Do i REALLY need a thermostat?

[Tim Brooks]

I recently had a habistat matt-stat fail on me, i noticed that the power light had stopped working but the heatlight was still on. however to my horror i noticed that the heat light wasnt actually going off & the heat was on constantly. FAIL

luckily my 2 corns never lay on the warm side, they are both normally pirched near the roof of the viv on some hanging branch, i swear they think they are amazon tree corns or something weird

[Mog1999]

cool experimaent

[Grond]

Originally Posted by Mog1999

cool experimaent

Actually, it was quite a warm experiment.....

[spirit975]

Originally Posted by Grond

Actually, it was quite a warm experiment.....

[Tempest_Wales]

I had to get a thermostat because the temperature in the room Red is in is quite variable.

[Scarpa]

I've set up with a ceramic but just in case the stat fails this may be an idea. Test run your set up and decide on a wattage of bulb so that if it remained on full it would still leave the cold end of your viv at a survivable temp (i.e. slightly lower than the basking spot). This ensures that your bulb/heater has all the capacity you need to maintain normal temperatures but even in the event of the stat failing in the on position your reptile can still move down a temp gradient. The digital thermometers with hi/lo alarms are useful too.

[Whosthedaddy]

Originally Posted by kingball

my god i put a heatmat under a rub tonight and took readings every 10 mins went up 5 degrees each time last check was over 130f thats shocking and reptile shops say you dont need a stat

I was told that I didn't really need a stat for my mat, never used a mat do took if for gospel despite some reservations and was a little shocked too at the temps coming up on the IR temp guns screen.

A habistat in place now, a little happier, now comes the tweaking part to get things just right.

I have burried the probe under the substrate on the mat, this sounds about right for my wee hoggie?

[Grond]

Originally Posted by Whosthedaddy

I was told that I didn't really need a stat for my mat, never used a mat do took if for gospel despite some reservations and was a little shocked too at the temps coming up on the IR temp guns screen.

A habistat in place now, a little happier, now comes the tweaking part to get things just right.

I have burried the probe under the substrate on the mat, this sounds about right for my wee hoggie?

As long as the probe's touching the mat, you're spot on!

[v3n0m]

Originally Posted by Ssthisto

Everyone's got to sleep sometime, and that's several hours when you cannot be maintaining temperatures if there is a heat spike.

that is also several hours wen ur stat could break aswell, and there is as much chance of ur stat failing as there is of a mat soaring.

[Ssthisto]

Originally Posted by v3n0m

that is also several hours wen ur stat could break aswell, and there is as much chance of ur stat failing as there is of a mat soaring.

You haven't used heat mats for very long or actually CHECKED their surface temperatures with an accurate thermometer, have you?

A heat mat in the UK (I haven't used US heat mats) is running normally and correctly when it reaches temperatures in excess of 100 degrees fahrenheit... it's not physically breaking down, it's just running at normal operating temperature.

So the thermostat is necessary to limit that normal operating temperature to one that's safe for the reptile that's lying on or above it.