Heating

[ffighterstu]

Ok, so I have everything together that I need for my cage and set it up last night. I want to make sure that everything is working before I get my BP. The humidity is 70% and the temp on the cool side stays at 80 degrees. The only problem so far is on the warm side. I purchased a heating pad from Walmart that stays on all the time. On the highest setting the temp inside of the warm hide only got up to 85. I have a bout an inch and a half of substrate on the bottom. Should I lower this level so that it will be closer to the heating pad (the rubbermaid is sitting on top of it) or should I get some kind of heat lamp to compensate?

Thanks

Stu

[elevatethis]

What are you using to measure the temps and humidity? I have a walmart heating pad that would get up to 95 on the low setting.

But yeah, if you have a lot of substrate on the bottom, you might just be cooking the lower layers. So move some to the other side or take some out. But really though, you are only looking for another 5 degrees on the warm side, which really isn't a big deal. The shop I go to keeps their snake room at 85 degrees 24/7 and their BPs do just fine.

[Anonymous]

First off, do you have the cover on the heating pad?
Try removing half an inch of substrate.

[ffighterstu]

What are you using to measure the temps and humidity? I have a walmart heating pad that would get up to 95 on the low setting.

I'm using a temp/humidity guage that I got from Walmart also, it was like $15.

First off, do you have the cover on the heating pad?

Yes, I have the cover on the heating pad, should I remove that?


Thanks for the help people.

[Anonymous]

I actually removed my cover. Seems to be working better for me.
Also I had like about 2 inches of Substrate and my temps on the warm side only got up to like 90 at the most. I had to keep taking off layers of substrate till I got in the mid-90s

[ffighterstu]

Great, I'll try removing the cover when I get home. Also, would it be better to fold the heating pad in half or would it still provide the same amount of heat as having just a single layer? (if I use just the single layer, I have to hang part of it off the table so that it still only goes under part of the tank)

[ffighterstu]

Oh, one more thing. Is it best to mesure the temp from within the hide on the warm side or some random place on the surface of the substrate?

[Smulkin]

In the hide as that is more likely than not where they will be (on that side).

[RobertCoombs]

DO NOT fold the pad in half the heat generated between the contact of two sections of the heat element pressed together can easily get hot enough to catch fire or the very least melt through and create a electrical shock situation!

[mlededee]

also you should check to make sure that your heating pad isnt isnt reverse wired--its really common in the walmart pads. in that case low would actually be high and high would be low, explaining why the high setting wont seem to get hot enough. i have the walmart heating pad and it gets up to 95 on low too. i acutally had to add more space between the pad and the tank so it wasn't too hot.