Heat not high enough?

I finally set up my 28 qt. rack about an hour ago. I realize it hasn't been long. I bought it at a reptile show and I don't remember what company they're from but they're the usual black kind. I have my temp gauge on the heat tap, secured by foil tape. The Ranco thermostat is set at 96 but the temps so far are not reading high...like 74 air temp and 85 directly over the heat tape. Does it take a while to accumulate or something?

possibly? maybe try blocking the front until it gets warmed up enough and then remove the towel or whatever and see if the temp goes back down

Well I do have a thick layer of aspen bedding. The heat tape itself is reading 93 with my temp gun, 96 according to the Ranco stat...but the ambient tub temp is just 75

huh, that is kinda wierd. im not real sure. is it slowly climbing?

Well I'm now getting a reading of 80 in the back of the tub but to me the air doesn't feel any warmer...lol.

I checked the room temp and it's 70 in here. Should I set my thermostat higher than 96?

hmm.. i dont know. you might try looking it up. or pm 3xotics. he has some racks that sound like they're designed the same way. maybe he can answer your questions

The guide I found online at Boaphile--he said he had his stat set at 96 in a room that was 76-78 ambient temp. I'm thinking that our ambient room temp of 68-70 might be causing some of it, and that it may also heat up better given a little time for the air to get warm.

yeah true, right now its probably trying to heat the whole room

temps went down not up...not good. Going to move it to a different outlet tomorrow.

ah! your right, not good. definately cant have that.. try it let us know if it works. do you have any rooms wheere you live that are warmer?

Unfortunately my boyfriend likes it cold, though when the weather warms up he may adjust the temp so we aren't paying so much for energy. When I live on my own, I usually keep temps around 75-80 year round ^^; I am cold natured!

Dagan, where is the probe for the Ranco? Is it directly on the heat tape? If it is, you have to compensate for the heat loss from the tape to the actual basking spot. Unfortunately, you may have to set the thermostat to 105 (for example) to get an actual warm spot of 90~ for the snake.

At our old house (poorly insulated) we had the thermostat set to 99.5 to get it to the right temperature. This also included using very dark thick towels draped around every section and also using UTH pads that we gorilla taped to the sides and underneath because the bottom tubs were significantly cooler.. we also used a space heater in front of the rack blowing on it with a fan going to circulate the air (very ridiculous)

Since we moved and have a specific reptile room that is thoroughly insulated we don't have any issues with temperature...

Not sure if there are any other tricks of the trade you all may know about but we went thru extreme measures to get the temps right

Oh okay. So how high is it safe to set the thermostat? I'm getting hot spot reading of 80.2 while the stat is at 98. Would it be safe for me to raise the stat to 100? Should I go higher? I just want it to be safe for the snakes. currently most of them are directly on the heat which tells me they want more.

The probe for the ranco is indeed between the heat tape and the tub.

Once I had to set my thermostat on the rack to over 105 just to get a temp of 90 in my tubs. That was with an ambient room temp of 72-75. As long as the temp in the tubs doesn't go too high, you are fine. The only thing with setting the thermostat that high, is if the temp in the house increases, so does the rack.

I put the thermostat probe directly on the heat around the middle shelf. When I calibrate the thermostat, I take the hot spot temp from the inside bottom of the tub, under the substrate. I just push some out of the way. This is where I try to achieve 90-92 degrees. I figure they can always burrow if they need more heat. I don't worry about ambient temps unless they drop below 78 then I just heat the room a few degrees.

The way these racks are made, the probe has to go through a hole to the top shelf, so since heat rises, it is probably keeping the lower tubs cooler than the upper tubs. I can't really think of any way to change this fact. I will take the hot spot temp the way you suggest.

Hey there
i just saw your add and just wanted to tell you the way i hooked up my thermostat.
I have individual heat tapes taped to every tub and placed the probe directly into one of the lower positioned tubs. I set my temperature to 92 degrees and waited a couple of hours to see how the snakes react to it. It seems like i hit the spot. The snakes actually layed right on top of it and did that for hours. Then i dropped the night temperature down to 85 degrees. All of them developed a healthy appetite and are digesting well..
It might not be the best advice but setting it to a certain temperature and see how the snakes react to it is as far as i'm concerned a good thing to do. I have 20 individual tubs hooked up to my thermostat and all of them have the same temperature..

I hope it helps ya a little bit..