RBI rack help?

[1nstinct]

I purchased a 4 tub iris sweater box rack from rich and picked it up yesterday at white plains, i had it running today, but its not getting as hot as i wanted the room it is is right now is 75 degrees, and the herpstat is set to 97, and the two bottom tubs are getting 88 basking site with 81 cool side, the other tub is getting 80 cool 87 hot, and top is getting 86 hot and 79 cool. Idn what to do i don't want to risk a fire with setting my flex watt to hot, and i heard going over 95 with flex watt is dangerous. i feel like with the holes in the side of the rack i am losing heat. Can i cover the sides to try to keep the heat in the rack? or will it risk the chance of the flex watt getting too hot? my melamine rack i build holds heat amazing what i set the T-stat at is what the tubs get(+/- 0.5 degrees), and this rack is driving me nutsand there are no holes in the tubs yet if that helps
thanks for the help
tom

[kitedemon]

What is the room temp? I had a similar issue when the room was less than 78-9º F my guess is the room is too cool to hold temps well the ambient air is chilling the system and over coming the flexwatt. It is just a guess on my part however.

[Slim]

Does your RBI rack use back or belly heat? Mine has belly heat, and have to run my heat tape at about 100 degrees to get the temps in the tub right. I've owned three of these racks and they were all each like that.

I've never had a problem running the heat tape at that temp.

[canzoman]

I ave my RBI up to 106 on my t stat. It is doing the trick.

[RetiredJedi]

I have the same rack and mine works great set at 98.

[1nstinct]

Thanks everyone, I emailed rich and he said I can cover the side holes and will see if that does the trick, have the t-sta at 98.5 right now see how it goes
Tom