Question for those who use belly heat and paper towel substrate

Weird. Never seen this before. What are your temps on the inside of the tub with an IR Gun?

Regards,

B

The Iron theory makes since because when I used to use paper towels it usually happened after they were wet and turned dry from the flexwatt, the paper would be brown.

Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

Still the heat tape to discolor the paper towel would be over heating and cause melting points on the tub. Should never see any discoloring on the inside from the heating element ever

Uh, it'd have to get a whole lot hotter than what the heat tape itself can produce to actually start melting things.

As I've said a couple times already, it's probably just discoloring it rather than burning it outright.

Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

My hot spots are 93 degrees mostly and I get a browning of the paper towel after 4-5 days, it's not burning the paper but it is discoloring it.

Yeah, that sounds like what I'm getting.

Originally Posted by dustinNMpythons

I've had paper towels brown too but its not a big deal I know it isn't getting too hot. I don't know what causes it but I've never had any issues burning snakes in the years I've been doing this. I use aspen mulch now even for the babies and it works great so I don't have any reason to go back to paper towels.

Now I'm really curious as to what's causing it! Time for experimentation!

Yeah, I think I'll limit the amount of time I use the paper towels.

Thanks for the feedback!

Originally Posted by preacher

You may want to look at your water source the browning may be nothing more than the iron in the water oxidizing due to the heat. It actually is not scorching the paper towel just discoloring it due to the high iron content of the water.

HMMM, I never thought of that. And that's a very good possibility since I've never tried it with dry paper towels. (That and knowing that Tucson's water has all kinds of fun stuff in it.) I should have some distilled water around here somewhere. Methinks I will try that in one of the tubs and see what happens. Thanks!!

Originally Posted by Breaking Balls

Weird. Never seen this before. What are your temps on the inside of the tub with an IR Gun?

Low- to mid-80s.

Originally Posted by LadyOhh

I have belly heat with heat tape and have never had any burning problems with any substrate at all other than if there is a malfunction.

Oops! Sorry! Missed a reply!

Yeah, that plus the temp of the tape and tubs is leading me to believe it's not burning but some other sort of discoloring.

Thanks for the feedback!

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To those who have never seen this in their own setups, were the paper towels wet? Also, what's the hardness of your water source?

Originally Posted by dustinNMpythons

The Iron theory makes since because when I used to use paper towels it usually happened after they were wet and turned dry from the flexwatt, the paper would be brown.

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that at all. I'm going to play around with distilled and maybe DI water (if I can get some) and see what happens.

Originally Posted by preacher

You may want to look at your water source the browning may be nothing more than the iron in the water oxidizing due to the heat. It actually is not scorching the paper towel just discoloring it due to the high iron content of the water.

This makes a lot of sense.
I know it's not too hot to burn the snakes and the browning usually is after some water spills.