"Snaking" flexwatt onto different levels.

Hey there, I see a lot of people "Snaking" the flexwatt onto different levels of their rack. They would lay it accross one level, then snake it in an S pattern down to the next two levels.

I wonder if this methods affects the heat of the tubs on the further out side on each level? This is because all the tubs on the level get the same bottom heat from the tape, but the one on the side has an extra piece beside it when it is "Snaked" from the level above. So it has bottom, and also heat radiating from its left or right, if you know what I mean.

Does anyone with such a setup know if the side tubs where the flexwatt is on the side as well as below the tub, know if it affects temperatures much on those side tubs?

Not enough to worry about. It'll also save you a good bit of time and extension cords.

When the flexwatt is open to the air and not sandwiched between the tub and the shelf it really doesn't put out enough heat to make much of a difference, especially if it is an open sided rack, in a completely closed sided rack it may contribute slightly but not likely enough to make much of a difference.

I did that on my new rack and it works just fine.....

I agree that it won't make much of a difference, but if you ever want to run certain levels at different temps then you should wire them individually. IMO it looks better anyway to wire each level.

I have my rack wired with flexwatt, but instead of snaking mine is just jumped from shelf to shelf.

Basically, at one end of the flexwatt on each shelf I have a set of wires that jumps the power from the bottom shelf to the next shelf up. It is easy to do and I only need a single plug for the whole rack. I saved about 4 feet of flexwatt that way, enough to do another shelf.

Gale

How much difference DOES it make with regards to a "Closed" air rack? Say, with all solid sides except the back is pegboard or something?

Also, what is everyone's thoughts on using a single strip but for back heat?