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Re: Heating pad problems
Originally Posted by ShawarmaPoutine
What I do, is I glue (glue-gun kind of glue) my temperature probes on the base of my hide so that the temperature those cheap thermostats (Jumpstart and co.) read is exactly the temperature the snake is touching
How do you take your hides out to clean them?
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Registered User
Re: Heating pad problems
Originally Posted by craigafrechette
How do you take your hides out to clean them?
Only the prove is glued down to the tank, PVC and tub floors. Hit just sits on top. I should've said "tank floor.."
Last edited by ShawarmaPoutine; 03-13-2019 at 10:21 PM.
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Re: Heating pad problems
Originally Posted by ShawarmaPoutine
Only the prove is glued down to the tank, PVC and tub floors. Hit just sits on top. I should've said "tank floor.."
Oh ok. Either way, the probes belong outside the enclosure. They can be peed on, laid on, moved (even when hot glued) etc...which can all cause false readings.
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Re: Heating pad problems
Originally Posted by craigafrechette
That just sounds like a fluctuation due to the "on/off" thermostat, as opposed to proportional thermostats.
^^ This 100% OP. Jumpstart is an on/off thermostat with a +/- 2 degree difference in temperature control. So if you set the thermostat to 88, it will cool down to 86 before turning the UTH on and will heat up to 90 before turning off. UTH and on/off thermostat temps are really approximate at best. There will be a difference between what you set the thermostat for and glass temperature due to things like ambient room temp, trapped heat, the fact that it's a pain in the butt to get a UTH to lay completely flat over a probe, etc. The 2 important things are that you aim for anywhere between 88-90 as a hot spot and that the thermostat will prevent the UTH from getting too hot, therefore preventing burns.
Your best bet may be to supplement your hot side with a heat lamp on a dimmer or CHE on a separate thermostat to prevent the temp swings. I use infrared bulbs with dimmers and UTH with my glass setups. All of my UTHs are on Jumpstarts. Both heating methods combined with my ambient room temperature means none of my thermostats need to be set higher than 88 degrees. Most are set between 86-88 to achieve a 90 degree hot spot. You just have to experiment to see what works best in your environment. Hope this helps!
Edited to say that if you have a smaller enclosure (ie, 10 gallon), only supplement with a heat lamp/CHE if you also need to bring up your ambient temps.
Last edited by WhompingWillow; 03-14-2019 at 12:15 AM.
Reason: Forgot something
BALL PYTHONS: 1.0 Pied/Clark, 1.0 Pastel Vanilla Super Stripe/Sunny, 0.1 Dragon Fly/Buffy, 0.1 Pastel Vanilla Yellow Belly/Cher, 0.1 BEL (Mojave Lesser)/Arya, 0.0.1 Normal/Norm, 0.1 Cinnamon Enchi/Peaches, 1.0 Cinnamon Calico/Yoshi, 0.1 Pewter Het Dreamsicle/Ariel
BOAS: 0.1 Dumeril's/Memphis, 0.1 BCL/Artemis, 1.0 BCO/Grimm, 0.1 Suriname BCC/Rhubarb
CORN SNAKES: 0.0.1/Mushu
MORELIA: 0.1 Bredli/Zelda, 0.1 Granite IJ/Bridget, 0.1 Caramel Diamond Jungle/Pixie
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Registered User
Re: Heating pad problems
Originally Posted by WhompingWillow
^^ This 100% OP. Jumpstart is an on/off thermostat with a +/- 2 degree difference in temperature control. So if you set the thermostat to 88, it will cool down to 86 before turning the UTH on and will heat up to 90 before turning off. UTH and on/off thermostat temps are really approximate at best. There will be a difference between what you set the thermostat for and glass temperature due to things like ambient room temp, trapped heat, the fact that it's a pain in the butt to get a UTH to lay completely flat over a probe, etc. The 2 important things are that you aim for anywhere between 88-90 as a hot spot and that the thermostat will prevent the UTH from getting too hot, therefore preventing burns.
Your best bet may be to supplement your hot side with a heat lamp on a dimmer or CHE on a separate thermostat to prevent the temp swings. I use infrared bulbs with dimmers and UTH with my glass setups. All of my UTHs are on Jumpstarts. Both heating methods combined with my ambient room temperature means none of my thermostats need to be set higher than 88 degrees. Most are set between 86-88 to achieve a 90 degree hot spot. You just have to experiment to see what works best in your environment. Hope this helps!
Edited to say that if you have a smaller enclosure (ie, 10 gallon), only supplement with a heat lamp/CHE if you also need to bring up your ambient temps.
Thank you but is that really all I can do? I'd really prefer not to buy even more heating stuff when a heat pad should be enough. Plenty of other people have no problems with this and I don't see a reason why it's so difficult for me specifically to get the right temperature. Is it going to be like this for every cage and heating pad? I'd be fine with getting a new thermostat if that would make it better, I'm honestly tired of this because it's caused so many problems and nobody seems to know of an actual way to fix it.
