Question about UTHs.

[CGuzmanReptiles]

Hey everyone I live in Puerto Rico and temps here are 85-90f year round so I was wondering if an UTH is really needed for my snakes since temps here are naturally perfect for them?

Thanks!

[The Serpent Merchant]

How temperatures area created doesn't matter as long as the hot side is between 88-92 year round and the cool side is between 78-82 year round.

My guess is that you will need supplemental heat at least part of the year.

Just make sure that if you use a under tank heating pad that you regulate it with a thermostat and monitor it with a probed thermometer.

[CGuzmanReptiles]

Right now I have my UTH plugged into the thermostat and I'm measuring my temps with a probed thermometer and it makes honestly no difference what so ever. PR is a tropical island. It never gets cold so temps are always 80+ except for summer that gets hotter.

[The Serpent Merchant]

Any time that the temperature dips below 88 your UTH will be useful. Just because the temperatures stay in the safe range doesn't meant that they are ideal.

What are you using for substrate and how thick is it?

[CGuzmanReptiles]

That makes sense so I'm going to keep using my heater.
I'm using reptibark and its about 2 1/2 inches deep.

[The Serpent Merchant]

That might be part of why you think that your UTH isn't doing anything. UTH's can't heat through that thick of a substrate layer. You need to thin out your substrate layer to 1/2" thick or less.

[CGuzmanReptiles]

Will do.
By the way should I put the thermometers probe inside on top of the uth or outside?

[The Serpent Merchant]

The thermometer probe goes inside the cage. Either directly on the glass above the UTH, or on top of the substrate layer directly over the UTH. (inside the cage)

The thermostat probe should be sandwiched between the bottom of the tank and the UTH itself. (outside the cage)

[C.Lantigua]

I live in PR too and I found it easier to get a cool spot in the house that has the least things that will affect temp(windows, AC, water heaters, etc) so it wont get too hot, and use the UTH with the thermostat so it wont get too cold... you know here in PR although it can be 80-95F all year round the temp fluctuates more than a bit (atleast for me since i live in SJ)

[CGuzmanReptiles]

Yeah I figured this out thanks and I also live in SJ.