Temperature troubles

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Thanks for the advice! When I get home I’ll turn the thermostat right up and see if it does anything. I originally had a heat light and a bigger lamp but because I can’t hang it and there was nothing the clamp it in to it was too big to sit directly on the tank as it would’ve had to go right on top of the plastic twist cable part, so I swapped it out for the CHE in the smaller closed lamp.
If turning the thermostat up doesn’t help is it worth exchanging my CHE for another one that’s the same on the chance it could be faulty? It definitely gets hot as you can feel the heat around the lamp and right underneath it


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If turning the thermostat up doesn’t help is it worth exchanging my CHE for another one that’s the same on the chance it could be faulty? It definitely gets hot as you can feel the heat around the lamp and right underneath it
I think Next Step would be to try the CHE without a Thermostat ( just plug it into wall) then you can rule out whether its thermostat OR the CHE, these thermostats are funny in that quite often one or the other (heat/timer) dont work properly.

I know when i tried my CHE wihtout a thermostat you could smell ceramic when it was nice and hot.
 
If turning the thermostat up doesn’t help is it worth exchanging my CHE for another one that’s the same on the chance it could be faulty?

Could be your thermostat thats the problem.
They are well documented as being difficult to set up.
 
Plugged CHE straight into the wall about 3 or 4 hours ago, left the thermostat on still with the temperature probe up on the branch, is currently reading 22.6 degrees still but I’ll give it a bit longer and see


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Plugged CHE straight into the wall about 3 or 4 hours ago, left the thermostat on still with the temperature probe up on the branch, is currently reading 22.6 degrees still but I’ll give it a bit longer and see


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Definitely a dud unless your house is an IceCube

It should start smelling funny within an hour

Suppose you can try cover the top with a towel or something just don’t let the towel go under the dome

This is what I use without a thermostat and it reaches 30° like 25cm away on a 15° day (mind you I have a wooden enclosure

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Still hovering around 22. Damn, and I’m pretty sure the store I bought it from only sells that one. Is there anything else useful I could try and exchange it for or is that my $75 down the drain
Will try the towel covering tomorrow but didn’t want to have to resort to that


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Still hovering around 22. Damn, and I’m pretty sure the store I bought it from only sells that one. Is there anything else useful I could try and exchange it for or is that my $75 down the drain
Will try the towel covering tomorrow but didn’t want to have to resort to that


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Tell them you think it’s a dud as it’s not getting the hotspot temp high at all, and they should give you a new one
 
Hi! So to update;
Took back the CHE and got another one (they did only supply the one brand so I got the same thing), it did heat up a bit better but still not enough so I folded a towel underneath and behind the hot side of the tank and put a baking tray on top which all helped some more. Got my Stimmie that day(one week ago today) and a heat rock that I put directly under the CHE and that gets to about 32 on the inside and 33.5 on top of it (that’s measured using the temperature probe on my thermostat. However if I just let the probe sit on the floor of the tank or hang midair it doesn’t even reach 30 degrees. Whenever I or my partner are home we turn on our little heater and leave it in the living room where the tank is to keep the room warmer, however when we aren’t home or at night when we’re asleep we turn it off(for safety reasons) and obviously it’s coldest at night so I’m worried it is still too cold in there for him. Charlie (my snake) has seemed pretty good so far, he’s even had a feed no problems. So what I’m wondering is wether or not I should look at getting a basking lamp or something to help increase the heat more? Because I’m not sure if ideally you have the WHOLE hot side around 33 degrees or if it’s enough to just have one particular spot eg heat rock at that temperature? I hope this all makes sense!!


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I would recommend you chuck the heat rock, they are quite dodgy in how they are made, some areas being thicker inside with the heat glue or whatever than other parts causing uneven heating.

You want a section of the tank to be the desired temps, like a 3rd of the tank is recommended
 
You want a section of the tank to be the desired temps, like a 3rd of the tank is recommended

So I basically need the whole hot end to be reading the hottest temperature, ie if I have the probe hanging mid air or sitting on the surface it should still be around 33?


