HELP - what's wrong with my heating??

[lizzylizard]

Hey all, I'm having a heating problem with one of my racks. I have a Super70 3 tub series 2 rack from Vivarium Electronics. I also bought pre-connected heat tape for it. I was very cautious to set everything up exactly as indicated. Any time the thermostat was heating, regardless of the setting, the temperatures in the top tub would end up being 90's-100+. It was a cheap on-off thermostat, so I figured it was the culprit and replaced it with a Vivarium Electronics VE-200. I placed the probe exactly as shown (close to the heat tape but not on it directly), didn't cover it with tape, and did not use aluminum tape. I set it to pulse, at 88 degrees. The temperature in the tub was 105! It's consistently a 10-15+ degree difference no matter what thermostat I use. I could set it lower to compensate, but it'd be below room temperature and wouldn't kick on at all--and I think the issue is that it's too hot when it's on, period, anyway.

I'm at a loss. Is the tape itself faulty? Is it the outlet? Am I unlucky enough to have gotten two bad thermostats in a row? What the heck is going on?

[lizzylizard]

UPDATE: I set it down to 78 for now so it would cool off and once the probe reached 82, the thermostat started clicking repeatedly...?

[Armiyana]

The clicking sound is most likely the pulse setting. It's going to turn off and on to make sure it's getting the temps where they are. Though it is a bit odd to start that at 82. Does your tStat have a cool setting? Make sure it's set to heat if it does.

This is how I have mine set up to work at keeping my snakes happy. There's probably going to be a few different opinions that pop up so see what works best for you!

Regardless of how they're set up/channeled for probes, I still tape the thermostat directly to some part of the heat tape. I don't trust it to be anywhere else and monitor it correctly, and even then, you still need to check temps from time to time.
I taped my probe to the middle of my VE 70 series. Because of the thickness of the tubs, you'll most likely need to fiddle a little bit but mine is set to 92 to keep the tub temping at 87-89 in my racks. Make sure to have that probe covered well so it won't move and also so it's not exposed to much airflow. The air can cool it off faster making the heat tape heat up higher than intended.

[lizzylizard]

The clicking sound is most likely the pulse setting. It's going to turn off and on to make sure it's getting the temps where they are. Though it is a bit odd to start that at 82. Does your tStat have a cool setting? Make sure it's set to heat if it does.

This is how I have mine set up to work at keeping my snakes happy. There's probably going to be a few different opinions that pop up so see what works best for you!

Regardless of how they're set up/channeled for probes, I still tape the thermostat directly to some part of the heat tape. I don't trust it to be anywhere else and monitor it correctly, and even then, you still need to check temps from time to time.
I taped my probe to the middle of my VE 70 series. Because of the thickness of the tubs, you'll most likely need to fiddle a little bit but mine is set to 92 to keep the tub temping at 87-89 in my racks. Make sure to have that probe covered well so it won't move and also so it's not exposed to much airflow. The air can cool it off faster making the heat tape heat up higher than intended.

I'm still fine tuning the settings, but this seems to have done the trick! Thank you so much!

[jmcrook]

I have that same rack, I don't know why they show the probe to be placed behind the heat tape at the back of the shelf on the instructions that come with it. It should go beneath the tape so the heat tape is in full contact with the tip of the probe. There's a slotted recess under the heat tape groove where the probe tip is supposed to go directly beneath the tape on any of the three levels and they have pictures of that with some of the racks on their website. Obviously don't put tape on the probe as you've said. I've also had the same clicking issue with a VE thermostat when it's 4-5-6* warmer than the set temp. Try placing the probe as I've suggested and it should resolve the issue

[Armiyana]

Awesome! I'm glad that worked for you!