UTH :(

Beginning to think I wasted my money on UTHs .. bought a Honduran milk snake over a week ago and a Cali Kingsnake this past weekend .. the yearling Hondo is in a 10 gal aquarium w/ the 30-40 gal UTH and the Cal (hatchling) is in a 5 gal w/ the 5gal rated UTH .. thermometer is one-inch above substrate (aspen) and gets to 78 on the highest thermostat setting - the room temp is 74?!?! The snakes have done nothing but stay burrowed, I wonder if they are brumating. Going to switch to heat lamps

How are you measuring the temp? Are you checking the actual surface over the heat mat? Hiding in the aspen is pretty normal so that might not indicate a problem.


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UTHs work just fine, for heat, and do not have the higher drying out aspect that lamps do.
If the UTH is plugged into a thermostat, with thermostat switched on & plugged into a socket, and the UTH is not warming up enough, at thermostat's highest setting, there just may be something wrong (a malfunction) with either the thermostat or the UTH ... or even with wherever the thermostat is plugged into (such as lack of power in socket).
Burrowing snakes is normal.
Seems, to me, that some troubleshooting is in order.

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BTW Check the temp at tank surface, below substrate, where the UTH is located.
Also, what are you using to measure temps? A temp gun, stick on thermometer, probe type thermometer, other?
Plus, are you using an actual thermostat or is it a rheostat?

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Thanks for the help .. the thermometer (stick on) is on the side of the glass about an inch above substrate on the hot side .. the thermostat probe is on the bottom of the tank beneath the substrate .. think I will buy a thermometer with a probe and place that on the bottom also .. I will also plug the UTHs straight into an electrical socket w/out using the t-stat and monitor that closely to see if that makes a diff.

Those stick on thermometers are notorious for being imperfect. Plus, having it above the substrate, stuck on the glass, does no good.
Getting a probe thermometer will be much better. Just place the probe where I mentioned in previous post.
If you are going to plug the UTH directly into the electrical socket, bypassing use of thermostat, I hope you are only going to do this long enough to test the UTH to make sure it is working. Please, do not use the UTH, without a thermostat, as the heat source for your snakes. Otherwise you will be setting the snakes up for a potential serious burn.

Thanks Pasodama .. yes, that is why I said I would monitor it closely w/out the t-stat .. make sure the temp does not get out of control .. if it improves, I guess I will look for a better t-stat along with a better thermometer. I will put the stick on thermometer in a drawer and forget about it, lol.

An unregulated UTH can get hot enough to burn your snake in just a few minutes. It should never be used without a thermostat.

The stick-on thermometers are not going to read heat coming off of the UTH; the UTH's sole purpose is to heat the glass on the bottom of the tank. A UTH will not raise the ambient temperature of the air in the tank.

Plus those stick-on thermometers tend to fall off the glass but they stick very well to your snake; IMO between their inaccuracy and inability to stay in place they're worthless.

You either need a thermometer with a probe or a temperature gun to measure the surface temperature of the glass over the UTH.

I temped a heat mat at 140! Do not use it without a thermostat, what type of thermostat are you using? I suggest getting a temp gun, they're like $30-40 at home depo for the good one. Having a thermometer up in the glass not even touching the surface is not going to give you an accurate read at all.

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Yikes! I have quite the opposite problem. My UTH is at 105 right now and I have a small version on my 10 gallon. On the top of the aspen is is 88-90 so thankfully my snake will be fine till my controller comes tomorrow as he doesn't burrow on the hot side probably knowing it is much too hot.