Surfing! Thermostats!

[AMBiEN22]

I have my mind made up that i really want a herpstat from spyder robotics i like the look i hear great reviews ect... This leads to me to placement of the probe! So i figured slap my UTH on the bottom set up my lamp above and put the probe directly above the UTH inside the cage. I have read in the forums now that a lot of people place it between the UTH and the cage (exterior). I feel like this would lead to my heat mat heating up to desired temp, triggering the thermometer to maintain heat or shut off. Leading to my heat lamp controlled by what i planned the same device would shut off before it reached the desired ambient air temp.

CONFUSED! =P

1) I know belly heat > ambient air temp (Not saying a warm belly and a frozen tank will work)
2) I am extremely tight on cash and want to get my snake ASAP, So what clicked in my head was if i use the thermostat for the UTH.. am i going to have to get a seperate therm or rheo for my heat lamp? cause if so i might go the cheap route on this =/

I understand i made a lot of assumptions and ran in circles here. Try to understand thought i want the perfect husbandry before i go out and purchase my snake. The last thing i want to do is stress out or do anything far worse to any animal.

[fredanthony]

If you don't mind me asking why are you using a lamp and uth? All you should need is a uth/flexwatt. The probe from the thermo (herpstat) goes on the uth. An additional thermometer/hygrometer should be used to check temps inside the container.

[AMBiEN22]

I live in the NE, NH to be exact. Its the dead of winter right now my inside temp ranges from 60-68 degrees, that being the ambient air. With the UTH i have now i cannot achieve even close to enough heat for the snake..

Not saying i am trying to heat the whole cage with a UTH, but mainly the air inside the house is so frigid compared to the 90 degrees i need that the UTH cannot heat up enough and stay hot enough with the cold temps so a heat land and custom insulation i made should work.

[fredanthony]

I see. Ideally in that case you should have a separate thermostat for the lamp. What you could do, not the best but if your thermo is rated high enough, you could hook up a multi outlet extension cord to the thermostat then hookup your lamp and uth to the extension cord. Put the prob inside the tank preferable just under where the snake would be to measure temps. Most important thing here is for it not to get burnt. This would accomplish both goals, it will shut off uth and lamp and measure ambient temps. Again not the best way but in a pinch it will work..

[AMBiEN22]

Last thing i want is a burnt snake. I really like the herpstat but the more and more i think about it i am going to buy a 110 dollar thermostat for a 15 dollar UTH? Feel like buying a repti temp 500r would achieve the same thing if i cannot even hook more than once device up too it. Or what i should say is two separate devices.

Hmmmm who knows lots and lots to think about i am just glad i didn't impulse buy the snake. Glad i am smarter than that and trouble shoot his home first ;D

[Sarin]

Buy the Herpstat for the UTH.. You won't regret it. They're expensive but compeltely worry-free.

Just buy a dimmer for your lamp and get a temp gun. Just fiddle with the light dimmer until you get desired ambient temperature.

[TomC]

I have a Helix on my UTH and just a lamp dimmer from Lowes on my light. That has worked really well for me. My room runs about 70 and I keep my hot 90-92 and my cold 78-82. As long as the room temp is relatively consistent it does not take much adjusting at all.

[AMBiEN22]

So i have found a solution to my problems! this is what i plan to do! Going to stress test my UTH i have now see how hot it can get if its a sissy its being replaced buy a expensive UNWIRED herpstat ranco or some thermometer for my UTH. As for the heat lamp i plan to get a 100watt red bulb lamp for the tank! This will be monitored by a Zoomed 500r!

IN THEORY this should work! So the UTH will be controlled by the thermostat with low error providing superior belly heat! The ambient temps will be controlled by reptitemp 500r thermostat so i do not have to adjust the rheostat or dimmer constantly, the bulb more than powerful enough for ten gallon. Also i have an accurite temp and humidity digital that i will place on my cool side to take measurements of the heat their. My probed stick on thermometer will track the hot side ambient temp and my nice thermostat will keep track of the heat of the UTH.

Also a temp gun will be purchased!

Final costs? thinking about atleast 200 hundred ish. Gotta do some pricing around and determine who sells un-wired products ect.

I have seen zoo med 500r thermostat go as low as 30 dollars. expect the bulb and lamp shad to run me another 20ish. so that's 50 their. Expect the thermostat un-wired to run around 50-80 dollars.

[jason221]

Why do you want an unwired thermostat?

[AMBiEN22]

So i can save money and just wire it myself =P save like 20 dollars+++