looked at the connections and as far as I can tell they're fine. When I ordered the 3 strips from Rich at reptilebasics.com I had him do all the connections for me along with the slips and protectors.

For the setup, I have 3 shelfs each with its own individual strip of flexwatt. # pieces of 11"x12" strips of flexwatt connected with its own probe to the herpstat. I am using all 4 outlets on my herpstat for a 3 snake rack because of the 4 heating elements I have ( if your curious, the explanation of my rack is under the thread that shelliebear made concerning temps recently)

The rack itself holds heat better than anything I've seen. Professionally made by a friend who has his own furniture business, its made out of 2 sheets of melamine put together with each shelf completely sealed off from the others. Like a bookshelf. So there is no way to run a single strip unless down the back of the rack outside of the shelves.

Now, how would I check the thermostat? It is a herpstat PRO that I just bought brand new so I would hope that its working properly. I have adjusted the power levels just as Dion recommends and have got it to the point where it goes 10%-0% constantly to maintain temps.

My roommate's 1 foot strip of flexwatt for his burm does the same thing on his herpstat pro. Goes from 88-92.

Go figure?

[Black_Shark]

Well, I called Rich at rbasics and we figured out my issue. After putting an accurite directly on the heat tape I found its rock steady so is not a heat tape nor a thermostat issue. Rather its my substrate.

I use Aspen which is acting like a blanket and causing my temps to fluctuate due to heat build-up within the tubs itself. Would also explain why I've had to set my herpstat 4-5 degrees below target temp.

So I'm switching over to paper towels/newspaper for the foreseeable future to fix this issue because when I had my bp on towels I didnt have these problems.

Sigh.... I hate paper towels.

[mpkeelee]

i have 2 foot strips on a hatchling rack i made, and the middle is always hotter than the two ends.

[Black_Shark]

i have 2 foot strips on a hatchling rack i made, and the middle is always hotter than the two ends.

Yeah, I found that out the hard way haha and my problem consisted of the temps in the tub fluctuating rather than the flexwatt itself. The flexwatt was rock steady.

[kitedemon]

Nice to see someone as nuts as I am. I still use coco coir but only about 3 cup worth it leaves large areas uncovered and the snakes shove it around the outside mostly. They also usually 'go' in the corners and edges so typically where the substrate is.

I hate paper towel too and have one very very shy snake that simply will not eat if picked up for at least 2 weeks. She is very frustrating. Rescue, when will I learn?