Ok, I know it's only been a few minutes, but the more I think about it, it *should* work.

Do you have a multimeter? If I were trying something like this, I'd really want to test it before trying it with a snake. BTW, a multimeter would be a great investment. I realized my rheostat was faulty last night with a 30 second test with the meter rather than having to adjust it, wait for the temps to stabalize, test the temp again, adjust it, etc....