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!