Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone here had trouble with the ZooMed ReptiTemp 500R?
I have a small rack (5 shelves) to house my B.P.'s and Corn Snakes.
We wired 12" sections of 11" Flexwatt to each shelf... each to its own power cord... for belly heat. We placed the thermostat probes ON the flexwatt, taped with foil tape.
Two shelves are controlled by one ReptiTemp 500R, for the B.P.'s... and the other two have a seperate Reptitemp 500R for the Corn snakes. I did this so I could regulate the temps, since the corn and B.P.'s have different requirements.
Well, I have had a heck of a time regulating the temps! I have the B.P.'s on the top 2 shelves, in case you're wondering (since heat rises). I have 3 hides in each box (warm, middle, cool), a water dish, a humid hide... and I use aspen substrate. I keep track of temps with a indoor/outdoor thermometer with a probe. (Whew!)
I have large rubbermaid tubs, thank goodness... so, if the temps fluctuate too much, they CAN escape. I had the rack regulated before I moved my snakes into it... but, it seems the ZooMed products are going haywire!!!In fact, the one is so wacky, I've resorted to plugging the flexwatt into a dimmer.
Any suggestions? (I know, I know... buy a better thermostat!)Also, I've gotten conflicting info as to where to measure temps... should I measure on the surface of the aspen, or on the plastic itself?
Thanks, in advance for your help!
Mindy

Um. . I have no experience with this type of thermostat (ZooMed ReptiTemp 500R), however I do have some tiny advice. Please take it with a grain of salt though. You could have wired the 3 BP flexwatt tape together and the 2 corn snakes flexwatt together to save a little on electrical cording. Although your way does by all means serve it's purpose fine too. Personally on my racks I place my thermostat probe on my flexwatt too, and that works fine for my BPs. I place the thermometer probe on the inside of my tub in the center of my where my flexwatt heats. I figure if my BPs push all the substrate out of the way and sit right on the plastic tub then that's the temp I need to regulate, and let me tell you that's the first thing they all did too. Would just like to add alot of people sucessfully use a dimmer, as apposed to a thermostat. What's wrong with just using dimmers, they are relatively inexpensive and get the job done. Good luck and let us know how things go for you.
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Violette Garcia
www.shakahnsgrove.com (Coming Soon!)
Yes I know it's in webmaster's 'shop'.

Thank you for your advice. I really appreciate it...
We did have the flexwatt wired as you said... to save wire - but, re-wired it, thinking maybe that was part of our problem (of course, it wasn't).
I am going to call ZooMed today, to see if they have any suggestions, and I am going to change the thermostat probe, to read the temps inside the container, to see if that makes a difference.
I'm really at a loss!
Thanks for your time!

Mindy

I'd try swapping the thermostats. If the one you think is bad continues to act strangely, it most likely is bad. On the other hand, if the BP cages continue to see unstable temps, it's most likely a problem with your setup for those cages...