Rack Heating Issues

[NRWAR]

Hey guys so I picked up a new rack and I'm having some heating issues. NO SNAKES ARE IN THIS RACK. So I live at a very high altitude and I have to run eco earth or high humidity substrate. I have thermostat set to 93 degrees and the heat tape and everything is working great. But it will not heat the eco earth well. It won't get higher than 83 degrees. I've made the eco earth very thin in hopes that would work but no dice. I've plugged the rack straight into the wall to see if maybe my thermostat wasn't working, nothing changed. Well the racks that didn't have substrate got very hot but not the ones with the coco fiber. I'm going to try a few other substrates in hopes this will work. I'm going to try herptopia and reptichip. I've been messing around with this for about a month too. If anyone has any ideas let me know. I've never had this problem before. My other racks work great with eco earth. Thanks a bunch.


Just so I'm clear. NO SNAKES ARE IN THE RACK. I am not cooking anything.

[Herpin' Man]

You could try using newspaper as a substrate. To create humidity, make a hide box with damp eco earth or similar. This should raise the humidity in the tub itself, too.

[Andy_G]

A few questions/thoughts.

-What species is this going to be for?

-Is the temperature being measured by a temp gun inside the tubs? If not, please get one and do it that way, as other methods are much more inaccurate.

-Are you measuring the temp on the top surface of the substrate, or on the tub itself? Keep in mind that snakes can and will move substrate to become comfortable, so ensure that you're also getting a reading on the bare tub underneath the surface.

-If you're doing all of the above and let's say you're getting a reading of 84 but you want a reading of 88 and the thermostat is set at 92...simply adjust it to get the right temp in the tub...in this hypothetical case it would be bumped to 95-96.

[dannybgoode]

Heat mats are pretty useless at warming up volumes of substrate and indeed some (at least in the UK) specify a maximum safe depth of substrate to prevent thermal blocking.

Perhaps mount the tape on the rear panels of the rack instead of the floor panels?

[akane]

If it didn't go up not plugged into the thermostat it sounds like the limit of the heat tape has been reached and "bumping it up" isn't going to do anything. Is the substrate moist? That will drop readings even more on some methods than others of measuring temp which you wouldn't have with bare or paper lined tubs. I also saw someone say adding "dry" eco earth without adding extra water already led to a large percentage increase in humidity which makes me think it may have more moisture to impact things even if you didn't wet it than some other substrate options.

Even my temp gun doesn't read all damp soil or soil like material as accurately as rock, wood, glass, or bare plastic. Temp guns do often come with mild adjustment settings for different materials that might make a few degree difference but knowing I'd lose the instructions and mostly measure rock or sand I set it to rock. If nothing else I throw a thin stone flooring tile on the substrate and read that. I use top heat but being conductive to temp if it's a thin natural material it will show very close to what the substrate under and around it is giving off for cool side readings since I use large gradient tanks instead of single temp bins. I'd also clear a space and read the bottom nearest the heat source and again after a few minutes just in case. You don't want a digging snake burnt because you used only an insulated reading and the insulated reading may not actually matter if they can do that.

[Andy_G]

If it didn't go up not plugged into the thermostat it sounds like the limit of the heat tape has been reached and "bumping it up" isn't going to do anything. Is the substrate moist? That will drop readings even more on some methods than others of measuring temp which you wouldn't have with bare or paper lined tubs. I also saw someone say adding "dry" eco earth without adding extra water already led to a large percentage increase in humidity which makes me think it may have more moisture to impact things even if you didn't wet it than some other substrate options.

Even my temp gun doesn't read all damp soil or soil like material as accurately as rock, wood, glass, or bare plastic. Temp guns do often come with mild adjustment settings for different materials that might make a few degree difference but knowing I'd lose the instructions and mostly measure rock or sand I set it to rock. If nothing else I throw a thin stone flooring tile on the substrate and read that. I use top heat but being conductive to temp if it's a thin natural material it will show very close to what the substrate under and around it is giving off for cool side readings since I use large gradient tanks instead of single temp bins. I'd also clear a space and read the bottom nearest the heat source and again after a few minutes just in case. You don't want a digging snake burnt because you used only an insulated reading and the insulated reading may not actually matter if they can do that.

I missed that he had plugged it right into the wall uncontrolled. Whoops!

[chairman]

It sounds like there are multiple racks, all are meeting expectations except one. What is different about the new rack?

Different design, perhaps an "economy" rack with open sides? Or maybe the new rack is sitting straight on the floor and the others are elevated, changing the ambient temps of the rack? Our maybe a different brand of heat tape?

[NRWAR]

I have done all that exactly. I have it set to 97 and yes I use a temp gun to read surface temps. I'll bump it up again probably to 99. I have a reading now of 87. So it's getting closer! All the racks are exactly the same. Nothing is different. I cleaned my probe really really well and I haven't sprayed any water for about 1 week now so maybe that was also the issue. I have noticed when it comes to wet substrate that my temp gun doesn't quite read right. I think I'm on the right track now. Thanks guys