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  1. #1
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    Question What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?

    Hey everyone! I was just wondering where everyone puts their UTH thermostat probe? This isn't to get a "what's better than what" or anything like that, this is just for people's personal experiences!

    I myself have my UTH probe set up I guess a bit odd from everyone else. I like accuracy more than anything, so when I first got my UTH and the thermostat probe, and up until a few months ago, I had used 100% silicone to attach the probe on the bottom of the inside of the enclosure, the UTH being on the outside. I set the thermostat to 90° and thought that I was good. However, I noticed that the top of his substrate was cooler. I didn't have a temp gun at the time, but I figured "Hey, this isn't right" so I reached out to a Facebook Ball Python group and was informed by the group admin that the probe should be set on top of the substrate to get an accurate reading. I was a bit confused and I asked "What if my ball moved the probe or if his cooler body temperature happened to effect the pobe's reading?" and I didn't get a straight answer, just a bunch of "Why would that happen?" ect ect. So, to experiment just for the day, I moved the probe to the top of the substrate. Within an hour, both the thermostat and my temp gun were reading 90°F and the probe hadn't moved. So, I thought I was good and I turned in for the night.

    Well, I woke up in the middle of the night that night perchance and turned on my lamp and looked over to my ball pythons enclosure to see that the thermostat was reading 83°. I was very confused and got up to check with the temp gun. It was reading over 100°! My ball had been on a late night exploration and moved the probe and he was still in his warm hide! I immediately went and grabbed him, luckily he had no burns. I readjusted the probe and placed my ball python in a holding bin I placed him in when I cleaned out his enclosure and I immediately went to planning as to how I could get accurate readings without him moving the probe.

    Then, I came up with a diy idea and immediately went to work. I took his warm hide, some parchment paper, and some hot glue and silicone, and went to work. I essentially made an anchor the size of his warm hide that would be lightly covered by substrate and have the probe reinforced attached with Silicone and hot glue, and that thing wasn't moving. I waited till the entire thing was dry so that the fumes were gone and I placed it into his enclosure.

    So far, so good! I'm now getting accurate readings with both the thermostat and the temp gun and the probe hasn't moved! Hopefully this anchor holds up, but it's an easy fix if it doesn't! Easy to clean too.

    Let me hear your stories!

  2. #2
    BPnet Royalty KMG's Avatar
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    The people who told you to put it on top of the substrate were flat wrong. A probe can easily be moved, urinated on, and have a water bowl spilled on it causing the tstat to overheat the UTH.

    The substrate over the UTH should be thin. You can see most of my UTH in my glass tank it is so thin. I then put the hide over it so from the outside it looks good to my eye. The Ball in there does not care.

    The Tstat probe should be outside the cage and stuck to the UTH. I stick mine using aluminum duct tape. Holds well and works well with heat. There are times the probe needs to be inside but it is not while using a UTH.
    Last edited by KMG; 05-27-2020 at 02:45 PM.
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  4. #3
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    Re: What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?

    Quote Originally Posted by Nyogirl View Post
    Hey everyone! I was just wondering where everyone puts their UTH thermostat probe? This isn't to get a "what's better than what" or anything like that, this is just for people's personal experiences!

    I myself have my UTH probe set up I guess a bit odd from everyone else. I like accuracy more than anything, so when I first got my UTH and the thermostat probe, and up until a few months ago, I had used 100% silicone to attach the probe on the bottom of the inside of the enclosure, the UTH being on the outside. I set the thermostat to 90° and thought that I was good. However, I noticed that the top of his substrate was cooler. I didn't have a temp gun at the time, but I figured "Hey, this isn't right" so I reached out to a Facebook Ball Python group and was informed by the group admin that the probe should be set on top of the substrate to get an accurate reading. I was a bit confused and I asked "What if my ball moved the probe or if his cooler body temperature happened to effect the pobe's reading?" and I didn't get a straight answer, just a bunch of "Why would that happen?" ect ect. So, to experiment just for the day, I moved the probe to the top of the substrate. Within an hour, both the thermostat and my temp gun were reading 90°F and the probe hadn't moved. So, I thought I was good and I turned in for the night.

