Noob question--safest way to provide sufficient heat?

[Surrealle]

Reading through some of these other threads got me concerned about providing enough heat to my new bp safely. Is there a reason why UTH's seem to be preferred over a heat bulb? I'm worried that she's more likely to burrow and get burned on a heating pad, as opposed to a CHE bulb that would be safely outside the tank.

Can anyone clarify which is safer and more effective in a glass tank?

Thanks!

[satomi325]

Heat bulbs aren't commonly used because they destroy the humidity, which BPs require.

When a UTH is hooked up to a thermostat, it can be safe to use. If you don't have a thermostat, I would not use your UTH. A thermostat controls and regulates UTH according to pre-set temperatures. Unregulated UTH can have temperature swings up to 130 degrees, which can burn your snake. So it's important to have a thermostat to keep your UTH at a safe temperature.

[Surrealle]

Okay, thank you. My bf bought my snake's heating pad and set it up so I'm not sure what kind it is. He says it won't go over 95 degrees, but I wasn't comfortable relying on that so I bought a different heating pad and a thermostat that should arrive within a couple days.


Well here's a twist.. As I was writing this post, I got into an argument with my bf about whether I needed to buy that second heating pad. I told him the one she was on felt really hot to me, and he argued that it would never go above 95 or 100. I got frustrated and went in to show him that I couldn't touch it with my bare hands, and he grabbed the IR gun I had just gotten today. It measured 131 degrees on the glass.

So, that heating pad is gone now, and I'm happy to have a replacement en route for her tomorrow.

I'm glad I read the other thread about "conflicting advice"! You guys may have indirectly helped me save her from getting burned!

[satomi325]

Okay, thank you. My bf bought my snake's heating pad and set it up so I'm not sure what kind it is. He says it won't go over 95 degrees, but I wasn't comfortable relying on that so I bought a different heating pad and a thermostat that should arrive within a couple days.


Well here's a twist.. As I was writing this post, I got into an argument with my bf about whether I needed to buy that second heating pad. I told him the one she was on felt really hot to me, and he argued that it would never go above 95 or 100. I got frustrated and went in to show him that I couldn't touch it with my bare hands, and he grabbed the IR gun I had just gotten today. It measured 131 degrees on the glass.

So, that heating pad is gone now, and I'm happy to have a replacement en route for her tomorrow.

I'm glad I read the other thread about "conflicting advice"! You guys may have indirectly helped me save her from getting burned!

If the temp feels too hot to you, then it is absolutely too hot for your snake. Good call on your part. Human temp is pretty hot already so when something feels hot to us, its usually higher than us.

I'm glad you were able to get a thermostat. They are essential to any reptile keeping.

All of the commercial UTHs by the big names like Zoomed or Zilla can all get up to 130 even though they said it only goes to ~95.
But they can run safely when hooked up to a thermostat.

[Raven01]

Traditional heat bulbs tend to have a fairly short life. Ceramic Heat Emitters, Radiant Heat Panels, UHT's and Flexwatt/THG heat tape will have a much longer usable life span.
Long and short, the bulbs turn out to be a rather expensive way to heat. With some set-ups and animals they are handy for providing basking spots while doing dual duty in lighting as well.

[Pythonfriend]

with a good thermostat, you can run any heat source safely, independent on how much watts it has maximum.

heck, while i would advise against it, with a really good thermostat you could theoretically use a 1500 watt cooking plate capable of getting a pot of water to boil in minutes. a good thermostat can regulate anything down to 5 or 10 watts or whatever is required, even a heat stone or lightbulb.

one functionality of thermostats, or heat rocks with an internal thermostat, is not being talked about enough, and that is how exactly they fail if they fail. some fail gracefully, meaning if they fail, they fail into an off-state and go cold because there is safety added that ensures that they dont fail in the wrong way but shut off completely. some, especially old ones, do not have it, and often fail by getting stuck at 100% maximum energy output. meaning hurting the reptile or in the worst case taking a reptile down with them.

every device of every design can fail; good ones fail gracefully, meaning in a way that their failure does not cause further collateral damage. some even notify you with an alarm when they fail. for extreme examples of stuff not failing gracefully, think rockets, nuclear power plants, or bluescreens in older windows versions. or heating systems that burn your house down.

[Surrealle]

If the temp feels too hot to you, then it is absolutely too hot for your snake. Good call on your part. Human temp is pretty hot already so when something feels hot to us, its usually higher than us.

I'm glad you were able to get a thermostat. They are essential to any reptile keeping.

All of the commercial UTHs by the big names like Zoomed or Zilla can all get up to 130 even though they said it only goes to ~95.
But they can run safely when hooked up to a thermostat.

Yeah, evidently it was a Fluker's pad, and he wrote to the company after we discovered this. They'll be sending out a replacement next week. (I'm so glad I trusted my gut.. I'd been saying for days that it was getting too hot, but without a temp gun I couldn't prove it. And my bf has years of experience with reps so he thought I was just being overly cautious.)

I ordered an Ultratherm pad based on some recommendations I'd read here, and a Hydrofarm thermostat. Hopefully those will work better, and more reliably. I don't plan on using the Fluker's replacement unless it's an emergency.

[SquamishSerpents]

The new pad Flukers sends you will also hit 130, I can nearly guarantee it.

I've seen the same thing happen with both Zoo Med and Exo Terra pads, they don't care. They'll send you a new one to keep you happy, but really, they should just STOP LYING that it will only get to 96 degrees. Which, by the way, is still too hot.

Smh at these conpanies

[Surrealle]

Thanks, good to know. Like I said, I don't plan on using it unless I have no other choice (and only on a temporary basis, at that).

I'll be monitoring her temps very closely from now on, and not trusting anything written on a box or told to me by someone else over what I'm seeing and feeling for myself, that's for sure. I'm just thankful I found this out now before she got hurt. She's in pristine condition and I want to keep her that way.

[want_pet+snake]

I have both a hydrofarm and a herpstat. While the herpstat is more money, it has safety features to shut off the power if the probe becomes less than X or greater than Y. This way if the probe becomes dislodged and drops to an improbable temperature, it will not continue to supply full power. Hydrofarm lacks this luxury. I personally would consider running two hydrofarms in tandem. That way if the probe were to be dislodged, you'd still have a backup probe say poking into the enclosure as a fail safe. If the second hydrofarm is blocked by a reptile or something, it won't matter as it's only there as a backup for preventing disaster anyway, while your primary probe should be doing all the work outside of this. I am going to this system myself.

So, heat pad is plugged into hydrofarm 1, hydrofarm 1 is plugged into hydrofarm 2, hydrofarm 2 is plugged into the wall. I would not put both probes in the same place or they may become dislodged at the same time or in the same manner, but I would spread them out a bit. I've ordered all the parts to do this myself and will probably make a post in the enclosure forum after I have a chance to test it. If it works, it may offer a fairly safe method for 60$, not bad!.