Do heat mats actually work?

[1000Bees]

Hi guys, I've got a 7 watt reptile one heat mat on a plastic tub that is going to be for a juvie carpet python, it's been plugged since yesterday but I've yet to see it get over 20 degrees. Does anyone have a setup like this with a heat mat actuality providing the heat needed? Should I just get something else?
Have a great day guys!

 

[danyjv]

I don’t like them personally nor trust them safety wise but they do work. Is that 20 degrees your getting on the matt it’s self or in the tub through the substrate?


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[Bl69aze]

I have the exact setup with paper towel substrate,
U will easily reach the 32°c how ever u have to bump the thermostat that comes with the heat mat up quite a bit but KEEP AN EYE ON THE TEMPS through out the day. You have to keep adjusting the thermostat depending on the outside temps, if it’s 16°c bump it up, if it’s 30° go down

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I use 10 watt heat mats for both my 7 liitre click-clacks for my Spotted and Stimmy. These tubs sit directly on the heat mats, half on-half off and I just use a double layer of paper towel for substrate. They hit 34 degrees easy and can climb over that as the day warms up so I have mine set on digital timers to turn off around 12pm and stay off until 6pm at which point they come back on and remain on over night. During the day at the moment, the cool side is where both the pythons are laying and it's around 26 degrees and at night it gets down to 23 with the heat mats keeping it at 32 on the warm side. Seems to work fine for me. Heat mats seem to cop a lot of flack on this forum but I've used them for my frogs for years, never used a thermostat with them, just timers. Never had any issues.

 

[Wokka]

The variables will be the distance between the heat mat and the thermometer, what materials are in that distance , and the ambient temperature. I would have thought the ambient temperature in Rye, Victoria would reach over 20C, so is your thermometer working?

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

You've gotta use an infra red laser thermometer to get an accurate reading.

 

[Bl69aze]

You've gotta use an infra red laser thermometer to get an accurate reading.

I use a seperate thermometer probe that sits above the substrate under the hide, gives the exact same reading

But yes it would be a good idea to buy a infrared heat gun, fun to use and if u have cats it’s a toy

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

I use a seperate thermometer probe that sits above the substrate under the hide, gives the exact same reading

But yes it would be a good idea to buy a infrared heat gun, fun to use and if u have cats it’s a toy

My turtles even chase the red dot around the substrate if I point it into their tank. LOL

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

Too many poor quality heat mats on the market for my liking.
The concept is fine but the risks associated to the poor quality ones make them a no no from my side of the fence.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Too many poor quality heat mats on the market for my liking.
The concept is fine but the risks associated to the poor quality ones make them a no no from my side of the fence.

The only one's I've ever used are the lime green Ultimate Heat Mat ones.

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

Plenty of people buying cheap options from China that have had catastrophic consequences. Including in some circumstances burning the house down.
Keep the heat mats no matter how good you might believe them to be. Just my own personal take on things of course, I just don't think they are worth the risk.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Plenty of people buying cheap options from China that have had catastrophic consequences. Including in some circumstances burning the house down.
Keep the heat mats no matter how good you might believe them to be. Just my own personal take on things of course, I just don't think they are worth the risk.

Yeah of course, no worries. Anyone keeping reptiles needs to have appropriate safety switches in their residence. Turtles especially. In winter, my safety switch can be tripped multiple times/week!

 

[pinefamily]

The 7 watt heat mats are meant for baking or raising seedlings. You will probably need a 10W one.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Plenty of people buying cheap options from China that have had catastrophic consequences. Including in some circumstances burning the house down.
Keep the heat mats no matter how good you might believe them to be. Just my own personal take on things of course, I just don't think they are worth the risk.

I only have 2 small pythons in simple setups to worry about so re-modelling is very quick and easy for me. I hope this is more to your liking, @Pauls_Pythons ?? Have unplugged the 2 heat mats and am now just using a single heat cord, taped to the bench top of my bar in the man-cave and have just used a few spare tiles from the huge lot left over from our last reno and put 2 tiles over the cord and 2 off to the sides (warm and cool ends accomplished.) There is a substantial amount of heat cord out from under the "warm tiles" as it won't be long until these 2 move into larger tubs, then I'll just put bigger tiles in place of thee small ones.
It's not tidy by any means but it's serving a purpose.

Warm end reading 35.5

27.1 cool side

Other side reading 35.5 warm end

27.2 on the other cool end

Tubs in place.

Blonde spotted on the left, Stimmy on the right.

Heat mats have been shelved for now.

 

[danyjv]

I use a seperate thermometer probe that sits above the substrate under the hide, gives the exact same reading

But yes it would be a good idea to buy a infrared heat gun, fun to use and if u have cats it’s a toy

Or kids


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[Pauls_Pythons]

Not important at all if its to my liking but I do use heat cords.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Not important at all if its to my liking but I do use heat cords.

Well your opinion in this field is important to me as you're more experienced. If heat cords are a better option than heat mats, I'm happy to go that way.

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

Well your opinion in this field is important to me as you're more experienced. If heat cords are a better option than heat mats, I'm happy to go that way.

Appreciated.
I do believe cords are better though there are those that will argue in favour of mats.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Appreciated.
I do believe cords are better though there are those that will argue in favour of mats.

No arguments from me, I have both, mats and cords lying around here. I never thought of using the cords until joining this forum and seeing how much hate the heat mats got. LOL It does make sense though, they are designed intentionally to have air flow around them and the manner in which I was using them, they did not. My cord setup is working perfectly, so thanks for your input.

 

[1000Bees]

It's getting a little bit warmer but not by much, I moved the set up to a different room and that's helped a bit, my house is quite cold. I'll try a few different things, otherwise I'll just get something else.

It's working better now, I think I might switch to a heat cord setup anyway but it'll be alright for a few days when I pick him up later today. I didn't have any paper towels or newspaper so I just used the coconut fiber substrate I have in my other guys' tanks, I took that out and having nothing else on hand ripped out a few pages of one of my cookbooks. It's holding heat better but now I'm worried he'll think it's the menu and will be very disappointed when he discovers I'm not actually serving rat pan pie.

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Speaking of heat cords is there something I can use instead of tiles? Otherwise it's a 3km walk to the nearest bunnings [emoji29]

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