thermostat frustration

[leamos]

I know it serves me right for buying a cheap and nasty ebay thermostat, but I can't get this damn thing to work right. It worked fine when I tested it, with only a 2 deg temp swing. I turned it all back on yest for my jungles arrival and the temp is swinging 6 or 7 deg! and its been on for over 30 hrs now. I'm using it to control the 14W heat mat under a 30L click clack, I have the probe halfway along the click clack set to 27 deg and the thermometer probe at the hot end. Max and min readings are 35 - 28 and when I drop the thermostat to 26 it doesn't even reach 30 at the hot end before switching off. How can 1 deg on the thermostat mine a 5deg difference at the hot end? I have tried moving the thermostat probe around to minimise temp swing but nothing seems to be working

Any tips ideas would be much appricated. Bit I think i need to bite the bullet and buy a decent thermostat

 

[user 16324]

could it possibly be the thermometer too? is that a cheapy as well? i'd say invest in something good quality. habistat for example.

 

[leamos]

I bought the thermometer from herpshop, dual probe, but the readout has been jumping around a bit even when the thermostat has clicked off, so you might be right

 

[Schnecke]

Have you tried moving the thermostat probe to the hot end as well? As the hot spot is the most important temp in the CC. No use measuring the hot end with the thermometer but controlling the middle of the CC with the thermostat IMO (You may have already tried this, just trying to help.)

It can be hard to maintain an exact temp in CC's, as the area is so small any residual heat from the heat mat after the thermostat turns the heat off, still continues to raise the temp around it. Hense the temp rising well above the normal allowance above set temp.

Have you tried putting a ceramic tile between the meat mat and the CC? We found this a great way to regulate heat on the floor of our CC's as it avoided "spikes" in temps.

Hope you can work it out. I suspect that it is more to do with set up than the actual thermostat. It can be so fidly to get it right sometimes, an utter nightmare and 50,000 checks (well, in my case it was haha)

Cheers.

 

[leamos]

yeah think thats the issue, the thermostat clicks off and the thermometer reads around 33 but like you said the residual heat from the heatmat is playing havoc with my setup

I have tried the probe at the hot end but that didn't help much, will definately try it with a tile inbetween the heat and cc and see where that gets me cheers

Just a quick update - with the heatmat sandwiched between the two tiles the temps are much more stablised (31.5 - 34) thanks for the tips Schnecke

 

[mysnakesau]

Do you need the thermostat at all? On a 14W heatmat? And in a 30L click clack I would say no you wouldn't, because it sounds like there is ample room for good gradient. Just don't place a one and only hide box over the heat. Keep it mid way or at the cool end, or a couple of them just to encourage him its ok to move around.

 

[Schnecke]

Glad I could help!

 

[leamos]

Do you need the thermostat at all? On a 14W heatmat? And in a 30L click clack I would say no you wouldn't, because it sounds like there is ample room for good gradient. Just don't place a one and only hide box over the heat. Keep it mid way or at the cool end, or a couple of them just to encourage him its ok to move around.

Nah I think I need the thermostat for piece of mind and because it gets over 40deg (hot end) at 20deg room temp, so in summer it would be cooking in there without a thermostat. Think I have it dialled in now 30.9 - 33.0 at night and 31.0 - 33.8 during today (min and max) at the hot end