having trouble setting my themostat

[sarah s]

I am having trouble setting my warm side to stay at 85 or lower right now with my stat. I have it set so it turns on at around 80F it turns off at about 86F however the heat carries on building up to around 94F. any help would be greatful in correcting this over heating I have the following stat.
http://www.livefoods.co.uk/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=147

 

[ssssnake_lover]

Hi Sarah

Not sure what sort of heat mat you have got but mine is only 6" by 11" and therefore i only have a max 100 watt thermostat where as yours is 300 watt thermostat.

Anyway mine kicks in at around 81 or 82 and literally only stays on for a few mins and the max it sort of hits is about 85 i mean it has touched 86.6 a few times but mostly now it just goes to 85 and then stops and process repeats when it drops.

Sorry this ain't much help Sarah but i think fiddling is the key as from what i have read you don't want the temp over 90 so i would start turning your thermostat down asap.

Two more things where are you monitoring your temp and is it where your thermostat probe is as i have my thermostat probe and my digital thermometer probe right under the substrate above where the heat mat is and i have them both next to each other so it's a good reading and also are you monitoring the temp in a cave as some caves can work like an oven and easily reach temps over 100 so that could be your problem if you have a cave.

Sorry i can't be anymore more help Sarah as i am new to Snakes myself and only had mine just over 2 weeks.

Anyway hope it works out ok Sarah and hope you Snake is happy.

Hopefully some more experienced people will be along soon too

 

[sarah s]

I have my stat probe and temp probe both under the substrate right next to each other as well and have been fiddling which is why I am a tad worried that I cant get it any lower. My stat also only stays on for a few mins then turns off thus turning off my mat. I have a small habistat heat mat about 6 by 8. I dont have the snake that is going in this viv yet I am setting it up for when I collect them. Would the maxium load really effect how it works? I was under the impression max loads where to stop it being used for devices that needed more than the max load. I dont see why a mat that only draws 100 watts as its max would draw more even if it could due to the stats max load being 300 watts.

 

[ssssnake_lover]

No you are right Sarah yours just means it can take alot more what's than mine.

And as for the over temping i really don't understand it Sarah as my heat mat is a tiny bit longer than yours and only carries over 3-5 degrees :shrugs:

 

[sarah s]

Yeah its thrown me as well big time, its getting better but I still cant get it down enough. To compansate for the big over heating I would have to set my stat so low it would never be on due to room temp which defetes the whole point of using a stat. At the moment it is set to 76F turns off around the 80F mark and over heats to 90F.

 

[ssssnake_lover]

I don't know what to suggest i know some people say that you have to have your thermostat set lower because it does seem to give you more heat than you want but i can't understand why yours is having such a massive jump :shrugs:

Can anyone else shed some light on the subject or has anyone had the same problem and found a way to solve it.

Is there a window near by Sarah that you could maybe open so that when it reaches temp because of the cold air outiside it won't over run as much :shrugs:

But it is such a big jump i can't see it doping the snake any good if the temp is going really high then right back down again

Sorry i can't help you more Sarah but i am out of ideas

 

[sarah s]

I could open a window but the set up is in a room full of taratulas who need the heat to be what room temp is now. I also have a fan I could maybe use but I doubt that it will do much good.

 

[sbourget]

It's alright for the hot side to go to 90F, the slight over temp won't harm the snake, seeing as that's still less than human body heat and it will allow the snake greater ease of thermo regulation. So long as the cold side is cool enough and there are plenty of hides the snake will choose its comfort zone.

 

[sarah s]

Ok then why does everyone always say 85 is the max temp for corns on warm side right by the heat mat? All the research and care sheets i have seen also say this.

 

[sarah s]

Well I checked my thermometer using an equilibrium mix of water and ice. It should have read it as 32F (melting point/freezing point) but was over-reporting the temperatures by about 3-4F.

Seems the thermostat is correct after all, and it's my thermometer that is broken.