Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a quick but important question. My retic is only about 5' but hes in a 6'x3' cage. in the cage there is a light on 14 hours a day bring ambients to about 83 and night times to about 73. the basking site is provided 24/7 by a 24"x17" dragons lair heat mat. The matt is direcxtly in the cage but does not get too hot too touch at all I have to put it directly in because the age is a big closet no underneath to it...Anyway there are alot of like air bubbles in the heat mat has anyone ever seen this before?? Is the matt still providing heat throughout the pad? How long do they usually last? The pad is underneat a large hide if that matters and the probe still reads about 93 the probe is in the hide. thanks for the help anyone can give
Mike

Is the pad hooked up to a thermostat? If not I would go ahead and hook one up, that way if the pad malfunctions, and gets too hot the thermostat will shut it off before the snake has a chance to get burned.