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Heat Rocks
A question was posed on reddit asking why, if they were so dangerous, were they still even being manufactured.
I had this to say on the topic and posed some questions that I thought were relevant to the conversation as to WHY they might be still making them.
Disclaimer: I'm not recommending anyone get a heat rock, I'm just posing questions that could encourage some discussion on the topic that I felt were relevant so please don't eat my head off about it.
There is still a generation of old timer keepers who've been keeping reptiles longer than some of us have been alive and use them. I imagine these people are few and far between because it's clear heatpads are superior in every way just due to coverage and other such reasons.
The other reason is the people who are in that 40-70 range purchasing a reptile for their kid will have known a person who kept a reptile with a heat rock. It's unavoidable. When I was a kid 20 years ago my uncle had an iguana for like 14 years with a hot rock, turned out to be a female and died of egg retention or something like that I don't really remember. If I did no research though. It would be reasonable of me to assume that heat rocks are perfectly safe. I mean, my uncle just raised a lizard with one and it lived longer than most dogs.
As far as I can tell the only heat rocks left on the market are made by zoomed and Exo Terra. Now I'm gonna offer some contrarian thoughts that I don't agree with but just to encourage a discussion and help inform people of the risks.
Zoomed and Exo Terra are the two premier reptile product producers. Exo Terra is one of the best innovators in the business with their awesome terrariums, hide boxes and other various products.
Would it be unreasonable to assume that these companies have made improvements to their designs that have greatly reduced or even eliminated the old dangers associated with these types of heating devices?
The Exo Terra heat rock comes with an internal thermostat in it that automatically shuts it off in the event that it gets too hot. Zoomed's doesn't appear to have this feature and had discontinued their heat rock with the rheostat (most likely because their rheostats are pretty much useless). The zoomed brand is made of actual rock, the exo terra is made of a conductive resin. These would appear to be materials that would prevent the old REALLY hot spots that happened with these products in the past.
The hot rock my uncle used was made of plastic. So that getting hotspots makes a lot more sense than something made of a heat conductive material.
When is the last time you've seen someone on a forum complaining that a heat rock burned their pet? I haven't seen that in like 15 years. All the burns now come from unregulated heating pads or lights.
Even looking at the reviews on the major retailers. Amazon and Petsmart both have minimum 4 star overall ratings. The only 1 star rating on petsmart is someone warning people about them. The 1 star ratings are almost universally from people complaining the rock doesn't heat up enough or was flat out broken. Only one person reported that the zoomed product was too hot. Perhaps it was under a light because no one else was complaining about this. More importantly, not one person complaining about an injured animal. If they are so dangerous certainly one person would have reported an injured animal I know I would.
Now I pose the question, could these once dangerous products have been engineered to be at least as safe as heat pads? I say why not? If they have been, then I think that the companies have done a poor job of trying to get that communicated to the hardcore reptile community as a whole and there are plenty of people out there who have a hard time getting hotspots in their tanks who could benefit from a product like this if it was actually safe especially the people looking for those 120-130 degree hotspots (lizards).
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Even if everything you say is true, the biggest problem is there's no way to safely attach a thermostat probe, since the probe must go outside the tank to safely and accurately measure heat. (The reason being that if a reptile sites on the probe, spills water, or pees on the probe, it screws up the measurement.) For any heating element, you need a thermostat. You say they have a function now that turns them off when they "get too hot"- what temperature is "too hot"? That depends on the species. 100 degrees is already "too hot" for ball pythons, and that's only slightly warmer than our body temperature.
Last edited by redshepherd; 04-15-2017 at 03:34 PM.
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The Following User Says Thank You to redshepherd For This Useful Post:
PokeyTheNinja (04-15-2017)
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Re: Heat Rocks
 Originally Posted by redshepherd
Even if everything you say is true, the biggest problem is there's no way to safely attach a thermostat probe, since the probe must go outside the tank to safely and accurately measure heat. (The reason being that if a reptile sites on the probe, spills water, or pees on the probe, it screws up the measurement.) For any heating element, you need a thermostat. You say they have a function now that turns them off when they "get too hot"- what temperature is "too hot"? That depends on the species. 100 degrees is already "too hot" for ball pythons, and that's only slightly warmer than our body temperature.
I think that a major problem, regardless of what type of heating that you use is that there is little to nothing in the way of appropriate labeling on any reptile products. Whats the max temperature on X brand/size of Heatpad is quite frankly rare information. I know the reptile basics ultratherm pads say 90-95 degrees is about average, but even that info is on a different page that is sort of difficult to find on their site.
If they said, this item gets to say 85 degrees and will shut off if the temp builds up to 110 degrees and the worries of the hot spots within them are no longer valid. That could be applicable in certain husbandry situations. Definitely not for snakes. Their best temp is 80 degrees. But certain monitors, uromastix and the like need the REALLY hot basking areas.
If they aren't burning pets anymore and we know what temps they get to, could these products be useful for specific husbandry conditions. I don't recommend ANY solution as a catch-all for all herps in all situations.
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Maybe if they made a heat rock with a programmable internal thermostat built in, it might be worth it, but at that point the price they'd have to sell it at to make a profit would put most people off it for the same reason people skip t-stats in the first place.
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Personally I am of the belief that heat rocks only exist because there continues to be a market for them. There continues to be a market because people fail to read instructions, misuse them, and don't know what they're doing.
Then the majority of them get thrown out, or end up injuring animals. Just to leave new people to purchase them, making another mistake and perpetuating the cycle.
Heat rocks are easy. One plug in rock and people think the animal is good and needs nothing else. The reality is that everything they really need is more complicated than the heat rock.
Ball Pythons 1.1 Lesser, Pastel
1.0 Lesser Pastel, 0.0.7 mixed babies
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Re: Heat Rocks
 Originally Posted by Jhill001
When is the last time you've seen someone on a forum complaining that a heat rock burned their pet?
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...hlight=matilda
Granted, she wasn't mine when she got burned last week, but she's mine now.
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some come with a dimmer built into the cord....... Again it goes back to people not taking time to research.
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Re: Heat Rocks
 Originally Posted by bcr229
Well there it is lol. Not laughing at the snake just the timing of my comment. But I think we'd all agree its WAY less common now. I was just pointing out that lately, its unregulated heatpads/lights.
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Re: Heat Rocks
 Originally Posted by Oxylepy
Personally I am of the belief that heat rocks only exist because there continues to be a market for them. There continues to be a market because people fail to read instructions, misuse them, and don't know what they're doing.
Then the majority of them get thrown out, or end up injuring animals. Just to leave new people to purchase them, making another mistake and perpetuating the cycle.
Heat rocks are easy. One plug in rock and people think the animal is good and needs nothing else. The reality is that everything they really need is more complicated than the heat rock.
I think your right but that doesn't explain the lack of reviews about injured animals on the major sites. Amazon for example has 200+ reviews on each of the current brands selling them. 200 people reviewing means that a LOT of people have bought that product. No one seems to be having major issues. THAT truly is the weird part to be honest.
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Think about the consumer mindset in regards to reviews.
The product is frequently used for less than a month before the consumer posts a review. And about a year down the line if there is an issue the likelihood of a review being written that long after is very low.
Add in that most care sheets explicitly advise against the use of heat rocks, and you have a bunch of people who didn't read the caresheets purchasing the products. These are the same people whose animals likely end up dying within the first year of ownership.
Ball Pythons 1.1 Lesser, Pastel
1.0 Lesser Pastel, 0.0.7 mixed babies
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