THG Heat Tape
VS.
The Competitor
This test started as a desire to provide excellent custom display enclosures for my personal Ball Python collection
I purchased some Competitor 11in heat tape to maintain the hot spot for my enclosures and applied it with metal ducting tape to the bottom glass panel of my enclosures. I ran the Competitor heat tape of a VE300X2 thermostat from reptile basics. I quickly realized this was going to be an issue due to the fact that the 3 identically manufactured pieces of Competitor heat tape would not run at the same temperature. I had up to a 15 degree Fahrenheit temp difference temperature split between the 3 enclosures. To solve this I use dimmer switches to limit current to the hotter sections of heat tape. Around the first of the year I hear of a new product from Reptile Basics THG heat tape. I purchased 50 feet of the new THG heat tape and reapplied this to my enclosures with a much greater success. Below you will find listed the testing I performed before installing THG heat tape and my results.
I built a test bench consisting of a piece of plywood and a VE300 thermostat. I then installed the THG heat tape in 3 19inch section built exactly the same as the Competitor heat tape. I soldered a 9ft extension cords to each piece of THG heat tape. Then applied each section of THG heat tape to the test bench and installed the thermostat to one piece of heat tape. I let the THG heat tape run for 2 weeks on the test bench with a maximum of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit split between any section of all 3 pieces of heat tape as seen in the pictures below the main sections of the heat tape maintained a maximum of .5 degree Fahrenheit temp difference.
TEST BENCH
Results after Two weeks
Enclosure temps after two weeks testing
After testing the THG heat tape on a test bench I then installed it onto my custom enclosures and proceeded with a real life test situation. The results were exactly the same as the bench test with a maximum temp difference of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit between any spot on the new heat source and a .5 degree Fahrenheit temp difference in the main sections of the THG heat tape. Having seen other results from tests performed the maximum temp the THG heat tape would reach under these conditions would be approximately 115 degrees Fahrenheit which would still leave an enclosure temp of 97-103 Degrees Fahrenheit. This should still leave a safe living environment for reptiles in the enclosure. I will be performing a maximum power test on the next enclosure I built but as the three enclosures I currently have built have reptiles living in them I felt this could lead to undue stress to my animals.
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