only staying on cold side?

[Eric Alan]

No I'm not regulating it. I went by the temperature of the substrate i packed down on top of it read by the laser temp gun... Seems I should get a thermostat to monitor this, do you have a recommendation ? Is it an issue that the UTH is already stuck on? Do I need the UTH if I have ambient at 90 on hot side? Thanks for the help I'm new to this and really appreciate all the advice to learn as much as possible!

If you don't have a thermostat, unplug it until you get one. They will easily reach well over 100° plugged directly into the wall - way too hot for your snake. There are ways to use a thermostat when you've already stuck your UTH on if you go that route. The brand I use and recommend is Herpstat.

Many people don't use a UTH at all and are very successful. You just need to make sure they have access to the proper temperatures one way or another - that's the most important part. Keep in mind though that the temperature of the room you have your enclosure in will impact the temperatures inside your enclosure as well, so you'll need to constantly monitor it and make any adjustments as necessary.