Problems keeping pet BP warm with flexwatt / johnson controls thermostat

[spaceturtle]

What I currently use is a 10 gal aquarium with a heat lamp. My temp gun (which is very acccurate) shows about 90ish on the warm and 82ish on the cool. Every time I check it, it's usually good and I'll adjust it as needed by re-positioning the heat lamp. I also keep a damp shirt covering over the tank so my humidity is usually 50 but sometimes drops to mids 30s.

However, I wanted to switch to tubs for each of use (can just use newspaper and throw the tubs / bowls / hides into the washing machine). What was recommended here was flexwatt and a thermostat, so thats what I got but it's not what I expected and doesn't do as good of a job as the lamp.

I live in an apartment with central air and heat and it's a steady 70 most of the time. It never drops below 65 and it never goes over 75. With my flexwatt, the warm side stays pretty consistently between 88 and 95, but the cool side / ambient reflects pretty close to my actual room temp of 70ish which is too cold for my snake.

What should I do here? I don't want to spend more money as I've already spent 200 on everything so far (not including snake.) I'm thinking of just returning the flexwatt and theremostat and just keeping my current aquarium / lamp setup. This would put about 100 bux back into my pocket.

[anendeloflorien]

I actually have a similar problem to yours. First off, keep the thermostat! You've got to have a thermostat no matter what heat source you are using.
Right now I have my BP in my parents basement and it stays a very consistent 70-75 degrees down there. I actually had to go back to using a heat lamp and UTH to try an keep the warm side temp up. I have a Reptile Basics radiant heat panel on the cool side which is on a rheostat right now. So far it's been working all right for me. The only thing is the heat lamp kills the humidity in there so I set up a humid hide since she is getting ready to shed again. I'm moving into a new apartment soon though where I should be able to keep the room temperatures at a better level.
Good luck finding a way to get your temps regulated!

[cinderbird]

you can try insulating the sides of the tub with foam core bored or something similar, they sell it at lots of places (lows home depot, etc, i think). that should help with the temps.

also, i was having a similar problem with my tub set up, as i have an UTH and a johnson controls just like you and i emailed rich at reptile basics (that was where i got it from) and he told me that an UTH by itself wouldn't raise the ambient temps by more than a few degrees, and then recommended either another UTH on another thermostat for the cool end/ insulating or adding an above tub heater to heat the ambient temps.

[JLC]

Same problem here. I went with a second strip of flexwatt for the "cool" end. I used an inexpensive dimmer switch for awhile, until a good deal on an additional t-stat came up for me.

[spaceturtle]

I think I'm just gonna stick with the aquarium and heat lamp setup. My temp gradient and humidity are fine using that and it's really not worth spending money just to make it somewhat easier to manage.