Heat Tape Shortage! Help!

We have a four tiered rack made with heat tape that we have had for about 6 months. We bought it used off of the person who made it. Everything has been hunky dory with it until a few days ago. I came into the snake room and could smell a weird smokey smell. We checked the rack to find that one of the tapes had shorted out and the tub had melted a huge hole in it. Thankfully our Pinstripe was unharmed (amazingly!) and the aspen bedding hadn't burned. The wood of the shelf was charcoaled. So we put him with our big female (what we were planning on anyways) and our het pied pair we jammed into another space. We re-wired the existing tape and thought we were ok. So tonight my husband went to water the snakes and almost every single tub had melted down and the tape was shorted. We now have 11 snakes jammed into 4 tanks and two tubs. Thankfully we were planning on building a new rack, but it has been fast forwarded hard. What could cause our heat tape to short out and burn like that?

Our two hognoses, nine balls, and one boa all are ok and completely unburned. It's a freaking miracle.

Is the Heat tape on a thermostat?

Is the thermostat working properly?

Is the thermostat probe secured to the flexwatt? and how was this accomplished?

Have there been any power surges?

Did the Heat tape look damaged/worn at al?

Personally if any of my flexwatt shorted out i would replace all of it ASAP

Yes it was on a thermostat and that I know of it is working properly.

Yes it was on the flexwatt placed in a corner where it wouldn't be disturbed.

I highly doubt there have been power surges, they are on surge protectors

It was not damaged when we got it, it defently is now.

And we were going to have the rack built this week and thought we would be alright. It was on two different circuts not all connected together. And weirdly enough the heat tape only shorted UNDER the tubs, not anywhere else.

The tubs trap heat, so it makes sense that it would only show issues there. Your thermostat should have stopped this.

3 things come to mind:

1. Thermostat probe wasn't on the flexwatt

2. Thermostat probe went bad

3. Thermostat isn't working right.

What thermostat are you using? Proportional or on/off?

It is an on off. It is working because we have heard it click on of.

heat tape wasn't on a dimmer switch. It was absorbing max voltage.

max voltage+ reduced airflow in a rack setup+ age of heat tape= malfunction.

To properly setup heat tape (according to Bean Farm), you must regulate the temp to below 95 degrees. Then use the thermostat as a fail safe for overall temp of the tub.

Surges do not have to be huge to cause damage. Small spikes rarely trip surge protectors. This is the reason many computer guys have dumped the common surge protectors and changed to power conditioners.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

heat tape wasn't on a dimmer switch. It was absorbing max voltage.

max voltage+ reduced airflow in a rack setup+ age of heat tape= malfunction.

To properly setup heat tape (according to Bean Farm), you must regulate the temp to below 95 degrees. Then use the thermostat as a fail safe for overall temp of the tub.

Surges do not have to be huge to cause damage. Small spikes rarely trip surge protectors. This is the reason many computer guys have dumped the common surge protectors and changed to power conditioners.

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I have read the same and Have seen from 95 to 100 for a max temp on the tape. This is my thought too that with the on off t-stat and perhaps older less efficient tape during one of the cycles it failed.

I run fail safes for ever t-stat and monitor not just the tub temps but the tape its self and I do not like seeing over 100 for any more than 10 min or so. I also when I clean the rack lift the tape (clean under it) and check it very carefully. Racks save space but in my experience they take far more effort.

if you are snaking tape throughout a rack, it is impossible to truly protect yourself by using a single thermostat. You setup it up so it cycles on/off semi quickly in hopes it can never get hot enough to melt down. If you have your setup in a cold room and the tape runs long periods of time, you are just gambling with failure.

Something to keep in mind is what the temp is under the tub. Failures almost always- in fact I can't think of a case where it did not- occur under the tubs. Heat gets trapped under there and can be very high especially under a thick layer of substrate. See what the temps are on the heat tape itself when you pull a tub out. Might be surprisingly high.