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So I basically need the whole hot end to be reading the hottest temperature, ie if I have the probe hanging mid air or sitting on the surface it should still be around 33?


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There should be atleast one spot in the tank that reads 30-35, that the snake can rest on, its tricky to get right because you need to make sure you are measuring the hottest spot.

The probe placement depends how you are heating, for lamps and che it should be a bit off the ground, but for heat mats, it should be on the ground (I do it under the substrate, because mine like to dig, and last thing I want is for them to touch hot glass over their temps
 
That’s what I’m trying to understand though, as the heat rock is definitely hot enough, and he can also climb his branch which goes right up under the CHE which is also hot enough (which he is doing right now). So is that enough or do I need a basking light/another heat source?


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(that’s measured using the temperature probe on my thermostat.

This is pointless.
This is not an accurate reading. You need to measure the surface temperature which is easy using a non contact thermometer.
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Crap really? He spends most his time in there, I got it from a really reputable experienced breeder :/

Doesnt make it a better unit because you bought it from a breeder. They are not designed for snakes and have been known to leave animals with horrific burns.
 
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Gee, what a workup... Such a long discussion when the major problems are obvious. The biggest problem is the enclosure - ESPECIALLY the open top. Glass is a poor holder of heat, and that, combined with the open mesh top which allows all your heat to just rise out of the enclosure by convection, makes it almost impossible to heat sufficiently, and especially for an Antaresia, which are not frequent climbers and will spend most of their time on the ground. You have been given some very bad advice on the needs of your animal, and what you needed to ensure it remains comfortable. As PP has said, heat rocks are not good for snakes (they're not good for anything really), and ceramic heaters don't project heat the way a heat lamp does, they radiate it, so they need to be inside the enclosure, and the enclosure needs to be covered so the heat does not escape (nothing flammable of course...).

I'm guessing you've spent a lot of money setting this up, when a 25W heat cord placed under the tank at one end would be the cheapest, most effective and safest way to provide heat for your animal, and the belly heat would especially suit any Antaresia. A 25W heat cord zig-zagged (and not touching itself) to cover an area of about 35cm or 40cm square will provide sufficient very gentle heat, and a gradient from warm to cool, so that you might not even need a thermostat in winter - you would need it for safety in summer though. You need to place your thermostat probe on the floor above the heat cord so that it controls the temperature of the floor, not the surrounding air, and set it so that the floor in that spot reaches 32 or 33 degrees C. Heat cords are cheap, very safe, and waterproof. I have used nothing else in over 15 years now with everything from Antaresias to GTPs (I make my own heat panels with them), and never had one fail or let me down. I'd sooner pay to run a 25W heat source than a combination that can run into hundreds of watts per hour. if you are using lights to produce heat, you are wasting a lot of money.

It really disappoints me to see what new keepers are told and sold when setting their first animals up, and to be honest some of the advice in this thread is dodgey as well. There is usually a simple and cheap solution to most of these problems, but I guess outlets have a vested interest in selling as much junk as they can to increase their profits. It's not unusual to hear of someone spending $1000 on gear to keep a $100 snake. Crazy and dishonest.

Jamie
 
Oh wow, thank you so much for the advice! Wish I knew this before spending what I’ve spent so far....
I’ll go hunt down a heat cord tomorrow! Is it something that will stick to the underside of the enclosure or does it just go under the substrate?


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Oh wow, thank you so much for the advice! Wish I knew this before spending what I’ve spent so far....
I’ll go hunt down a heat cord tomorrow! Is it something that will stick to the underside of the enclosure or does it just go under the substrate?


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Goes underneath the tank
 
Okay sounds good!
But, is the cord going to be any more effective than the heat mat? Because the heat mat I had didn’t get the temperature right above the substrate above about 22 :/


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