thermostat trouble

[K1LOS]

Well, thanks to the help from some people in my electrical wiring post i finished wiring up my thermostat, That was easy enough. Now i don't think its working properly...

my incubator is a ghetto styrofoam cooler with a human heatpad lying in the bottom, and a raised shelf for the egg box. Unforftunately, because i had trouble with the wiring, by the time i finished it all, my leo laid her eggs literally an hour later. I didn't get time to set the thermostat correctly. And i can't keep opening the incubator and playing with it!

Now i'm not sure if it's even working properly, because the light on the heatpad only comes on if i pass a certain spot that clicks on the dial. It clicks when i turn left or right passed that spot. To the left the light goes off, right the light goes on. Looks like a 15 dollar on/off switch with a dial!

The thermostat is a ct60a honeywell. Does anybody else use this thermostat? It measures the temperature on its own, correct? It is meant to be used with electric baseboard heaters. Do you know how i can test the thermostat effectively?

Any help would be greatly appretiated. Right now it looks like i'm gonna be up all night beside it monitoring it...

Thanks

Geoff

[Stockwell]

Baseboard bimetal T stats are not very good for herp incubators as they have wide 3 or 4 degree differentials and a fairly slow response time.
This will result in a fairly large temperature swing within your enclosure. It should be fine for Leos however, although you need to ensure it isn't getting too hot in the enclosure.
Leopard gecko eggs are very easy to hatch and any temp between 75 and 91 will hatch Leo eggs.
I wouldn''t sweat the urgency to put them in your box until you are sure its working correctly.
If you have a room of even a reptile tank that is maintained within the above range, simply put the eggs in a small deli on moist vermiculite and put them in the tank or on a shelf, which ever is most appropriate.
More eggs are killed by overheating them in make shift incubators that get too hot, then ones that are simply left in the herp room slightly above normal room temp.
So get your new incubator working satisfactorily before putting your eggs in there. Having them a little cool for a few days is safer than baking them accidentally

Make sure your heat pad is on the low setting if it has more than one setting. Using a small fan may also help your response time by circulating the air more quickly .
When you turn the T stat up slowly, at the point where it clicks it has just turned on and that should correspond to the light coming on, on the heat pad. So turn it up slowly until it just barely clicks on. Then check to see if the pad gets hot, then close things up and wait to see if it turns off after the heat rises
When the temp increases a few degrees the T stat should make another click and your light will turn off automatically.
Let it cycle numerous times, and monitor and adust the temp.
When you're sure its OK, then put your egg container in.
Best of luck

[Icefire]

yeah That kind of thermostat get about 6 degre C or F differential
I dont remember but I have tested it.
you should remove the eggs and take a Digital Thermometer (about 7-10$ at walmart) and look for themperature.
The human heating pad should have 3 setting one it no? Low Med Hi?
Try at Low, should be around 85F

[K1LOS]

i have a digi thermometer in there. You are saying full blast on the thermo at low is around 85? That doesn't sound right, but i'll give it a shot. You are right about the low/med/high settings, but i think we must be using differently powered heating pads. That sounds too warm for my low setting. Thanks for the advice

Geoff