Kane mat alarm persists

[wellington]

Your heater should be set to the temp you want the shed to be. I use an oil filled radiator in my shed. It's set to 85. The majority of the shed will read anywhere from 80 to 90, good temps for my leopards. At night when basking lights are off it will read 77 to 83. Move the mat away from heater and set to 80 if that's what you want it too be. If it's not too close to the heater, it likley will work properly.

 

[Len B]

I think only the mat is getting hotter then it's set for not the whole enclosure.

If the box is insulated, in time the mat will raise the interior temp even if the heater is not running. The only heat source I've used so far this fall is the mats. The mats don't give instant heat it takes time for them to heat up. The same goes for the oil heater it needs to heat up enough to get the air circulation going for it to work properly. Each heater effects how the other works. It just takes time to get them set right. This morning when I opened the top of Gallopers house the inside temperature was 81.1 it dropped.down about 3 degrees and it took about an hour to raise back up. Right now it's reading 88.7 and as the sun goes down and the air temperature drops outside it will slowly get back down to a good night time temperature.

 

[wellington]

If the box is insulated, in time the mat will raise the interior temp even if the heater is not running. The only heat source I've used so far this fall is the mats. The mats don't give instant heat it takes time for them to heat up. The same goes for the oil heater it needs to heat up enough to get the air circulation going for it to work properly. Each heater effects how the other works. It just takes time to get them set right. This morning when I opened the top of Gallopers house the inside temperature was 81.1 it dropped.down about 3 degrees and it took about an hour to raise back up. Right now it's reading 88.7 and as the sun goes down and the air temperature drops outside it will slowly get back down to a good night time temperature.

I guess I never noticed my mat changing the shed temps. I only associated the basking lights to raising day temps and then dropping some at night when the lights go off.
Duh me though, it makes sense the mat would also. Lol. More noticeable I'm sure in a night box compared to a full shed.

 

[Unitygraph]

Thank you so much for you and everyone else’s response. So here’s an update. I placed my heat mat on the opposite end of the heater and now it’s working great with no ALH alarms. So I guess that’s what it was. The mat was too close to the heater. Again, thanks you so very much.

Your heater should be set to the temp you want the shed to be. I use an oil filled radiator in my shed. It's set to 85. The majority of the shed will read anywhere from 80 to 90, good temps for my leopards. At night when basking lights are off it will read 77 to 83. Move the mat away from heater and set to 80 if that's what you want it too be. If it's not too close to the heater, it likley will work properly.

 

[Tom]

Hi,
Need some help with my newly installed 18x18 Kane heat mat w/ thermostat. I have a mini oil filled radiator heater keeping up the ambient temp at 80 degrees. My Kane mat is also set at 80 degrees. I noticed the next day that the alarm was going off on the Kane thermostat controller that read ALH. Which means “High Temperature Alarm”. The thermostat was reading at 86 degrees, though the set point is 80 degrees. I remember on the instructions after reading it, that the temp of the mat goes 37 degrees above the ambient temperature. So then I set the Kane mat’s thermostat to 43 degrees, since the ambient temp 80 degrees. After awhile, the alarm started going off again and still reading between 86 degrees. Not sure what to do at this point. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, J

What a confusing mess... I read the whole first page.

In any case, turn the thermostat on the Kane mat all the way up and leave it that way. Then plug the Kane mat into the same external thermostat that controls the radiant oil heater. Set the thermostat on the oil heater to about 90% of the dial. The built in ones on these units aren't precise enough for our purposes, but it can still operate as a redundant safety incase the thermostat sticks on.

Move the thermostat's probe over to the cool side of the night box away from all the heat sources. If air temp is below the set point, the oil heater and Kane mat will be off. If the temp is below the set point, they will be on. Don't worry about the surface temperature of the mat. It can't get too hot, and it will function perfectly if you set it the way I just described. In other words, you didn't need the built in thermostat that comes with the Kane mat because you are using a separate thermostat. The Kane mat has built in safeties so the surface of the mat will never get too hot. You need it much higher than 80 to warm up your tortoise.

 

[Unitygraph]

Thanks Tom. Will make those adjustmsments. Appreciate you helping me out here.

QUOTE="Tom, post: 1976343, member:
3441"]
What a confusing mess... I read the whole first page.

In any case, turn the thermostat on the Kane mat all the way up and leave it that way. Then plug the Kane mat into the same external thermostat that controls the radiant oil heater. Set the thermostat on the oil heater to about 90% of the dial. The built in ones on these units aren't precise enough for our purposes, but it can still operate as a redundant safety incase the thermostat sticks on.

Move the thermostat's probe over to the cool side of the night box away from all the heat sources. If air temp is below the set point, the oil heater and Kane mat will be off. If the temp is below the set point, they will be on. Don't worry about the surface temperature of the mat. It can't get too hot, and it will function perfectly if you set it the way I just described. In other words, you didn't need the built in thermostat that comes with the Kane mat because you are using a separate thermostat. The Kane mat has built in safeties so the surface of the mat will never get too hot. You need it much higher than 80 to warm up your tortoise.
[/QUOTE]