    Well, I woke up in the middle of the night that night perchance and turned on my lamp and looked over to my ball pythons enclosure to see that the thermostat was reading 83°. I was very confused and got up to check with the temp gun. It was reading over 100°! My ball had been on a late night exploration and moved the probe and he was still in his warm hide! I immediately went and grabbed him, luckily he had no burns. I readjusted the probe and placed my ball python in a holding bin I placed him in when I cleaned out his enclosure and I immediately went to planning as to how I could get accurate readings without him moving the probe.

    Then, I came up with a diy idea and immediately went to work. I took his warm hide, some parchment paper, and some hot glue and silicone, and went to work. I essentially made an anchor the size of his warm hide that would be lightly covered by substrate and have the probe reinforced attached with Silicone and hot glue, and that thing wasn't moving. I waited till the entire thing was dry so that the fumes were gone and I placed it into his enclosure.

    So far, so good! I'm now getting accurate readings with both the thermostat and the temp gun and the probe hasn't moved! Hopefully this anchor holds up, but it's an easy fix if it doesn't! Easy to clean too.

    Let me hear your stories!
    I sandwich the probe in between my UTH and the glass (outside of the enclosure). They tend to burrow anyway.
    /chris

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  5. #4
    BPnet Senior Member jmcrook's Avatar
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    Re: What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?




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  7. #5
    Telling it like it is! Stewart_Reptiles's Avatar
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    The probe should be sandwiched between the heat source and the enclosure and not inside the enclosure as it can be dislodge, or cool down by large amount of urine or water dish being tipped over making the temperatures shoot up.
    Deborah Stewart


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  9. #6
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    Re: What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?

    I think that no matter how you wanna do it, be sure to secure the probe, and make sure to factor out possible temperature changes, like urates. You could do this by isolating the probe, or do daily checks. Either way, have a method of security and daily monitoring.

    The reason why I think it doesn’t really matter how aside from what I’ve just stated, is because your thermostat can change settings! If it’s outside the enclosure you’ll have to set it around 96 to get it to 90 inside the enclosure(for example). If your probe is inside then you set it to 92, so that you can get 90 above the substrate(for example).

    I think choice of where to put the probe is based on personal choice. Above the substrate is risky but maybe you have a way to secure it and check on it regularly so that it’s being monitored, and have been able to maintain accurate temperatures then great.

    And sure, some methods are better, or easier than others, but I think as long as your method works for you, then keep doing you.

  10. #7
    BPnet Royalty KMG's Avatar
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    Re: What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?

    Quote Originally Posted by Faith.luu View Post
    I think that no matter how you wanna do it, be sure to secure the probe, and make sure to factor out possible temperature changes, like urates. You could do this by isolating the probe, or do daily checks. Either way, have a method of security and daily monitoring.

    The reason why I think it doesn’t really matter how aside from what I’ve just stated, is because your thermostat can change settings! If it’s outside the enclosure you’ll have to set it around 96 to get it to 90 inside the enclosure(for example). If your probe is inside then you set it to 92, so that you can get 90 above the substrate(for example).

    I think choice of where to put the probe is based on personal choice. Above the substrate is risky but maybe you have a way to secure it and check on it regularly so that it’s being monitored, and have been able to maintain accurate temperatures then great.

    And sure, some methods are better, or easier than others, but I think as long as your method works for you, then keep doing you.
    I can not agree with you. You have nothing to gain from putting the probe inside the cage for a UTH.

    So you have to turn the tstat up a bit to get your desired temp.....that's normal with many heat devices. Heat is lost with distance. The longer the distance needed to travel the more you will need to ramp it up. This is why the substrate should be really thin. Then you do not have to ramp up the temp trying to get through a inch and half of mulch. Plus, the snake can easily burrow down to the UTH and move both the substrate and probe. My Ball roots around fairly often digging up the plants I have in there and moving things around.

    You should also not cover the probe itself and tape just behind the probe on the wire. Doing it this way the snake could easily coil around it and lift the probe off. If this happens the probe will ramp the temp up and if the snake stays there long enough you could be dealing with a burned snake.

    Google pics of burned snakes and see if you still believe it is worth it to place the probe inside the cage to save a few degrees in the settings of a tstat.
    Last edited by KMG; 05-27-2020 at 03:45 PM.
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  12. #8
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    Re: What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?

    Quote Originally Posted by Faith.luu View Post
    I think that no matter how you wanna do it, be sure to secure the probe, and make sure to factor out possible temperature changes, like urates. You could do this by isolating the probe, or do daily checks. Either way, have a method of security and daily monitoring.

