dimmer & heat pad

[paulsreef]

I plugged a heat pad into a dimmer box that I put together myself and It won't maintain a fairly steady temp. I try to calibrate to a 90-95 degree range; it holds it for hours and when I get up in the morning it's around 75 degrees. Like it has a mind of it's own. It almost shuts itself off. I paid around 5 bucks for the dimmer; do you think I need a better quality dimmer or is mine just shot? Thanks, Paul.

[munchy]

not too sure but does the ambient temperature in your herp room fluctuate over the course of the day?

[mykee]

Most heat pads have a dimmer built in, why not just try using the one provided internally instead of outsourcing?

[paulsreef]

There are 3 settings; low, medium and high.
Even at the low setting the hot spot will get up to 115 degrees.
Therefore I hooked up a dimmer. No thermostat yet, I went EL CHEEPO first to see if I could control the temps with just the dimmer. Thanks, Paul.

[lucky8926]

Is the heat pad one that automatically shuts off after a certain time period?

[paulsreef]

I don't think so; but that's an intersesting point.
I haven't noticed it shutting off before when I used it without the dimmer.

[Justcage]

Are you talking about human heating pads having the built in dimmer? You might want to go with a thermostat... As stated before if the room temp is not stable it will increase or decrease the heat comming from the element. A dimmer will continue providing the amount of poer you set the dial to no matter what the temp in the cage is.......