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Re: Heating pad problems
There are some thermostats that allow you to set a maximum temperature fluctuation differential so that it will keep the temperature fluctuation within the degree range you set, which might help in your situation. I have an Inkbird thermostat that does this, but if you choose this brand be warned that it gives off a high pitched buzz that will drive you insane if you have to be in the same room with it.
I have the problem with swinging UTH temperatures as well. I use a Zoomed Reptitherm UTH and a Jumpstart thermostat. I have my thermostat set to 92F but the temp fluctuates between 86-93F. I wouldn't worry about the temperatures as long as they don't get lower than 86 or higher than 94.
Last edited by Luvyna; 03-14-2019 at 01:10 AM.
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I'm at work so i just skimmed through here but it almost sounds like your thermostat isn't working right. That or your thermometer isn't reading correctly
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Re: Heating pad problems
Originally Posted by RyanTheNoodleMan
Thank you but is that really all I can do? I'd really prefer not to buy even more heating stuff when a heat pad should be enough. Plenty of other people have no problems with this and I don't see a reason why it's so difficult for me specifically to get the right temperature. Is it going to be like this for every cage and heating pad? I'd be fine with getting a new thermostat if that would make it better, I'm honestly tired of this because it's caused so many problems and nobody seems to know of an actual way to fix it.
Out of curiosity, what are your ambient (air) temps? A hot spot is important, yes, but so is having a temperature gradient from warm side to cool so that your snake can thermoregulate. Depending on how your enclosure and your room temperatures, a heat pad really may not be enough. You want about 80 degrees on the cool end. And how are you measuring your temps? Apologies if I missed you mentioning that earlier.
As others have said, a range of acceptable hot spot temps is fine. 88-90 is ideal, but 87 - 91/92 won't do any harm. You simply aren't going to "fix" or get a constant hot spot temp with an on/off thermostat (ie, Jumpstart).
The most popular proportional thermostats are probably Herpstats (manufactured by Spyder Robotics) and Vivarium Electronics (made by Reptile Basics). These works by maintaining a constant set temperature.
Different cage types are easier to maintain. You can make pretty much anything work, but it takes some experimenting. As an example, a lot of people dislike glass tanks because of the difficulty maintaining heat and humidity. Ball pythons can definitely thrive in glass enclosures, but you may need to work at it more. Other popular options are tubs, either standalone tubs that are modified or tubs in a rack system. PVC cages are also popular (Animal Plastics, Reptile Basics, Herptastic, Boaphile, etc.) and a lot of people use Radiant Heat Panels as the sole heating element for those (from ProProducts or Reptile Basics).
A final note: It sounds like you are a new keeper. We've all been there. I get being frustrated when it seems like things aren't working how they should be. But your original question was asking why your hot spot has temperature swings. Multiple people explained why in this thread. You've gotten a lot of advice on possible ways to address this and also reassurances that a range in hotspot temps is okay as long as not too hot or too cold.
BALL PYTHONS: 1.0 Pied/Clark, 1.0 Pastel Vanilla Super Stripe/Sunny, 0.1 Dragon Fly/Buffy, 0.1 Pastel Vanilla Yellow Belly/Cher, 0.1 BEL (Mojave Lesser)/Arya, 0.0.1 Normal/Norm, 0.1 Cinnamon Enchi/Peaches, 1.0 Cinnamon Calico/Yoshi, 0.1 Pewter Het Dreamsicle/Ariel
BOAS: 0.1 Dumeril's/Memphis, 0.1 BCL/Artemis, 1.0 BCO/Grimm, 0.1 Suriname BCC/Rhubarb
CORN SNAKES: 0.0.1/Mushu
MORELIA: 0.1 Bredli/Zelda, 0.1 Granite IJ/Bridget, 0.1 Caramel Diamond Jungle/Pixie
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Re: Heating pad problems
Originally Posted by RyanTheNoodleMan
sorry it's a bit hard for me to describe what the problem is. To simplify everything, the heating pad is just heating it to random temperatures. I cannot control it with the thermostat because it will just do whatever.
What do you mean "random temperatures" and "will do whatever"? From your first post I read that you set the stat at 96, got a temp too high, dialed it down and got to 87F, which should be just fine. Are you sometimes getting much lower temps? How much lower?
Originally Posted by RyanTheNoodleMan
The only possible thing I can think of is that the thermostat turning the heating pad off is making the tank cool down quicker than it's being heated.
Which raises the real question. What is the ambient temp of the room? The direct heat of the UTH against the stat probe will read high enough to turn off the UTH, but if the room is too cold, the heat will dissipate through the material and substrate before reaching the surface where you're measuring it.
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The Following User Says Thank You to JRLongton For This Useful Post:
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FYI most on/off thermostats have 5 to 6 degree swing
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