rack with heat tape?

i am in the process of getting materials together to make a rack. i want to put my snakes into 41 quart sterilite containers now my question is would 3 inch flex watt heat tape be sufficient or should i get 11 inch? i just want to figure out the most ideal way to heat the tubs before i start ordering everything

I personally prefer to put 1 foot sections of the 11inch tape down per 41qt tub. It ends up covering just over 1/3 of the tub.

I use 11 inch on my 41's.

Yep a foot of 11" at the rear of each tub

thanks. i was thinking 11 inch would be the better choice for the size tub but i just wanted to ask to make sure i wasn't totally off base with the idea.

all my racks use 3" and all ive used for 5+ years. Its plenty of heat for them since the tubs are 16" wide. This gives them a 3x16 hot spot and thats plenty to keep warm. Their entire body does not need to come in contact with heat to warm up

11" i dont trust it on racks incase of spikes and it can cause overheating much faster due to higher wattage.

I use both on mine (3" and 11"). I use the 11" for my corn that I have in 41 qt. tub and the 3" for my bps. The biggest things to keep in mind are the wattage per foot of the size of tape you're using, as it can vary. The wider tape (11") won't necessarily heat better or more efficiently than the 3" due to having a lower wattage per foot than what the 3" does, depending on what you buy; there are different wattages in the different sizes so keep an eye on that when you're ordering/building stuff.

Another thing to keep in mind is running different size tapes off the same thermostat. The 11" tape generally has a different wattage than the 3" and if you run them off the same thermostat, you'll get spikes or lower heating levels because of the resistance.

Bear with me here and I'll explain, lol: say the 3" tape has a rating of 10 watts per foot and the 11" has a rating of 4 watts per foot. The way electricity works, in simplistic terms, is that it takes the path of least resistance. With that in mind, the electrical current running to the 11" is going to heat it up faster than the 3" due to the lower wattage requiring less electricity to heat up the 11" tape to the temperature level you set. That'll cause spikes in your temps because the two different tape sizes will heat differently due to the difference in wattage.

I REALLY hope that makes sense and doesn't confuse you, as I'm trying to help, believe it or not, lol! Basically, don't run two or more different sizes of heat tape or different wattage ratings of heat tape off the same thermostat. I run all of my 3" tapes off one thermostat (all of the 3" has the same wattage per foot) and all of my 11" tape off of another thermostat to keep my temps where they should be.

Good luck and I hope that helps! :gj:

yeah that makes sense and it is helpful. :)

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

11" i dont trust it on racks Incas of spikes and it can cause overheating much faster due to higher wattage.

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11" 20 watt is .15 watts per square inch. It has the lowest wattage of any size of flexwatt making It the safest...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hud556

11" 20 watt is .15 watts per square inch. It has the lowest wattage of any size of flexwatt making It the safest...

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Its not rated per square inch. its rated per foot. And it gets hot faster than 3". Ive done tested all this when deciding what i wanted on my racks.11" reached over 130F as 3" only hit 115F in 80f room.