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seeds Germination Mat Woes

ChicosAStar

ChicosAStar

Hello,

This is my first year growing hot peppers, and my first post on these forums. This seems like a really great community. Anyhow, about my trouble. I purchased a germination mat off of ebay, and placed my seed tray on the mat. The heat mat does not seem to be warming up though. I've had it plugged in since yesterday, and when my hand is placed on it, I feel no heat radiating from it. I realize the point of the mat is not to cook the seeds, but it seems quite cold/moderately warm. Is this normal?
 
 
Put a piece of styrofoam under it-box it in.
You are probably heating up the countertop or air,not the seeds.

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/19121-seedling-heatmat/
 
It should feel only very slightly warm to the touch, they don't put out much heat. They're usually only intended to raise the temperature about 10 degrees F over ambient temperature. That's a good suggestion by smokemaster though, if it's not heating your setup up enough putting some kind of insulating material underneath it makes a significant difference.

You should pick a thermometer though to know for sure, they're dirt cheap. I bought one for $1 at Wal-mart that was very consistent with the reading my thermostat gives so it seems fairly accurate, at least within a degree or so.
 
I originally had mine just on a piece of plastic but even with that, I could noticeably feel heat coming from it. You may have a defective unit.
 
I'm not sure how technical you are, but a sure fired way to check your heat mat would be first:

− Measure the resistance through the heat mat with a multimeter. You want to see if you have an open circuit.
− Measure the current with a multimeter while it's on.

Both methods would tell you for sure, "mmcdermott1" and I do this for a living.
 
I'd try insulating my heat mat-heat wise-foam as sugested above.

If anything else is wrong it's up to the company to fix it/make it right.

If it shows no difference in temps. after trying a foam enclosure, I'd send it back.

Not up to you to test the product electrically,might void the garruntee(SP?).

It's up to them to sell a reliable product.

I've seldom heard of defective products,but had troubles without using the foam box.
Once I get my thermostats and used the foam everything is great.
I too was getting a mat that only felt warm until I did the insulation thing.
I too thaught the mat was bad.
I came up with using foam when my shelf felt great heat wise but my seed germinators felt only warm.
The counter got warm and turned the heat pad off so my germinator stayed cold.
mats are only capable of putting out so much heat and if the counter/shelf is sucking it up the sprouter is just too much area to heat up with the other stuff.
Since potting soil is less dense I think the shelf got 20 degrees warmer than room temp and held it so the mat always felt only warm and the sprouter stayed cool.
Thats my story and I'm sticking to it. :lol:
 
Chris and I did a lot of discussing the heat mat issues he was having last season and he perfected the original scrap styrafoam idea with the use of the Homey Depote foam insulation idea.

A lot better sfuff to use I think.

I always go for FREE material if I can. :lol:

But the stuff Chris uses has a better heat retention rate I think which equals more heat to the germinator than elsewhere.
Probably even saves a few bucks with the Electric bill by making things more efficient too.
 
Alright, so I had my doubts. This thing seemed like it was completely defective. So I constructed my Styrofoam box, placed the heat mat in, and in a matter of minutes, it's quite warm. I then took a soil temperature, and I'm getting 85. So far, it seems like it just needed insulation. Thanks for the help everyone!
 
if yours is the one from HydroFarm, they sell an adjustment unit/thermostat that lets you turn up/down the heating control. its about 15 bucks. I just saw one at my local garden store, but my HydroFarm heat mat works fine, so i didnt need it
 
Be real careful with no stat can cook your seeds real fast, the safest way is to have a stat. and a lot easer on your electric bill.
 
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