heat mat ?

[floydzoo2009]

I've had my bp for a month now and I've had the heat mat for maybe a week longer than the snake. The mat died today! It was an ExoTerra Desert mat Large.I have/had it on a 29 gal glass tank. Has anyone else had these die after only a month of use?? I recently put it on an appliance dimmer, could that have done it?? My temps right now w/out mat on hotside are 85 and cool side about 78, heated above by a 100W red bulb. Do I need to buy another heat mat or can I just keep it this way? If I do need to get another heat mat could someone suggest one that works better and I'll be off tonight/tomorrow to get one!!thanks in advance!

[Kaorte]

I find the zoomed UTH's are a bit better. 85 is too cool for the hot spot, so you will need to get a new one.

Unfortunately, UTH's fail sometimes. I don't think the dimmer is the reason though.

[JeffJ]

a dimmer wont cause failure. if anything it would prolong the life cycle of the UTH.

[southernboagurl]

I would have to agree and go with the ZooMed UTH. And I also agree that I wouldn't think that having a dimmer on the UTH, properly hooked up, would have made it fail.

[floydzoo2009]

ok, is it possible to completely skip the UTH if you can get proper temps with just a heat lamp?I'm not only asking b/c of my earlier post but also b/c we are building custom enclosures for all of our snakes and not sure if a UTH will be able to work at all since it will be made out of wood.
The temps I posted earlier were a little incorrect.
the hot side(right under the bulb) is 95, I took a quick glance at temps before I posted earlier and realized my probe was out of direct light and sitting on the substrate, kinda in front of his hot side hide which is tall.
cool side is 82
dangling probe in middle of enclosure I'm getting around 85

[Kaorte]

I would only use lamps if you need supplemental heating. They tend to eat humidity and Ball pythons thermoregulate with heat from below, not from above. It would be more efficient to have a UTH with supplemental heat lamp to raise the ambient temp.

Why do you think a UTH wouldn't work with a wood enclosure?

[dr del]

Hi,

I take it you tested the UTH off the tank without the dimmer?

There is a level of dimming which will cause the mat to not heat up at all - so it's worth checking it isn't totally dead.

If it has died I would definately take it back to the store and ask for a replacement.


dr del

[floydzoo2009]

ok, well I'll be off to get a new heat mat then.

My hubby got it in his head to start building enclosures for the snakes, which is fine with me. I HATE glass tank enclosures, the reaching down thing, I just hate it! He built enclosures for my lizards which I adore since they have front opening doors and the snake cages will be AWESOME when they are done! I just haven't really read up anywhere how people go about heating them with UTH's. I figured I'd get around to that when the time came. It just doesn't sound safe to me b/c I've never liked the thought of UTH's anyways(too many horror stories, I guess) and this one blowing out after a month put a bad taste in my mouth for them. ah well, maybe the zoomed will help. thanks!

[Kaorte]

The only horror stories I have heard of UTH use is ones that were not used on a thermostat.

[floydzoo2009]

When I bought the mat w/out dimmer the glass was VERY hot to the touch. I've only had dimmer on it for about a week now. I was constantly re adjusting this and that b/c my temps won't stay in one place. I checked temps this morning, kinda low so I upped the dimmer. Later this afternoon, not much change upped the dimmer. went to dimmer max. nothing! so I felt the glass on bottom is was cool, lifted the tank slightly and put my finger on mat, cold. so I unplugged everything. I plugged heat mat back in w/out dimmer this time and it's been plugged for about 2 hours and barely even warm to the touch. so I'm thinking it's shot. the store I got it from only sells the exo terra ones so I'll have to bite the $15 I spent on it and go to another store to get the zoo med.