Yep, yet another thermostat thread! Thanks for bearing with me.
I have kept all my bps over the years in display caging until recently, but a growing collection caused us to buy our first rack recently at Repticon show. It's a nice 5 shelf rack made of 1/2 black PVC board with 28qt tubs by C Serpents for some of our new sub-adults (http://www.cserpents.com/C_Serpents/Sub-Adult.html). It came with 3 inch flexwatt and a Zilla thermostat, probe placed on middle shelf to one side where rack manufacturer showed us to place it with the supplied aluminum tape. I expected to tinker with overall room temp as well as thermostat setting to achieve proper temps inside the tubs, but am still really struggling. I want warm ends of all tubs to run 88-92 but can't seem to get them there. Decided to go for better quality and upgrade to a Herpstat 4 when they went on sale (it arrived yesterday!) then try to start over and address everything here better. Here are my setup details and concerns:
I read every tub's temps at least twice daily with both an infrared laser temp gun and a secondary older backup thermometer with wired temp probes. There is usually a 10 degree difference from tub to tub which alarms me. The top-most tub is always the very coolest. Temps right now today ranging between 83 and 97, cool ends all around 75-80. The room this rack is in is a small west-facing room with other herps and heating devices...so it holds a decent ambiant room temperature. I have had to run the flexwatt at least 98 ALL the time to achieve any normal warmth in the upper tubs....but think that my lower tubs are much too warm from it and worry since flexwatt isn't safe being pushed to its upper threshhold temps all the time. My temp gun's readings are also always at least 5-10 degrees off of the thermostat's setting, but I kind of expect that and know that can vary a lot with probe placement and overall heat transfer/ dissipation. Probe for new Herpstat 4 is now placed on the flexwatt of middle shelf to one side where tub doesn't run over it, secured with duct tape just below the probe, but not covering any of the probe itself per manufacturer's instructions NOT to use aluminum tape or cover probe itself.
My questions are:
1) Is this 10 degree tub-to-tub temp fluctuation normal in racks? Any way to reduce that wide range so I'm not chillling some animals and cooking others?
2) Do I have proper probe placement for the Herpstat probe? Will the readings be more accurate given that the probe is no longer covered/secured with aluminum tape as previously set up?
3) If I am still am unable to keep temps up without running flexwatt over 95, should I add a room/space heater? Kinda planning on this....
Open to all advice and suggestions you're willing to take the time to give. Thanks in advance.
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