My UTH failed last night...Brrrr....

[CString]

Monday I picked up a 36x18x18 tank and UTH to upgrade from the starter kit my leo came with. It took Monday and Tuesday to get temperatures stabilized and the correct gradient. I put him in Tuesday night and everything was fine. I woke up this morning and looked at the thermostat for the UTH....69.9. I freaked out. Immediately reached in to feel his tile floor and it was freezing. I threw in a red bulb I had laying around and got the temp back up to the 80's because I had to get to work, and no stores were open yet anyway. I'm going to go get a new UTH after work, and rehome him back to his old tank for a couple hours while I get the new one back up to temp again.
Now the tank and UTH were used, so I don't know how old the UTH is. Is it possible that it went out just because it's old? Or did it go out from the thermostat kicking it on and off so much? Anybody have this happen before?

 

[VivaNFLD]

UTH aren't that reliable, and although it hasn't happened to me I can just quit working. Did you peel the UTH from another tank and reapply it? I'm not sure they will stand up to that.

A drop in temperature to 69 degrees while isn't ideal isn't that big a deal especially for a couple hours, others may disagree with me on that but as long as you got the lamp on te gecko to bring the temp up it should be ok (which you did). Go ahead and get the new UTH and apply it and it should work fine. As always it's a good idea to get a thermostat or something so you can adjust the amount of heat from te UTH as they alone will be too hot.

Cheers!

 

[ChiTea]

Hi,

I've never had that happen, but I've read that adhesive UTH's shouldn't be reused because the internal wires can get damaged when it's being peeled off. If that was the case, you're lucky that it only didn't work, instead of sparking a fire! But sounds like you're on top of the situation . A UTH shouldn't break from the thermostat turning on and off too many times.

 

[CString]

They had peeled it off of the tank and put wax paper on it (I guess to keep it sticky?). I reapplied it. It didn't stick very well, so I sealed the edges with automotive tape (heat-resistant to 200*). I guess I did luck out ChiTea. Instead of shutting off it could have shorted another way where the thermostat kept it on too much and it got too hot.

 

[Muffins94]

This is happened to me before. It is from peeling the UTH from one tank and applying it to another tank. UTH's are meant to be applied once and then not taken off. The wires inside will bend and stop working. You are lucky it didn't short circuit and catch on fire. Kuddos to getting your gecko a new tank!