heat mat set-up

i just wanted to throw this out there regarding heat mat set-up. make sure that some type of insulation is placed between the bottom of you heat mat and whatever it rests on. otherwise, you will end up pumping heat into what's beneath rather than the pots above.

it took me a bit to figure out why the soil temps were not as warm as expected when i had my heat mat on the dresser. then i started noticing that my underwear in the top drawer were toasty! FCOL

dete

There is of course nothing nicer than toasty underwear LOL
I used to use sheets of styrofoam under the heat mat.

Thanks, Dete! Good to know!

Now I know how to make toasty underwear!

I tried this with 1/2 foamboard, but the mat seemed to rapidly get dangerously hot.

stressbaby - did you measure the temp of the mat?

No, not sure how to do that. It was not too hot to touch, but it was too hot to leave my hand on for more than a few seconds.

as long as the sensor is not covered all is well. i made the mistake of turning mine on while it was still rolled up. well, the sensor was at the core. it heated the mat and in response the layers rolled around it, it raised the temp even higher. good thing i got to it in time. who know what would have happened. the best thing is to just make sure that ambient air is above the sensor.

dete