    The reason why I think it doesn’t really matter how aside from what I’ve just stated, is because your thermostat can change settings! If it’s outside the enclosure you’ll have to set it around 96 to get it to 90 inside the enclosure(for example). If your probe is inside then you set it to 92, so that you can get 90 above the substrate(for example).

    I think choice of where to put the probe is based on personal choice. Above the substrate is risky but maybe you have a way to secure it and check on it regularly so that it’s being monitored, and have been able to maintain accurate temperatures then great.

    And sure, some methods are better, or easier than others, but I think as long as your method works for you, then keep doing you.
    I have to disagree. Thermostat probe between UTH and glass is the easiest way to do it. You do not have to worry about urates or temperature fluctuations which can literally cause neurological issues and burns. Its not about if the method works for you- its about the method that works best for your SNAKE.
    vivi

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  14. #9
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    Re: What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?

    Okay, let me make some things clear: I was told the information by a man who's kept ball pythons for longer than I've been alive, so he's faced the issues and he's told me what he has worked best. He encountered someone in the group who sandwiched his probe in between the UTH and the glass and had the thermostat set on 120° to get a 90° reading and that made him panic, and it made me panic too. I don't personally like having two different numbers going on just to hope that my snake is going to be okay. I'd rather have two similar numbers, but that's just me.

    My ball python rarely ever uses his warm hide as a bathroom, normally he goes outside the hide to relieve himself, and if he does use his warm hide, he never stays in it and always waits until I clean and makes sure it's properly disinfected before he goes back in. I only have a UTH on his warm side and his water dish is on his cool side and it's heavy enough that he can't tip it over.

    The way I have this set up with the hot glue mat, which isn't a full sheet, but does have spaces so heat can sleep up, the probe is not being able to be moved or readjusted by my snake and he is unable to borrow into his substrate. I check it almost hourly when I'm at home and first thing in the morning and right before I got to bed just to make sure it hasn't moved or any temperature fluctuations or anything like that. My ball is actually fairly good at thermoregulating himself.

    I plan on updating and upgrading as soon as I can, but until all this hectic stuff calms down some, I'm stuck with this. Compared to January-March this year when I first had him, this is an upgrade as I'm now able to ensure right temperatures. When I first got him and I didn't have a temperature gun, my probe was placed at the bottom of the enclosure under a thin layer of substrate and it was cold under there and as soon as I got my temp gun, I saw that the top of that thin substrate was only in the upper 70s low 80s while the thermostat was set at 90. Right now, only one spot of his hide, where the probe is at, reads 90 and the rest is in the upper 80s and he usually stays in the back of his hide instead of the center, so he usually experiences 86-88 most of the time, but he will move over the probe if he feels the need to get warmer. If he wants to get cooler, he'll go over to his cooler hide till he deems necessary.

    I wasn't trying to cause a hectic moment. I was just asking for everyone else's experiences and then stating my own. I feel like if I stated that I've been using Aspen bedding, which I plan on changing ASAP, and I've had humidity levels in 60%-70% without misting and making sure the bedding is bone dry and mold free and I've had perfect sheds and meal acceptances from my ball (except when he's in shed or something seems wrong with the rodent, which has only happened a couple of times where the rodent's stomach popped upon him striking and coiling it and he dropped it afterwards), I'd get critiqued on somehow in some way. I plan on making changes, I really do, but I wasn't asking for a full blown critique, not that I can't handle it.

    I was just stating my experience and that was it. I'm not claiming that what I'm doing is correct or anything, and I know I need to make some changes and I plan on doing so, but if anything I was sharing how I overcame the issue of "the probe will be moved" situation, which is exactly what I asked the experienced keeper in the first place that he didn't answer me on and exactly what I experienced that first night. So far, almost three months later, I haven't had a situation, but as soon as I do, I'll resolve it, that can be assured.

  15. #10
    BPnet Senior Member jmcrook's Avatar
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    Re: What is Your Opinions on Where You Put Your UTH Thermostat Probe?

    Quote Originally Posted by Nyogirl View Post
    So far, almost three months later, I haven't had a situation, but as soon as I do, I'll resolve it, that can be assured.
    The alternative option is to set up your UTH and thermostat probe correctly from the outset. Then there is no chance of an issue short of a hardware malfunction, and necessarily, no need to resolve it.


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