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The importance of using a thermostat or rheostat with your under tank heater (UTH).

drybgerg

drybgerg

Greg
I've go an unoccupied viv set up and thought I'd do a little testing with an unregulated (no thermostat or rheostat for temp control) UTH.

I'm doing this test with a Zoomed Reptitherm Large UTH on an All Glass aquarium. Measured via a handheld infrared temp gun with an accuracy of +-1%.

To start off with I measured the glass above the UTH and at 6" away I measured a spot that has 1" of aspen over the UTH. The starting measurements where 75.5° for both spots.

I then measured every 10 minutes for an hour. Will leave it on and see what the unregulated UTH maxes out at.

Sorry about the poor pic quality, was having lighting issues.


The testing area:



Results:

 
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As you can see in 10 minutes the temps are too high and after 20 minutes are passed the point where damage can be done.
 
Also I see mentioned quite a bit to set your thermostat or rheostat at 87° and above the aspen will be 85°. This isn't a hard fast rule. The aspen has a lot of air pockets that really insulate. On my many vivs with compressed aspen and the thermostat set at 87° and the probed thermometer reading 87° at the glass over the UTH the top of my apsen is usually 81°-83° (measured via infrared temp gun) depending on the room temperature.
 
Ahhhh, another mad scientist ! LOL

I've done the same. I'll be interested in your results for comparison :)
 
daddio207 said:
Ahhhh, another mad scientist ! LOL

I've done the same. I'll be interested in your results for comparison :)
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Mad scientist lol, you have no idea!

Interested in your comparison.

I like to do these type of things that way I'm giving my own experiences not just repeating what I've read or heard.
 
I know some people, even people I HIGHLY respect (*cough Don) say it's not necessary, but I am REALLY not comfortable, AT ALL, with a temp of 124F...
 
Nanci said:
I know some people, even people I HIGHLY respect (*cough Don) say it's not necessary, but I am REALLY not comfortable, AT ALL, with a temp of 124F...
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Agree 100% and it hasn't leveled out yet, will keep checking until it does.
 
I kept a 145 degree hotspot for a year once on a 30 rack. No burns, no issues. But I can not stress enough that without a big Freedom Breeder type rack, you'll cook snakes doing that. Per Don:
In the 35+ years I've been keeping corns - and having kept at least 40,000 of them - not one snake was ever burned from UT heating devices.
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However, overheating where they can't get away will kill them dead.
 
Chip said:
I kept a 145 degree hotspot for a year once on a 30 rack. No burns, no issues. But I can not stress enough that without a big Freedom Breeder type rack, you'll cook snakes doing that. Per Don:

However, overheating where they can't get away will kill them dead.
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Good point Chip.
 
I did this test in my 33 gallon long and it has the same footprint as a 55 but 13" tall vs 21". I could feel the heat whenever I'd open the viv to take the readings once it hit 100°.

With the tops (wood or pvc frames with acrylic inserts) I use I couldn't run an unregulated heat source the air temps would be 90° or more.

Maybe if I had a screen top I could but I don't see the benefit in basically cutting off up to 1/3 of the floor space as the snake will never use that area with the temps being over 100° on the aspen and 124° on the glass.
 
drybgerg said:
Maybe if I had a screen top I could but I don't see the benefit in basically cutting off up to 1/3 of the floor space as the snake will never use that area with the temps being over 100° on the aspen and 124° on the glass.
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It will not be well utilized for sure, but I wouldn't say they'll "never" use that area.
2gvn41k.jpg

I've caught corns basking in the wild that were downright hot to the touch. I'm sure they won't bask beyond where they can safely go.
 
Chip said:
It will not be well utilized for sure, but I wouldn't say they'll "never" use that area.

I've caught corns basking in the wild that were downright hot to the touch. I'm sure they won't bask beyond where they can safely go.
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Poor choice of words on my part, they might use it, though I was measuring 104° which is pretty good jump from 97°.
 
It was a winter experiment so I'm doing this from memory.

I used a 10 gallon with the appropriate size UTH and a screen top.
Also regular aspen and a plastic rock cave that a 20-40 gram snake would utilize.
To measure temps I used 2 probed thermometers and an infrared gun.

As I recall.....
Glass temp over the UTH Uncovered maxed at 112 degrees. Covered with 1+ of aspen it maxed out around 140 degrees.
To get 86 degrees inside the hide it took about 2 inches of aspen lightly tamped down.
The temp outside the hide over the UTH with 2 inches of aspen was about 80 degrees.
The cool side temp only climbed to 1 or 2 degrees over room temp.
The house thermostat was set on 68 degrees.
The hot and cool side hide temps of 86 and 70 stayed steady for a week then I stopped the test.
 
One reading I forgot to post was at the end of my test I took a reading under the 1" of aspen and it was 132°.
 
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