Had the same problem when first setting up my tank. I solved this by putting the probe under
the UTE instead of sandwiched between the UTE and the glass on the bottom underside of the tank. The result is that my UTE probe reads a few degrees below the actual temp of the surface of th glass above the UTE, but you need to be taking the temp of the glass surface with a temp gun anyways to check, because probes take an average temp of the air around them, not just of the surface they sit on. I simply taped my probe on the very bottom, took the temp on the top with the temp gun, and then adjusted accordingly so the surface temp of the glass in the tank above the UTE is approx 88 deg. It works for me!
Edit: and yes, I've heard some accounts of probes getting damaged when sandwiched between the glass and the UTE. Don't have a first hand account of it happening though. Most of the mid-price to cheap thermostats fail after an average of 1-5 years though, which I found out through some pretty thorough research, so unless you're counting on getting lucky or your have a herpstat, you should be checking the hot spot on the glass with a temp gun regularly. (unless you have someway to keep that second thermometer probe secure on the glass, which is difficult) Idk what the general consensus on that bit of husbandy is but I'd personally go with quickly checking at least once a week.
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