UTH thermostat question

[BrandiR]

I've been afraid to bring this up, but here goes....

I've had my snake for about 8 weeks now. She was a surprise and the gifter bought a really bad enclosure on someone else's gross misinterpretation that it would work well (it was a 100% screen cage for a lizard).

I read a lot here and elsewhere and then made a trip to a really cool store in Portland (House of Reptiles) to get the proper set up (this was the day after I got her).

When I made the purchases, I inadvertantly forgot a thermostat. I was excited and we got off topic, I do that.

I realized it while setting everything up and figured I'd just get one later (but soon). I still haven't done it. I have two layers of paper towels as substrate and the probe is between the bottom of a hide and the top of the paper towels, where the snake would lay. It reads between 92* and 95* at all times.

I've read a lot more since then, so I sent an email to the owner at House of Reptiles and he said that if it's not getting too hot, I shouldn't worry about it.

I'm not trying to get out of buying a thermostat! I just want to know more. Why are my temps OK? Do I maybe have a brand of UTH that doesn't get as hot as some? Is the double paper towel layer offering "protection"? (Yes, I realize the snake could probably get under it).

Again, I'm not trying to imply that any information given here is wrong, and I'm not trying to be cheap. I'm just looking for more details.

[The Serpent Merchant]

There are a lot of different things that could be happening. The room might be cold enough to keep it in check, it might be a low output UTH, the thermometer could be wrong, the list goes on and on.

UTH's are just resistive heating elements. The longer they are on the hotter they get. A thermostat is still needed to keep your snake safe and happy.

[PitOnTheProwl]

If the room warms a little that UTH can warm up a lot.
I would check it on the glass and get at least a cheap stat to be safe.

[TheSnakeGuy]

Without some form of regulation that UTH can be very dangerous. The worst part is that if the UTH should fail, they are known to spike at nearly 140 degrees. And you won't know about it until you check and find a cooked snake and a very sad day. Aaron (TheSerpentMerchant) has a great page showing some good thermostats for all budgets. I use the HydroFarm one myself and it works just fine.

[kitedemon]

There are a lot of different UTH on the market. Some become excessively hot some not so. I don't recommending brands to do become super hot. The low density carbon heaters (ultratherm, intelliatemp, zilla so I understand, and exoterra RAINFOREST) they rarely become hotter than 100º and usually will not heat beyond 10-15º higher than ambient air temp. I would no advocate use with no thermostat but it adds a layer of safety if the pad will not get hot enough for permanent damage.