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I have been very very very lucky

mele2511

mele2511

Was'nt me officer
I went to feed my small 1.5 foot corn yesterday and when I put my hand in it felt very hot in the viv. I put in the thermometer and the temp was at a staggering 97F in there.



I put the snake into its feeding tank for a while until the tank cooled down. Then I had to ask myself why it was so hot in there...... Well to cut a long story short my UTH has broken and was literally cooking the snake...



Anyway I installed a new UTH and everything now seems fine so I think I am incredibly lucky that my snake didn’t meet his maker.

:cheers:
 
I don't really get how a UTH can suddenly get hotter than it was before. Can someone explain this? I can see how you could have a thermostat fail, and if it didn't have a "fail-safe" shut down built into it, the UTH could then heat up to its max temp. This is different, though.

The Gatorland fire was blamed on a faulty UTH.

Just curoius.

Nanci
 
I have no idea. All i know is that it is some kind of electrical fault but it was a faily old UTH so that may be the reason because the old ones might not have the same saftey features in it.
 
Yes the UTH is regulated on a Habistat dimmer thermostat 600W and is always set to about 85F.. I think the UTH just hit its lifespan. This does raise a big issue of if i would have left my snake alone for a few more days/weeks my house could have burnt down !!!!!!!
 
As the heating element gets older it can generate corrosion which increases the resistance to electricity. As you increase this resistance you also increase the amount of heat generated as electricity passes through the wire. Other possibilities are a short inside the heat mat where you basically have one wire arcing to another which will increase temps.
 
So if the bad mat was on a thermostat, why didn't the thermostat shut it down? I'm not sure I would trust the thermostat, either. Are you sure it's the mat that's bad, not a failed thermostat??

Nanci
 
uth failure

I have a Boaphile plastics cage and rack; both use flexwatt heat tape. Their website says that they have never had a failure and give a good explanation of proper wiring and setup. Of course thermostats or dimmers (rheostats) are a must. Just to be safe I am using radiant heat panels (pro-products.com) in the new cages I am building (again, I ALWAYS use thermostats or dimmers). I feel that the added safety factor more than justifies the price as I believe the heat panels remain safe even if the thermostat or dimmer fails.
 
I am testing the Habistat on a different tank just to make sure. So far no more problems but i have put the UTH in the bin
 
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