Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello everyone,
i'm new to this forum. i'm usually on the pits one. anyway....
i recently built three enclosures out of 3/4" melamine. they are 24" by 24" by 48". they have sliding plexiglass fronts and each has several 6" by 9" vents in the rear. the enclosures are stacked together with 1" between. i used 3" flexwatt heat tape and taped it with silver tape under each enclosure along one edge. i plugged the uth's into a zoo med reostat.
my problem is the temp fluxuation. it goes from 90 to 109 with no warning. i switched reostats with no effect, and all 3 stips are doing the same thing.
i would appreciate some advice and feedback. i'm not sure if there is a temp regulated reostat instead of just a dial version like i have, or some better way of getting a steady temp. i'm pretty handy building. i built my own cages, but i can really use some help with the heat. thanks....

There are temperature regulated rheostats. I have been using a helix dbs-1000 for about 2 years now and it has worked great. There are also a few other varieties, herpstat, johnson, big apple has one also.

What you are using is basically an expensive dimmer switch. It doesn't control the electricity based on heat, it only regulates the amount of electricity. If room temps go up then so does the heat tape. This is probably where your problem is coming from. Also make sure there is adequate air flow around the heat tape. This could be causing the temp to increase as well.

Hope this helps

you have three cages 4'lx2'dx2h built out of 3/4 melimine. they are all stacked on top of eachother with 1" spaceres..

now out of couriosity you mounted the UTH to the bottom of each cage right? did you make any cut outs, or is the heat going through 3/4" of pressed wood? also what kind of UTH are you using?
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-Stephen-

0.1 soon to be wifey (hopefully)
1.0 rotwiler/chow (Boomer-wifey's pooch)
1.0 norm corn (Jake aka grumpy old terdhead)
0.1 col redtail boa (Dixie-my baby girl)
0.1 ball python (Bella- wifey's baby girl)

hopeful for not to distant future:
--brazillian rainbow boas 1 female for sure
2 or 3? maybe a breeding pair?

more distant future hopefuls
1 or 2 of each maybe a breeding pair?
--anery boa (ooooh)
--jungle carpet python (love to have 1 or 2)
--dumeril boa (ahhhh)

slightly more wishful thinking
--hypo br rainbow boa (love em)
--anery br rainbow boa (oooh even better!!)
--motely boa (gorgeous!!)