Putting together Flexwatt?

[JoshJP7]

I'm trying to buy some flexwatt for my snakes enclosures and need to know what comes with the flex watt? Do you just get the tape for whatever cost per foot and thats it? I saw you need the metal sealer clamps or whatever and a cord but doest it come with any of that? I just purchased a herpstat pro and will eventually be using all four outputs and would just prefer to buy everyting at once... In the end ill have 8 enclosures... Do you need more info to help me out?? Thank you.

[lord jackel]

I'm trying to buy some flexwatt for my snakes enclosures and need to know what comes with the flex watt? Do you just get the tape for whatever cost per foot and thats it? I saw you need the metal sealer clamps or whatever and a cord but doest it come with any of that? I just purchased a herpstat pro and will eventually be using all four outputs and would just prefer to buy everyting at once... In the end ill have 8 enclosures... Do you need more info to help me out?? Thank you.

If you order the Flex from Rich at Reptile Basics he will "put it together" for you.

Otherwise you buy all the parts seperately. Flex, metal clips, plastic clip covers and wire.

If you are comfortable with soldering you can simply solder lamp cords to the flexwatt (you still need to seal the cut ends and the soldered end) and be done with it.

[JoshJP7]

My pops is good with the electrical stuff and hell enjoy helping me put it together I just need to know how much and how many of each thing ill need for my situation... I got 5 tubs that will be set to one temp and 3 on another.

[lord jackel]

My pops is good with the electrical stuff and hell enjoy helping me put it together I just need to know how much and how many of each thing ill need for my situation... I got 5 tubs that will be set to one temp and 3 on another.

If your dad can solder then all you need will be 8 pieces of flexwatt and 8 lamp cords (wall plug on one end, bare wires on the other).

As far as how much Flex 8 pieces is...are you planning to use 3" or 11"? Are you planning on taping the flex right to the tubs or is this part of a rack system?

[JoshJP7]

These will be going in my custom cages... Theyll be inside taped to the wood and then covered will thin piece of vinyl... Looks like im going with the 11'' and itll be 2ft on the hot side and then 2ft on the cool side. All the hot sides will be on the same thermostat and all the "cool" sides on the same... Since I have 5 bigger balls and 3 07' babies Ill use the other 2 probes for a hot side cool side in the smaller tubs... do i make any sense? haha

[lord jackel]

These will be going in my custom cages... Theyll be inside taped to the wood and then covered will thin piece of vinyl... Looks like im going with the 11'' and itll be 2ft on the hot side and then 2ft on the cool side. All the hot sides will be on the same thermostat and all the "cool" sides on the same... Since I have 5 bigger balls and 3 07' babies Ill use the other 2 probes for a hot side cool side in the smaller tubs... do i make any sense? haha

Oh yes...duh this was my recommendation Long night...LOL

4 cages correct?

So you need 8 - 2' sections of flex (each wired with a plug). You then plug all the hot side pieces into a power strip (which is plugged into the thermostat)...then do the same for the cool side pieces.

[JoshJP7]

Its alright Ive been bombing you guys with questions today!... I appreciate your responses... I'll be sure I put some pics up of the final enclosures... I'm building the first one this weekend to see how much its gonna cost and how much time its going to take... I got until it gets cold (end of october) to get everything set up and ready.

[Blue Apple Herps]

These will be going in my custom cages... Theyll be inside taped to the wood and then covered will thin piece of vinyl... Looks like im going with the 11'' and itll be 2ft on the hot side and then 2ft on the cool side. All the hot sides will be on the same thermostat and all the "cool" sides on the same... Since I have 5 bigger balls and 3 07' babies Ill use the other 2 probes for a hot side cool side in the smaller tubs... do i make any sense? haha

Make sure you seal the connections VERY well with silicone. I would also seal the edge of the vinyl with silicone, too so that you have a double layer of protection in case water spills so you don't electrocute the snake (or maybe yourself).

Depending on the size of the vivs and tubs, you may not need to heat the cool side. I get good gradient and ambient temps just heating the warm side. If you do this you can free up a couple of probes to run an incubator, more racks/cages, whatever. I'd set up the warm side and run it for a few days to see first. Then you can always add it if needed.

Oh, and I have the herpstat pro, too. You'll love it!

[hoo-t]

Cheap extension cords from WalMart or Lowes work very well for the cords. Just cut off the receptacle end and bare the wires. Its the cheapest solution that I've found. Also at Lowes you can get rubber tool handle "dip". I use a q-tip to spread that over the soldered connections on my flexwatt to seal them.

Steve

[JoshJP7]

Blueapple... You think I can get my ambient temps up with just a hot side? The room these cages will be in will be like 60 in the winter months so thats why jackel suggested I use 2ft of flex on the cool side as well... What sucks is theres no real way i can test this out after i build my first cage cause its still pretty warm outside and the room temps where these cages will be is still above 70... It gets good morning sunlight which will help heat it up early in the morning but thats not much help when its like -10 outside haha... I think I'm just going to wire the flexwatt for both ends and if I dont end up usuing it no biggie since its only like 6$ per cage ill be "wasting" in flexwatt.

As far as probe usuage for my herpstat pro... Ill have to use all 4 this yr because i have 3 babies but next yr this time ill be building them cages so all my enclosures will be run with just 2 probes... this will give me 2 other probes to use for incubators or whatever... thats pretty much why i broke down and went with the pro over the II... Ill always have a use for the extra probes so its worth the extra 100$ to get 2 more probes out of it.