years ago before the internet days , i had a royal that was burnt by a unstated heat mat , the mat malfunctioned and over heated when i was at work.
half of his belly was burnt , i was so gutted to see him in that state , he did eventually recover after treatment , but if i had a stat at the time it wouldnt of happened.
i would never be without a thermostat again

 

i totally agree, i have had some nasty burns on my snakes even with relatively small mats like 11"x11" these things can creep up on you and when you find out the damage that has been done you feel awful, my snake learned the hard way dont let yours! its one of those things in life like insurance, you have it and begrudge paying for it but if you dont have it, thats when the trouble happens!

 

i've never had a snake burn itself in our care, but I have personally seen enough to know that yes you certainly do need a thermostat eith heatmats or any heat source.
I'd also point out that unless you read that litte quote on the website it's easy to take what you've read out of context.

Habistat go onto say that "with species that have particular requirements or those prone to overheating is it sensible to use a thermostat" etc.

 

i decided one day just to plug a mat in to warm some mice up i then measured the pemps the mat got to now it was a 17x11 mat that got to over 100f so i deff would aways use a stat on every mat that i use

 

A mat can burn if it malfunctions, it shouldn't burn if it doesn't malfunction, but like any heating device, malfunctions can occur. Whilst burning may not occur if functioning properly, over heating certainly can. Some reptiles will die quite quickly if the temperature just above their comfortable range, you may keep quite hardy snakes, but certainly there are species out there that on a hot day, will die if a mat is unstatted.

 

Ive measured the unstated surface of a mat at 117F

I have heard that most snakes can get neurological problems once temperatures push over 92F.

 

I have heard that most snakes can get neurological problems once temperatures push over 92F.

I heard that to be 110F?? *shrugs*

 

you defenatly need a stat it gives you peace of mind and also minamises the risk of hurting your snake

oour mat went to over 100.F without a stat

 

I did a test run last year with a mat under an empty glass tank. I assume the mat must have been faulty, but it scorched the wood under the tank and cracked the glass floor! The surfaces were hot enough for me to pull my hand back when i touched them. If anything had been in that tank it would be dead. I never use a mat without a stat, its just not worth the risk for the sake of £20.

 

I left a 11x11 heatmat on for about two hours and it reached around 140F, luckily i had no reps in the viv at the time. My other viv with one of my corns went down to 17C once then went to 37C in one day! I am never going to take the risk of not using a thermostat again, and defo recommend the use of thermostats!

 

I had my corn on an un-statted mat for years, and consider myself lucky that he never got burnt, doesn't mean it wouldn't have happened eventually.

It wasn't til I started using this forum I invested in some stats.

Before using a stat I noticed my corn was almost always on the cool end of his viv... I've always had the mat inside a wooden viv, with substrate or newspaper on top of it.

Without a stat I measured the temp at about 47c, so figured no wonder he was hardly on it! Had in on a stat ever since.

 

I had my corn on an un-statted mat for years, and consider myself lucky that he never got burnt, doesn't mean it wouldn't have happened eventually.

It wasn't til I started using this forum I invested in some stats.

Before using a stat I noticed my corn was almost always on the cool end of his viv... I've always had the mat inside a wooden viv, with substrate or newspaper on top of it.

Without a stat I measured the temp at about 47c, so figured no wonder he was hardly on it! Had in on a stat ever since.

I hadn't even heard of a mat stat until I started using this forum, I've always kept snakes (corns/royals/bull/pine/gophers) in wooden vivs with heat mats inside without stats. Not through me not wanting to pay £20, but because I was never told they were required, and I've personally had no problems with any mats malfuctioning or burning anything that a mat stat would of prevented.

I have had 2 problems with heatmats, I had a iguana years ago, who damaged the lead to the heat mat without me noticing, he then pee'd on it, and it started to smoke, luckily I was in the house at the time and managed to stop it before it developed into a fire, and another was I brought a young boa off someone with the complete set up, and the same day the boa electrocuted itself after coming out of the water bowl and going across the lead where there was some slight damage.

