I made the decision this past Friday to make a couple of changes to some of the racks we offer. We have been turning out virtually the same product(s) now since 2005 and a couple fo things have come up over time that I think are worth addressing- most of which you wouldn’t notice if I did not tell you. Little things that improve efficiency in cutting or building, how they work out with dimensional weight for shipping, etc.
The one thing that will be noticed is the change from 3″ heat tape to 4″ heat tape. With the rise of the Ball Python the hobby has seen a HUGE increase in rack demand. Not all of it due to BP’s but in my opinion that has been a driving force behind much of the growth over the last few years. Even if you are not a BP person I doubt many will argue this. The challenge from a caging standpoint is that many want to keep their BP’s rack/cage in a cool “room temperature” setting and BP’s like the high end of the temp range. If you only have a couple of animals then this makes sense- why heat a room or the whole house up to accommodate a couple of snakes. Not practical. So after a lot of testing and tweaking we went with the 10 watt/3″ tape for heat. Most bang for the buck and if managed properly can yield a good basking temp even in a cool room. I have found that while the 6 watt/3″ can get a good surface temp it does not have quite enough oomph to project these temps into a bin with air gap, substrate, etc. So, the 10 watt it was.
The problem lies in the application- if the user does not understand that heat tape alone is not an answer for ambient air temp then the likelihood of heat tape failure is much greater as they tend to run it hotter and hotter to achieve the goal. Generally I have 4 or 5 customers per year have their heat tape cook. 75% of them find after looking the temp probe has been dislocated off the tape or something similar. In some cases it was just worked too hard for too long and called it quits. The likelihood of this is the greatest with the 3″/10 watt but the 3″ 6 watt and the 4″/8 watt is not immune to this. So there is the trade off- how too keep the most people happy with the least likelihood of premature failure. I have never liked heat cable- talk about a low surface area to put a lot of heat down. 11″ is obviously out of the question for belly heat. I can have a custom heat tape made for my use easily enough but that becomes more costly but worse yet the user is now completely at my mercy which is also no good.
So, after pondering on all of that and weighing the evils of change vs. the benefits of change the scale has finally tipped to change and what better time to make changes than the first of the year. I will be changing to 4″/8 watt heat tape on all belly heat racks beginning 1/1/2011. The 4″ tape has the same wattage density, and therefore the same potential temperature, as the 3″/6 watt but gives you a bit more surface area and therefore a bit more energy applied to the target- the bottom of the tub. The 4″ will not be overkill for the 15-30 qt size and should do the job on the cb-70 in reasonable room temps of 70F+. The CB70 racks will now have a single strip/plug instead of the dual. Most will say “if it works the same or better then who cares?” Well, the new models will not work on the same thermostat as older 3″ racks. Other than that- same or better. Cost will remain the same.
For those who are keeping about any snake in a a room consistently 76-80F+ I still recommend the back heat versions! They are nearly indestructible and much safer in a hot room if your thermostat or probe should fail or become dislodged! Many people seem to fight the back heat concept but most of them have not tried it or tried it in a cool room. For colubrids it is definitely the choice and I did quite well with BP’s with it for years as well- just in a 78-80 degree room.
So there it is!
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