Quote Originally Posted by KMG View Post
A heat mat is nothing more than two thin pieces of plastic put together with some sort of heating element in the middle.

If the OP has a tstat placing the probe on the bottom can and will work just fine. It has been done many times and sometimes we even suggest it over placing the probe in the middle if the probe is large. We do this to keep the uth in contact with the cage floor and not create a cool spot in the middle from lack of contact.

My intellitemp mats are about the same temp top and bottom and I just opened 3 unused zoo med spares and tested those and one was 12 degrees cooler on bottom another 17 degrees cooler on bottom and the last 13 degrees cooler on bottom. This was the reason I asked for the brand. I remember testing zilla, flukers, zoomed, Kane, intelltemp awhile back but couldn't find where I put my results so I decided to test a couple spares I had, unfortunately I don't have all the brands I had then. All these test I used 3 different temp guns to confirm Maybe this is the reason the thermostat let her hot spot get up to 111 degrees. Not only that but if you have a sensitive thermostat like a herpstat all it takes is a window open and cool air blowing over the exposed probe to raise the temps. This has happend a few times with my herpstat probe for the rhp when opening the cage or misting so I moved it and all is fine now. I have a dead zoomed uth I will be dissecting tomorrow to see if there is a reason the heat is more concentrated upwards instead of evenly both ways.