Thanks for everyones input, I'm just wondered how many people had actually experienced something, rather than just hearing stories others have said.

 

I'd also point out that whie you can physically SEE a burn overheating snakes can cause SERIOUS neurological problems. ie a problem you can't "see"

 

... is enough to put me off 'risking' it. I've never had a bad experience with unstatted mats, but then I've never used one without a stat.

 

Isn't the phrase "Used under normal conditions the mats cannot burn the animal." horrible ? What on earth does it mean ?

Heat mats are not air tight, which means they are not water tight either. Spillages of water and the liquid expelled from the snake with urates and faeces can therefore be a danger if they come into contact with electricity ( although I highly doubt that a thermostat would have any effect in stopping that )

The key thing about heat mats is to try it for yourself and dont just take the word of other people or the manufacturers. If you have one of those infrared thermometers ( if you don't, get one ... they can tell you the heat of any surface anywhere in the viv by pointing the light at it... they're superb ) then put something that weighs the same as your snake on it and measure the temperature of where the object meets the mat... I think most people will be quite shocked at how warm the object gets.

 

Mat stats for heat mats.. are they necessary?


Yes

 

According to eurorep's habistat website, it states that the mats are unable to burn the animal with normal use.

Used under normal conditions the mats cannot burn the animal.

Normal conditions is classed as using the mat with an appropriate thermostat, set to the correct temp for that animal, therefore this should not cause burns, but as we all know things can go wrong with both mats and thermostats so general common sense is needed.

im sure peterf would come on and verify this.

 

Habistat Heat Mats.
Heat Mats produce ultra long wavelength infra red heat. This wavelength is invisible to the human eye and tends to furnishings in the cage rather than the air. This action of heating is very similar to the sun and it has the ability to heat anything that it strikes but with the air temperature remaining much lower. Reptiles absorb this at in a manner very similar to basking in a natural enviroment. Heat mats do get warm but provide a very gentle warmth which the animal can sit under or on top of. Used under normal conditions the mats cannot burn the animal.
It should be noted that heat mats give a gentle background heat. If you are keeping animals that requires higher temperatures, then you may require additional supplemental heating. Many diurnal or day active species of lizard require basking spots of rather high localised heat. Additional heat sources should then be provided for these species. Heat mats are excellent primary heaters for most applications requiring night time heating, as they emit no visable light and are the most widely used heater for this purpose.
For many species of snake and for most invertebrate heating. Heat mats are excellent as the sole heat sources. If in doubt please seek expert advice with regard to the animal's specific requirements.

i don't know if this is relevant but having read this information thatc omes with heat mats god knows how many times i also picked up on the fact that it advises the be mat be left to stablize for 24-48hrs.

at this point i conducted a little experiment (i mendle with things like this because i'm incredibly sad -or so the oh says). i stuck an empty rub on the heat mat and checked it regularly. i noticed the temperature climbed quickly and went to over 110f then decreased amd settled to around 85f. this was all in around 12hrs, over the next 24hrs the tempertaure fluctuated by a couple of degress from 82f to 87f during the normal heating a cooling of the day.

secondly as part of the experiment, tried variations concerning the air flow getting to th heat mat. firstly i tried it under an empty rub with no air flow. the temperatures reahed silly levels. then i tried the same thing with small legs under each corner (pieces of thick caret tile about an inch by and inch), the were still pretty high. finally i tried it on the slatted wardrobe that i actually use for my snakes normalls. basically the cheap crap from argos that come with a canvas cover (which i remove) plus the little square pieces of carpet tile again. the temperatures seemed great with all this air flow and the fact the mat had a chance to stabilse for a good long while as well (which i'm sure most people on here do anyway).

all this is pretty irrelevant for me as i use mat stats anyway. but like you i did think that some of the horror stories i had heard may have been intensified by the internet. so to be nosy i just thought i test a few things, obviously this does not prove what can happen over a long period of time or under unusual conditions but i found it interesting all the same