Thermostat Temperature?

[Cortland V.]

Hi, I just bought a Hydrofarm thermostat on Amazon for $35... It is powering the heat pads under the warm hides on both my BP enclosures. I'm just wondering what I should have to temp set to? How hot do the heat pads need to be?

[snakesRkewl]

It's actually killing the power to the pad by turning it on and off at a set temperature.
It doesn't matter a whole lot what the thermostat says, it matters what the temperature is inside the enclosure directly on the hot spot.
You need a temp gun or a probed thermometer to know that temperature.

[Artemille]

It's entirely dependent on what you're sticking the pad under, what substrate you have, what your room temp is, etc. Repeating SnakesRKewl, check the hot side floor temp with a temp gun and adjust until it's where you need it inside.

For reference, I have a glass exo-terra cage with a heat mat under it controlled by a hydrofarm. The probe is between the glass and the heat mat. I set it to 99, and it gets to 92 under the aspen. Could come up a completely different number for you

[Cortland V.]

I have Repticarpet. Could I set the probe between the glass and the carpet? What does the warm hide temp need to be at?

[Artemille]

You don't want the thermostat probe in the cage. You want it on the mat directly. Otherwise, it can be affected if the snake spills his water, or gets under and moves it.

Hot side ~88-90 for belly heat.