• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Human heat pad for a UTH?

C

Cecilia

New member
So, I was looking around at different UTH's and reviews online and found some people like to use human heat pads. Is this a good idea? Do you guys think it would work? Because I found one online that's basically the same price as a UTH at my local pet store, it's $25, free shipping and you can control the temperature!

http://www.walmart.com/ip/12-x-15-C...t-or-Dry-Heating-Pad/6436313#Item+Description

I see nothing wrong with it (except a mistype, lol) honestly, what do you guys think?
 
Cecilia said:
Is this a good idea?
Click to expand...

No.

Human heating pads are not designed to handle being on for extended periods of time (in fact, most have an automatic shutoff after 20 or 30 minutes). If this one doesn't have an auto shutoff (I didn't look closely enough), you would potentially be risking a fire.

Human heating pads also get far too hot. The ideal temperature for a corn 'hot spot' is well below our normal body temperature, so the warm side of the glass (if kept in a tank) should actually feel cool, or at most lukewarm, to the touch. Since heating pads, even on the lowest setting, feel warm to us, it could very cause the warm side of a snake enclosure to become hot enough to kill a corn.

A good UTH with a thermostat (ideal) or rheostat (acceptable) to control the temperature is the proper way to go here. If you want your UTH to be removable, I have heard of people using foil tape to cover the sticky side (hopefully someone else can chime in about this, I don't have any experience with it and don't want to steer you wrong) and then placing the UTH under the enclosure.

Hope this helps.
 
Hallie said:
No.

Human heating pads are not designed to handle being on for extended periods of time (in fact, most have an automatic shutoff after 20 or 30 minutes). If this one doesn't have an auto shutoff (I didn't look closely enough), you would potentially be risking a fire.

Human heating pads also get far too hot. The ideal temperature for a corn 'hot spot' is well below our normal body temperature, so the warm side of the glass (if kept in a tank) should actually feel cool, or at most lukewarm, to the touch. Since heating pads, even on the lowest setting, feel warm to us, it could very cause the warm side of a snake enclosure to become hot enough to kill a corn.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I'm going to step out of the box here for a second and question the general consensus on the forum here.

I understand that most human heating pads have a safety auto shut-off, but it wouldn't matter if you had it hooked up with a thermostat that shuts off the flow of power to the pad when it reached the desired temp, correct? If this is the case (which has been my experience with conventional Zoo Med UTH's) the devise shouldn't run longer than about one minute at a time.

The capacity for the pad to reach, say 200 degrees, is not relevant IF and only if its hooked up to a thermostat.

Rheostats may be an issue because they don't shut off the power, only reduce it.
 
Human heat pads MAY work. Of course, you'd have to hook them up to a thermostat. I've never experimented.

A human heat pad is going to have an auto shut off... they all do now, due to fire hazard. I don't know if the thermostat would work around that.

Also, a human heat pad isn't made for daily, constant use... I wouldn't do it. You'd probably wear it out and have to replace it.

Why aren't UTH's removable??? Just don't stick them to your tank! I have plenty of UTH's and I have moved them around plenty. Mostly, I use flexwatt heat tape because it is WAY cheaper than a heat pad. The heat pads I have were all given to me. Flexwatt works just like a heat pad, but it is only about $3 a foot.
 
I understand that most human heating pads have a safety auto shut-off, but it wouldn't matter if you had it hooked up with a thermostat that shuts off the flow of power to the pad when it reached the desired temp, correct?
Click to expand...
It's an interesting question to ponder and it does come up now and again. My view is that human heat pads won't actually get low enough for safe use with a Corn.

Bear in mind that a Corn's safe maximum is 90 degrees - 6 degrees below human core body temp. If a human heat pad got to 90 degrees, it would feel cool and you'd return it as faulty. It doesn't make sense for a human heat pad to get lower than human body temp. Don't know if someone fancies spending a few $$ for an experiment with one in a snakeless setup?

I have to agree with others that you'll probably find the automated cutoff throwing a spanner in the works.

I've never stuck a UTH to a tank either, and I've not had a problem.
 
bitsy said:
It's an interesting question to ponder and it does come up now and again. My view is that human heat pads won't actually get low enough for safe use with a Corn.

Bear in mind that a Corn's safe maximum is 90 degrees - 6 degrees below human core body temp. If a human heat pad got to 90 degrees, it would feel cool and you'd return it as faulty. It doesn't make sense for a human heat pad to get lower than human body temp. Don't know if someone fancies spending a few $$ for an experiment with one in a snakeless setup?

I have to agree with others that you'll probably find the automated cutoff throwing a spanner in the works.
Click to expand...

I believe I have a solution to this however.

Depending on your thermostat, the automated cutoff on the human heating pad should be irrelevant. For example, the Zoo Med UTH I have will run at 110+ degrees if its left to its own devices. This is no different that a human heating pad which will likely get significantly hotter. But, with a thermostat like I have (the Zilla Temperature Controller) it shuts the heating element off completely when the probe reads your desired temp. Its not like some of these thermostats that will cut back on the energy consumption to balance the temp at your desired level. This means the Zilla will allow the pad the off time it needs to reset the 20+ minute timer that it has.

With a thermostat that outright cuts off power to the pad, the automated cutoff shouldn't be an issue, unless it runs for 20 mins at a time in which case their may be a serious issue with your thermostat.

I would gladly try this experiment however lacking funds makes that all but impossible at the moment.
 
habistatman said:
You could use a shoe to hammer in a nail, but wait i think there is this hammer thing someone has invented.
Click to expand...

But if all one had was a shoe...;-)

Thanks for all the replies folks! This was very educational and I'm glad I asked what appeared to be such a silly question.
 
LOL... isn't this my thread? Haha, that's funny... sorry though if that offended you. But ya, thanks for the replies!
 
No, you're quite right Cecilia, we did rather veer off topic! Sorry about that. Hopefully you've found the resulting chat interesting, even if not directly applicable to you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top