Temp Gun vs. Thermostat

[Lina]

Hello, everyone. I'm new to the forum and I'm also a new baby ball python owner so I've been going kind of crazy worrying. I apologize in advance that this post is long. I tried to include any information that you might find useful.

I set up his cage before he arrived on Tuesday with a heat pad under my 10 gallon terrarium and hooked that up to a thermostat. I set it to 93 degrees as I heard the warm spots are in the range of 88 - 96 degrees. The way I had seen thermostats set up in videos and read in the instructions of the one I got, was to put the probe inside the cage into the substrate. I learned later that this was a mistake. I then taped the probe on the underside of the terrarium to make contact with the heat pad. Wanting still to know what the temperature of the actual substrate was, I purchased a temp gun (thermostat still set to 93) and found that the middle of the warm spot in my ball python's hide was 100 degrees! I feel terrible. It's been about three days being like this and he spent the first day outside beside it. He spends more time on the cool side.

I went back to the drawing board and messed around with the thermostat and my temp gun. Here are the results:

Thermostat set to 87, turns on again at 85
Trial 1:
On thermostat 85 degrees, my temp gun read 88-89 in the general/middle area of the hide with 90-91 in the back.
At 87 degrees, gun read 90-91 with 89 degrees where the inside edges of the hide are. Should I concern myself with the edges?
Trial 2 was the same but the edges being 1 degree cooler.

Thermostat set to 88, turns on again at 86
Trial 1:Thermostat 86, temp gun 89-90 in middle area. Edges 88.
Thermostat 88, temp gun 92 - 94.
Trial 2:At 86, gun 90-92.
At 88, gun 90 - 93.

So should I trust my temp gun over my thermostat? They are both new. Shouldn't the temperature be hotter outside on the heat pad rather than inside on the substrate? Is it because of the glass? The thermostat probe is touching the pad on its tip instead of laying completely flat on it, so maybe this is why it's reading the way it is? I don't know if this makes a difference but I also have a paper towel underneath the substrate which I saw was recommended here in case a ball python digs to the glass. Currently, I have the thermostat set to 88. Inside the hide, temp gun still reads in the 90-93 range.

[BPGator]

The heat pad temperature varies across its surface. Your thermostat probe can only sense the temperature at a specific point. Your temp gun can take the temp at multiple points. So both are correct and what you've done is correct. My only additional advice would be to make sure the temp your taking with your temp gun is at the bottom of the substrate, not the top.


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[Lina]

The heat pad temperature varies across its surface. Your thermostat probe can only sense the temperature at a specific point. Your temp gun can take the temp at multiple points. So both are correct and what you've done is correct. My only additional advice would be to make sure the temp your taking with your temp gun is at the bottom of the substrate, not the top.


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Oh, ok. Thank you so much. That clears up a lot of what I was confused about.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You need to trust both.

The thermostat setup does not mean it is the temp that will be read in the enclosure, sometimes it is however most of the time the t-stat will be set a little higher than what the temperature you will read in your enclosure. You have to take in consideration the distance of the between UTH and enclosure, thickness of the enclosure etc

So it is normal to have different reading between both, your goal is to play around and see what setting on your T-stat allows you to provide the proper temp in your enclosure.

And as mentioned temps on UTH will not be uniform but should remain within a few degrees.

[Lina]

Thank you very much. Hopefully I've set them both correctly.

[audioclass]

I'd also like to note that some of the really cheap temp guns are exactly that....CHEAP. I bought one at walmart and one day it would read 82F and the next it would read mid 90s while my accurite held steady, which is fine if you are using it to measure stuff under the hood of your car, but not so great when you are trying to match stuff to within a degree. I bought a nice Fluke 62 temp gun and have had MUCH more consistent readings, usually within .5deg of what my thermostat is set to with my RHP (UTHs are a different story, since the temperature changes through the surface they are heating). This comes at a price of course, $50+ vs $10-15. For me though, a little more money is an easy trade for safer husbandry.

In addition to the gun you have, which seems to be measuring a "normal" gradient across the surface, put your hand on the surface. If it feels more than just slightly warm it is too hot, and if it feels hot anywhere, its WAY too hot.

If you know you can rely on your temp gun, simply experiment with different settings on your thermostat until the surface(with a UTH) of your enclosure holds steady at the right temps. If you measure the substrate it might be too hot when your snake pushes all the substrate around.

[Lina]

I'd also like to note that some of the really cheap temp guns are exactly that....CHEAP. I bought one at walmart and one day it would read 82F and the next it would read mid 90s while my accurite held steady, which is fine if you are using it to measure stuff under the hood of your car, but not so great when you are trying to match stuff to within a degree. I bought a nice Fluke 62 temp gun and have had MUCH more consistent readings, usually within .5deg of what my thermostat is set to with my RHP (UTHs are a different story, since the temperature changes through the surface they are heating). This comes at a price of course, $50+ vs $10-15. For me though, a little more money is an easy trade for safer husbandry.

In addition to the gun you have, which seems to be measuring a "normal" gradient across the surface, put your hand on the surface. If it feels more than just slightly warm it is too hot, and if it feels hot anywhere, its WAY too hot.

If you know you can rely on your temp gun, simply experiment with different settings on your thermostat until the surface(with a UTH) of your enclosure holds steady at the right temps. If you measure the substrate it might be too hot when your snake pushes all the substrate around.

When I touch the substrate under the hide it feels only slightly warmer than the rest of the substrate. Not hot or really that warm to me.

[audioclass]

When I touch the substrate under the hide it feels only slightly warmer than the rest of the substrate. Not hot or really that warm to me.

You should be touching the surface of the enclosure, not the substrate. They can and will burrow under it.


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[Lina]

Yes, I did that as well. Both surfaces seem to feel the same with not much difference. I also took the temperature below it as BPGator suggested to be safe. It's good he's not sleeping in that hide so I could check.