Quote Originally Posted by RichL View Post
If it takes that long to heat up, i would think that it would drop a bit more like you listed.. The on/off thermostat should be fine, I would probably use the flexwatt instead though.

My $.02
The thing I like about the UTH pads over the flexwatt is that I have tested them and they do get hot enough and above, and I have tried running them full blast all night and while they do get hot to the point the snake can be very unconfortable if the t-stat fails, they do not melt the tubs nor start a fire. My friend said I should get something hotter as the weather is only slightly cool now and he said that I should get something that will be hot enough when the weather gets a little cooler but not cold enough to warrant heating the room yet.

Also I like them because they not only are more sturdy with heavier plastic laminating, but they also come with a free protective cover, that has aluminium on the bottom and plastic sheet on top to prevent scratching. THey are a lot more expensive though, more than 10 times the cost of the flexwatt almost.

I don't like the fact that they are all separate wires though, which is messy and also if one pad fails and your t-stat isn't monitoring that one, then...

I don't know if the flexwatt will as I haven't tested it yet. Actually I am not living in the USA and everything is different. When I say flexwatt it is the same product but manufactured by a korean company. It is 67W/M which works out to be about 20W/foot for 11 inch wide, so about the same as flexwatt.

What I don't understand is that if you calculate it the wattage/size area it isn't that much higher than the UTH, the UTH is 15cm X 28cm which is about half the size of the 11 inch flexwatt per foot. It is 7W. So, that size of the flexwatt would be 10W or so. How much hotter is 10W over 7W for the same size??? Yet, I am scared of flexwatt from all the stories I read online and warnings etc., but it's only 3W over the power of the Ultratherm type heat pad, which I have tested and is no where NEAR the ability to cause any real danger.

The UTHs do have a rheostat attached to them though, but I turned them up to full blast. I wonder if even at full blast, that the rheostat somehow decreases the temps/wattage a little bit?