Fright of my life!

[New Mutant]

I recently got a heat lamp for my ribbon, Percy. It usually stabilizes at about 84 degrees on the warm side and 75 on the cool side and stays that way all day. However, last night while I was watching a movie my sister came and told me that when she had gone into the spare room she could smell plastic melting. The heat lamp had gone up to almost 100 degrees and was apparently melting Percy's fake plant! It had been on for about 3 hours longer than it usually is, but it's usually on for 12-13 hours without going past 84. How do I keep this from happening again?!

[Stefan-A]

Find out what went wrong and why. Acquire a smoke detector or two.

[ConcinusMan]

Is percy OK?

[infernalis]

Install a thermal cut off, it's a thermostat that will shut down the lamp if it gets too hot.

[Odie]

Is percy OK?
:eek:

[New Mutant]

I'm so sorry! Yes, Percy's fine, he was hanging out at the cool end of his tank and isn't any worse for wear.

[drache]

scary
and good thing nothing worse happened

[ConcinusMan]

Maybe consider using a lower wattage bulb or none at all until you figure out what went wrong. Seriously, even though Percy was not in the dark, we are. I mean we don't have much info. You're Percy's keeper. It's up to you to be observant and try to find out what went wrong. A bulb just doesn't suddenly put out more heat. Maybe it was just too close and too much wattage. Try a 40 watt bulb, doesn't have to be specifically for reptiles, and make sure it's no closer than 12 inches from any heat sensitive material in the enclosure.

And take Stefan's advice. As much as we love our snakes they aren't worth the lives and safety of you and your family. In all my years of keeping snakes I have had a few scares similar to yours but my fears were for the snakes. Sounds like this incident was potentially dangerous to your entire household.

Be careful.

I'm hoping for the best for you and Percy.

[guidofatherof5]

Glad to hear Percy is doing OK.

[Mommy2many]

Me too!

[New Mutant]

I got him a 50-watt (rather than the 75-watt) bulb the other day, and so far it tops at about 83 degrees. Hopefully this will solve my problem.

[kibakiba]

75 is a LOT of heat! I don't buy over 50, it's just too hot and I cant risk harming my beloved snakes. I'm sure it'll help a lot more!

[ConcinusMan]

75 watt does seem like way too much if it's only 12-18 inches above the bottom of the enclosure. I'm only using a 65 watt on one end of my 55 gallon long,(18 inches high) and it's plenty enough to keep that end at around 85 degrees on the bottom, assuming the room is 70 degrees. I use a 60 watt for the 20 gallon tank (12 inches high) and it's actually a little more than enough.

That's one of the reasons I don't like enclosures taller than that. I don't want my snakes to have to climb for more heat, I don't want to burn more electricity, and I don't want to use a light bulb that gets super hot.

Even with your new bulb, you want to keep objects safely away from the bulb and don't make it easy for the snakes to climb up and get too close. In order to get a better idea of how heat is distributed, use a meat thermometer or other probe type and lay the probe on the bottom. That's where you should be getting 80-85 degree reading. Thermometers designed to take ambient air temperature can be very inaccurate if you're placing them directly under the light but they work well for the cool end of the enclosure.

[justme]

I use a dimmer on all of my bulbs and adjust heat accordingly. (A light dimmer from a hardware store works just as well and is much more affordable than a similar device purchased from a pet shop.) ;-)