Hey all! Was hoping to get some insight on this. I have my girls 40 gal hooked up with a large zoomed heating pad. I have a thermostat with the probe taped under the tank right next to the pad.( I’m not sure if this is correct or not my friend who breeds ball pythons is the one who showed me how to do set it up and that’s how he did It.) Regardless, my temps fluctuate alot. I have checked my girls temp religiously. Usually about 5 or more times a day with a a heat gun too. And usually If I have it set to 84 f in her hide it will be 89-92 f but every like 4 to 5 days. I’ll see the thermostat say 78 or lower and I’ll check her and her hide will be at 115f. Why is this happening can anyone give advice, I check her tank constantly out of fear for burns. Luckily she has never been burned.
What kind of thermostat do you have? What brand? And the probe is to be sandwiched between the mat and the glass.
Two possible issue here
1# Improper probe placement, you want your probe sandwiched between the heat pad and the tank (so on the heat pad not next to it)
2# There can be a possible t-stat failure but the best way to know if to install the probe correctly and see how it affect the temps.
Good to know I can test that tommorow. For tonight I moved the probe into the cage under the dirt. Will that work for a night? It says it’s a jumpstart brand?
I have just decided against this if it gets loose it could easily over heat
I would place the thermostat in between the glass and heat pad as previously stated tonight. It won’t hurt your snake to be off heat while you make the adjustment.
As far as Jumpstart t-stats go, I think they are low quality. I would recommend either a herpstat from Spider Robotics or a VE thermostat from Vivarium Electronics, those are both very good in my experience.
May I ask how long you had the setup running before you added a snake to the enclosure?
I always run my setups for 2 weeks before introducing the reptile. It gives you ample time to figure out if something is wrong and how to fix it.
I’m not judging you, that’s just what I do.
I had it for a week I think but I didn’t have a heat gun in the beginning so would borrow it for my friend then neighbor
I use JumpStart thermostats. They are actually good quality and I have never had issues. They are good for if you just have one snake, and so long as you place the probe in the right spot then no issues will be had. They are the lowest price thermostat you can get without sacrificing quality. I got mine for like $40-$45 a piece. A few youtubers recommend them as well.
I have 3 Quarantine tubs set up with Jumpstarts and they actually work great, one of them for about a year now. They are obviously not even in the ballpark of herpstats so you might have a defective one. Is it possible your probe isn’t in direct contact with your UTH?
You need to place it between the glass and the UTH. If you don’t then your snake runs the risk of getting burned/getting neurological damage from being kept too hot.
Very good point, I’ve never tried that. Maybe that’s why thy never worked as well for me in the past. I always used them in rack setups with multiple snakes. Possibly I had a defective one too like @kevin77 mentioned. Good to see positive results from that brand.
I’ll give that a try with a solo enclosure and see how it goes, thanks @ashleyraeanne.
That’s pretty good. Even a week is a good amount of time to see how it works.
Temp guns are definitely a must have, you can find some nice inexpensive ones off of Amazon. I’ve had the same one for over 5 years and it was only like 16$.
I really like the herpstat . One can set them to turn down the power instead of turning off and on. They have an alarm for high or low temp and if there is ever a failure, it will cut power. It is also easy to program.
All thermostats I have encountered are easy to program. That said, even the cheapest herpstat is over $100. Not a very reasonable option for someone that doesn’t have a rack system with a lot of snakes.
That could depend on how many safeguards a person wants for their snake. LOL some people spend $100.00 plus on a pair of prefaded geans complete with holes.
Not against the other stats, but people should have all options to choose from