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Argh!

Snake Dave

Snake Dave

Schrödinger's cat
Hey everyone

There is something seriously wrong with my HabiStat Mat thermostat. Power is reaching it but the green light that says that there's heat reaching the mat is never on, despite the fact that the thermometer reading was 91F, and it had been set for 83F... This is so far out and I fear it'll cause problems. So much so that I disconnected the thermostat and rigged the heat mat straight to the mains. I've been carefully monitoring the temps and it's stayed pretty much constant at 82F (I used a few inches of aspen). Hopefully I can resolve this situation but I don't want to do anything right now, because I fed Salazar yesterday.

Does anyone have any ideas of why it could be playing up like this? I haven't been very impressed with the mat stat, the temperatures are always far higher than I've set, and it takes a lot of fiddling to get it right.

In the tank, I have a UTH on the left side (which acts as the warm side), and a red bulb on the right side (also thermostatically controlled with a dimming thermostat) that acts as a cool side. That's set to 73F and obviously comes on should the temp fall below that (gets cold at night here). Should I unplug the UTH and crank the red bulb up to 83F, or should I leave as is?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks

David
 
Probably a silly question, but are your thermostat and temperature probes together, directly on the heatmat?
 
I don't have my temperature probe permanently fixed in place, but when I do take readings I always do it from the same place, right next to the probe. :)

Well tommorow evening I'll take some readings and fiddle around a bit, hopefully I'll get some results. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the input Janine :)

David
 
No worries Dave. I know when I was setting up the new snake rack, I 'had a moment' because I couldn't get the warm side readings for the tubs hot enough. Then I realised the thermometer probe had moved forwards in the tub without my realising it, so I wasn't measuring in the right place at all.
As I said in PCS's thread, for the racks it's easier to calibrate the thermostats with the probe directly on the heat cable, measure the temp inside the tubs while you're fiddling around (2 days in this case), and then you're good to go. Disregard the thermostat reading, just adjust it so your thermometer gives you the right temps.
(I'm sure more expensive stats are more easily adjusted, the matstat's dial is IMO, pants!)
 
diamondlil said:
No worries Dave. I know when I was setting up the new snake rack, I 'had a moment' because I couldn't get the warm side readings for the tubs hot enough. Then I realised the thermometer probe had moved forwards in the tub without my realising it, so I wasn't measuring in the right place at all.
As I said in PCS's thread, for the racks it's easier to calibrate the thermostats with the probe directly on the heat cable, measure the temp inside the tubs while you're fiddling around (2 days in this case), and then you're good to go. Disregard the thermostat reading, just adjust it so your thermometer gives you the right temps.
(I'm sure more expensive stats are more easily adjusted, the matstat's dial is IMO, pants!)
Click to expand...

I totally agree. Because Salazar's tank is a wood and glass display tank, I have to place the mat inside of the tank, so the probe also must go in the tank (hence why there's so many fake plants in there, it's to cover up all of the horrible cables) :grin01:
 
No wonder you are having mad temperature fluctuations. When you don't fix your thermostat probe in one place and instulate it, the temperatures will constantly fluctuate and be sooo far out.

NEVER trust the dial on a stat. Ignore it. Calibrate the mat to whatever temperature you need. I use some mat stats and they are acurate to 0.5 of a degree as I have the probe stuck to the edge of the pad and insulated with poly box.
 
Tula_Montage said:
No wonder you are having mad temperature fluctuations. When you don't fix your thermostat probe in one place and instulate it, the temperatures will constantly fluctuate and be sooo far out.

NEVER trust the dial on a stat. Ignore it. Calibrate the mat to whatever temperature you need. I use some mat stats and they are acurate to 0.5 of a degree as I have the probe stuck to the edge of the pad and insulated with poly box.
Click to expand...

I'll be sure to do that Elle, thanks for the advice!
 
NEVER trust the dial on a stat. Ignore it. Calibrate the mat to whatever temperature you need.
Click to expand...

Yup, agreed. I use Habistat Mat-Stats successfully, but I always set them up using temp readings I take myself. The actual performance of the stat seems to vary depanding on what size of mat it's used with. The temps written on the stat dial aren't worth relying on.
 
Snake Dave Argh!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey everyone

There is something seriously wrong with my HabiStat Mat thermostat. Power is reaching it but the green light that says that there's heat reaching the mat is never on, despite the fact that the thermometer reading was 91F, and it had been set for 83F... This is so far out and I fear it'll cause problems. So much so that I disconnected the thermostat and rigged the heat mat straight to the mains. I've been carefully monitoring the temps and it's stayed pretty much constant at 82F (I used a few inches of aspen). Hopefully I can resolve this situation but I don't want to do anything right now, because I fed Salazar yesterday.

Does anyone have any ideas of why it could be playing up like this? I haven't been very impressed with the mat stat, the temperatures are always far higher than I've set, and it takes a lot of fiddling to get it right.

In the tank, I have a UTH on the left side (which acts as the warm side), and a red bulb on the right side (also thermostatically controlled with a dimming thermostat) that acts as a cool side. That's set to 73F and obviously comes on should the temp fall below that (gets cold at night here). Should I unplug the UTH and crank the red bulb up to 83F, or should I leave as is?

Any help would be appreciated
Click to expand...


Every single problem you mentioned i've also had with my mat stat, including the dodgy green light problems. I just did as everyone else has suggested and got to know my matt stat personally ie. setting the dials oddly etc.

It works well enough for me, I wouldn't recommend them or buy one again though
 
Generally the problem is not the thermostat, it's the way you have calibrated it. Too often people just set the dial to 82 and think the temperature will be exactly that. It's simply not. The placement of the probe is so important, as is having a good digital thermometer to calibrate the stat and mat.
 
Tula_Montage Generally the problem is not the thermostat, it's the way you have calibrated it. Too often people just set the dial to 82 and think the temperature will be exactly that. It's simply not. The placement of the probe is so important, as is having a good digital thermometer to calibrate the stat and mat.
Click to expand...

Agreed, although I think the Habistat Matt Stat in particular has some further issues with the electronics
 
It's not a very powerful stat, however the ones I do use are accurate to within 0.5 of a degree. If the room temperature fluctuates drastically, then the internal temperature of the boxes may aswell, but thats expectant. I use pulse pro stats for most of my boxes/racks. They may be expensive, but it's worth it in the longrun.
 
Tula_Montage said:
Generally the problem is not the thermostat, it's the way you have calibrated it. Too often people just set the dial to 82 and think the temperature will be exactly that. It's simply not. The placement of the probe is so important, as is having a good digital thermometer to calibrate the stat and mat.
Click to expand...

I didn't assume that the temperatures would be exactly as it says on the dial, I found that out from the start. It was more to do with the huge temperature fluctuations and the green light. However, now that I've repositioned the probe (and fixed it in place I might add), I've achieved a stable temperature (fluctuations plus/minus 0.2 of a degree F, but obviously I expected that to happen due 'cause it's an on/off thermostat).

Warm side = 82.0 (plus/minus 0.2)
Cool side = 71.2

Thanks for all the help everyone. :)
 
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