How flexible is Flexwatt?

[xdeus]

I'm going to be building a small 4 shelf quarantine rack this weekend, and will be using one long strip of 3" Flexwatt woven through each shelf. I was wondering how tight I can make the bends at the beginning and end of each shelf? Can Flexwatt handle a tight 90 degree bend, or should I plan on leaving it a little loose?

[cueball]

I would plan to leave semi loose. I toyed with this same idea and it did not want to make a 90 degree angle but could be pretty close. I ended up with separate pieces per shelf. I bet somebody will have some pics to post of flexwatt making the bend.

[Wild Bill]

I don't know how long of a piece you plan on using, but the longer the strip the more of a temperature difference you can get from the beginning of the run to the end. To get more accurate temps shorter lengths are advised. I just finished a hatchling rack that holds 36 tubs (4' long and 34" tall) 6 tubs across and 6 shelves. I am running individual pieces to each shelf. What is also nice about this is I can just plug in the shelves I am using at the moment and not waste elctricity on the rest.

[jglass38]

I just built a rack and decided to use individual 4 foot sections for each shelf. I dont like the idea of bending flexwatt. Like Bill said, you can always unplug individual sections or if necessary, replace individual sections.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

I don't know how long of a piece you plan on using, but the longer the strip the more of a temperature difference you can get from the beginning of the run to the end. To get more accurate temps shorter lengths are advised. I just finished a hatchling rack that holds 36 tubs (4' long and 34" tall) 6 tubs across and 6 shelves. I am running individual pieces to each shelf. What is also nice about this is I can just plug in the shelves I am using at the moment and not waste elctricity on the rest.

Same. I just finished 5 hatchling racks with 10 shelves each, did the same thing so I could control each shelf.

The only issue here is if your probe for t-stat is on shelf 3, and for some reason shelf 3 fails, solder breaks, stops heating, then the t-stat will jack the juice up to all of the other shelves, while that one shelf with the probe keeps reading room temp.

Solution to that is to have a backup t-stat set a few degrees higher that probe a different shelf and keep that from happening

[Wild Bill]

Same. I just finished 5 hatchling racks with 10 shelves each, did the same thing so I could control each shelf.

The only issue here is if your probe for t-stat is on shelf 3, and for some reason shelf 3 fails, solder breaks, stops heating, then the t-stat will jack the juice up to all of the other shelves, while that one shelf with the probe keeps reading room temp.

Solution to that is to have a backup t-stat set a few degrees higher that probe a different shelf and keep that from happening

Well there are no guarantees no matter how you wire it. What happens if you get a break in the flexwatt right before your probe. The first half would continue to heat. The problem with long continuos runs of flexwatt is the temp variation, if you ran it like that on 10-4 ft shelves (40 ft), the variations could be huge. Plus it is not recommended of a certain foot length. I will have to look it up.

[jglass38]

Always a good idea to have a backup stat

[Wild Bill]

Always a good idea to have a backup stat

The thing is with the problems we are talking about a backup wouldnt necessarily work.

Here are the max lengths that can be used for the different flexwatts.

11” is 20 watts per foot. Max length of heat strip is 24 panels or 25’. (11” is 12.5” per panel. 24 panels equals 25 feet)

4” is 8 watts per foot. Max length of heat strip is 60 feet

3” is 10 watts per foot. Max length of heat strip is 48 feet

3” is 6 watts per foot. Max length of heat strip is 80 feet

The problem is there effectiveness as a RELIABLE heat source in these lengths. When I was researching using heat tape for my racks I contacted them and was told "shorter runs are more accurate than longer runs". We should do a test!!!