What temps do those undertank pads produce?

I am curious how hot these gets (the pad itself) and if anyone has had experience using those petco/petsmart thermostats to regulate them (as far as those overheating?). According to the package, they use 18 watts, which is why am am seriously considering buying the smallest sized one, gluing it between a pair of ceramic tiles or aluminum blocks to fireproof them a bit and using it to heat my roach colony. I don't want to use a heatingpad under a plastic tote...they're covered in warnings not to leave unattended and totes are plastic so..

I found the answer from the manufacturer, and the mini that is approved for plastic tanks is 100 degrees..if anyone else was wondering.

If a UTH is getting hot enough to melt plastic, you have more things to worry about than the plastic--like the animals inside the tote. The melting point of plastic is WAY higher than the point that would kill even the hardiest reptile.

Talking about the Zoomed ones, I have personally temp gunned two Zoomed UTHs of two different sizes (5? gal and a 30-40 gal sizes) after letting them heat up for a while and had them both come up in excess of 130-140*F. Boy oh boy did that ease my worry about "wasting" money on thermostats or what? Ha! I also had an All Living Things one reach about 100*F without regulation... Not as bad, but still not acceptable for the corn snake I was going to be using it for (again, thank goodness for thermostats!)

I've had good luck with the Ultratherm UTHs sold by the Bean Farm staying on the cool side, though. I'm using the smallest size under my 20 gal dubia tub right now... I haven't temp gunned it, but the roaches aren't complaining, the plastic isn't melting, and I've never had one of those go over 95*F when unregulated, even on a solid shelf (as opposed to the ample ventilation the one under my roach tub gets thanks to the solid shelf). I still wouldn't (and haven't) use one without a thermostat for a pet, but I'm not too worried about the roaches getting cooked over one! =)

... And only now that that is all typed out do I look at when this thread was posted. Oh well. I've already got it all typed up, may as well post it! Hopefully someone will be able to glean some use from this post.

mine is a zoomed, all I can find I didn't see any ultra therm. I guess I'll power it up and if it need a regulator I'll geyt one. I defently don't want my roach tub at 130 degrees. I was thinking of attaching it to a peice of aluminum scrap, say skin off an old truck topper, and hanging it inside the tank and then cuttung a vent hole and attaching screen, though I may want to get a deeper tote just to make sure the little buggers don't start climbing the cord.

You can find the Ultratherms here... http://store.beanfarm.com/index.php?cPath=1204_1206

Maybe you could try elevating the tub a few inches and slipping the heating pad underneath? Not necessarily sticking it to the tub, but setting it a couple inches under so there's a pocket of air between the heat and the tub.. You could probably experiment with that and get things right without having to go so far as a thermostat.

If you do decide to go for the thermostat option, The Bean Farm also sells a pretty decent (for the price) thermostat for $30 (the Alife "Reptile Electronic Temperature Controller").