Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is a good brand of UTH to use for a 30 gallon glass terrarium? Any opinions on the best brand of thermostat?

I use ZooMed for lone setups - I like Helix Proportional to control temps, but I've no experience with other brands (other than cheap on/off).
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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

I plan on turning the UTH off at night since temps don't fall below 72 degrees F. Have you had any trouble with the glass cracking? I've heard that can be a problem.

I've never had glass crack - with a proportional thermostat, your UTH will almost never run full current, so the odds of it cracking are really remote.

As glass gets old it probably is more apt to cracking - but I've never had glass crack because of thermal pads.
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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

I have to confess, I read the reviews on the petsmart and petco websites. Some of the customers complained that the UTH caused the glass around it to crack.

They may have run them full current 24/7.

Either get a proportional thermostat ( > $100 ) or get a dimmer switch ( cheap ) - the UTH will last longer, and you won't burn the belly of your herp.

If your indoor temps are stable enough, you don't need a thermostat - get a dimmer switch, start with half current and adjust until it maintains warm side of about 82 to 84.

With a dimmer switch, you may not be able to use a timer to turn it off at night - sometimes dimmers don't come back on when they have power cut to them, but with a dimmer switch, you'll get a natural temp drop at night, as the ambient room temperature cools down.
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x.y L. getula californiae (Cal. King)
x.y L. getula nigrita (MBK)
x.y L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
x.y Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
0.1 Heterodon nasicus (W Hognose)
x.y.z Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

Here are a couple I was looking at. These two are supposedly made for UTH, but I don't know how good they are.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753196&cp=2767037.2769282&view=all&fbn=Taxonomy|Habitats & Accessories&fbc=1&clickid=topnav_dropdown5_link3&parentPage=family&keepsr=1

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752604&cp=2767037.2862253&view=all&fbn=Taxonomy|Heating & Lighting&fbc=1&clickid=topnav_dropdown5_link5&parentPage=family&keepsr=1#prodTab1

I read other posts here saying Zoo med cracked bottom of their tanks. I thought it was just a freak thing till happended to me.

It was going so high I could have fried an egg. I ripped them off my tanks switched to Cobras as some here have suggested 2 yrs later still very happy.

Zoo med hits a certain temp than shuts off than goes back up while Cobra runs steady . I use regular scotch tape on the cobra to hold in place holds better than duct tape