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On a few of my Barrs cages I have the ZooMed UTH pads attached under the cage at one end to provide a gradient. Temperature is controlled with rheostats and checked with a temp gun. I keep young BCC boas in these cages and prefer a hot spot of 88 degrees F with no higher than 90.

All was fine through the winter months but now with the warmer weather, even with AC, the house is warmer. I have the rheostats turned as low as possible and am getting temps of 96-98 over the pads. Would hooking up two rheostats in line work to send less electricity to the pad and provide the lower temperatures I seek? Would this be safe? If that will not work I will have to try some other brands of pads. Thanks for your advice. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

It isn't the heat pads so much as it is your controllers.

Do not hook up two dimmers in series - you will just get unintended results.

Rheostats do not change output with ambient air temp changes. So when your room is 70 deg and you adjust your rheostats to maintain the heat pads to say 85 deg, as soon as the room warms up (say to 75 deg), the heat pads will be warmer than 85 deg.

If you want the same temp maintained despite changes in room temperature, then get a proportional controller. Many to choose from now. Spyder Electronics, Helix, etc etc.

Also remember, the cage will insulate better (or feel like it does anyway) when the ambient air temp increases. The plastic maintains the heat better - the heat energy permeates through the plastic over a larger area when the air temps warm up. This is the one bad thing about heat pads. If the cage is large enough, then it is a non-issue, but in a small cage it is a problem. That is why I like radiant heat panels for large snakes. Just easier.

Another thing you can do is to hook up an ON/OFF thermostat and plug your dimmers into that. Place the probe on the heat pad and set that controller to shut off at 90 deg. That is what I did with this dimmer assembly in the pic. I plugged it into a Ranco ON/OFF controller. You can also use one of the readily-available herp thermostats that has a probe. I think they are around $50.

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Mark

Thanks for the good advice and I always apreciate your posts.

For many years I have run Barrs and Vision cages with the Exoterra Heat Wave pads and ZooMed rheos. Never a problem with adjusting to consistant temps for winter and summer. Problem came about with new cages and when Exoterra changed their pads to the new style "Rainforest" and "Desert". I tried both and found they worked great during last summer but during the winter I could not get adequate heat from even the Desert model. Went to the ZooMed pads which worked fine during the winter. I noticed that these pads do run fairly hot even at low settings. So now I am facing the opposite problem-lol. Too much heat in the warmer season.

Never worked with thermostats so it looks like I might give one a try. Also may revisit the Exoterra pads or try another brand. Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.

Thank you Bill.

For your convenience, look into a thermostat. In the end it will be much easier for you than trying to depend on manufacturers to offer a certain wattage heat pad or heat pad with a particular watt-density that matches what you need.

Much easier to have a controller that can work with just about any reasonable heat pad.

FYI, ZooMed heat pads do run hot. In fact, they can run very hot near the center with drastically cooler temps on the edges. So make sure you place the temperature probe near the middle of the pad, or at least not too far out on the edge.

And lastly, again for your convenience, if you ever decide you may want to try a radiant heat panel, don't hesitate, especially for a cage that is 2ftx3ft or larger. Very effective heaters and easier to control. You can have a nice wide gradient with those and still heat a large animal without the nuisance of elevating cages to put heat pads underneath.

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Mark

Thanks again for the good advice. I will get a thermostat this week and give that a try.

In the fall I am getting several larger cages and will equip them with RHP. Might have a few more questions for you as I get closer to buying the RHP. Thanks again, Bill
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...three years ago it was just another snake cult...
The Retic is King.
Anacondas-the other Dark Side.
Afrocks-the dark side of the Dark Side.