Rack advice needed!

I'm in the market for a new rack for my bp's but I need some advice. I got a ballroom rack from boaphile last year but I'm not sure I want to get another one. The tubs are roughly 35"L x 18"W and 5.5"H. It has 2 strips of 4" flexwatt on the hot side of the the rack. I have an unoccupied tub w/ 1 thermostat probe on the hot side and another probe on the cool end. I have a herpstat4 thermostat so it's not a cheap p.o.s. yet sometimes my hotside exceeds the temp I want it at in order to keep the cool side at 80F(my IR thermometer has read 100-102 on occassion). I keep my snake room at 74F, so it's at a moderate temp. I need a rack that will allow me to maintain my temp gradient more efficiently, this is driving me bananas!:banana:

Which tub is the tstat probe on? As in how many from the bottom one?

Is the probe attached to the heat strip? How? Where on the strip?

What do you have the tstat set at?

I have a Boaphile rack and it has no issues maintaining temps? Check your probe placement and make sure you do not have the sunlight from a window or whatever pointing right at the rack as well.

With that said, all I buy right now are AP racks.

Why do you have a probe maintaining the cool side? Since the heat tape gets really hot (as you know) use the thermostat to regulate the heat on the hot side and let the cold side be. You say your reptile room is 74 degrees, which is cool but I think bin your case too hot is worse than too cold. It's fine to monitor the cold side and I've heard some people putting a extra small layer of heat tape on that side to regulate it.

When your using your thermostat probe on the hot end to monitor your cold side there is a couple problems I see.
1) The heat coming off the heat tape is far away from where you're measuring it. It takes time to heat up air and by the time the probe reads good on the cold end, the heat tape will be hot as balls on the other end which is bad for the snake.
2) balls aren't as dum as some people seem to make them out to be. If a ball wants to be 80 degrees, there will be a spot in the tub that's 80. Like for instance, of the hot end is 90 and the cold end is 70, it's logical that halfway between is 80. The ball will go there of he or she needs too.

I think your worrying too much about the coldness of the cool side and not enough about the hotness of the hot side. Hope what I said makes sense and helps.

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Originally Posted by interloc

I think your worrying too much about the coldness of the cool side and not enough about the hotness of the hot side. Hope what I said makes sense and helps.

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X2. I rarely ever check the cool side temps. If the room is mid 70's and the hot side is good, the cool side will be fine...will probably be somewhere in upper 70's to low 80's.

I have seen a few recently trying to run probes on the cool side to regulate the hot side. Is this what you are doing? If so this is not a good idea nothing in the enclosure should be over 100ºF EVER and 94ºF is the max SUSTAINED temp (a spike up to 100 is ok for a short time but not for long.) Flexwatt should not be run beyond 100ºF according to the manufacturer.

If I understand you correctly (not sure I am) you have a probe on the cool side and are using it to regulate the hot side. Flexwatt heat cable RHP heat tapes are all radiant heat sources and heat objects not air so the effect on air temps is minimal. Racks typically relay on stable room temps to regulate the cool side. Why most use oil filled heaters to control the room temp if below where they want them. For me I prefer 77ºF as a low cool end some will say lower but 77º allows thermometer error. (accurite are rated at +/-2ºC almost 4ºF allowable error an 8ºF window.) &&º allows safe range even if your thermometer is a monday morning one.

The rack has 2 seperate 4" wide strips of flexwatt. The back strip is roughly 8 inches from the back of the tub. There is about 4" between that strip and the front 4" strip of flexwatt. So there's a 4" gap between the 2 strips. I have the back strip regulated be a probe which is placed directly inbetween the two strips. It is set at 87F since it is about 2" away from the heat strips on each side. The front strip which is 16" from the BACK of the tub is controlled by a probe on the cool side(about 18 inches away). The temp does not stay at 100-102F for long periods of time, and this temp range is probably 4" wide. I figured the snakes will thermoregulate when necessary. I am using the proportional thermostat setting. I log my temps daily. When I first got the rack I did twice a day to see how the temp was at different times of the day. 74F is the lowest room temp, it is hotter when the rm heater is on.

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Originally Posted by Royal Hijinx

I have a Boaphile rack and it has no issues maintaining temps? Check your probe placement and make sure you do not have the sunlight from a window or whatever pointing right at the rack as well.

With that said, all I buy right now are AP racks.

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The rack is nowhere near a window, nor directly near a heat source.

I asked jeff from boaphile if he would add a strip to te cool end for me if I purchase another one and he bluntly replied no. No explanation. He does not exactly come off as a friendly guy.

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Originally Posted by Ssssseeing Lavender

I asked jeff from boaphile if he would add a strip to te cool end for me if I purchase another one and he bluntly replied no. No explanation. He does not exactly come off as a friendly guy.

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I've heard a lot about his bad customer service. I went with AP and their customer service was fantastic, expecting to do more business with them in the future.