AP Economy Racks: Holding Temps / Stability?

Mods: Feel free to move this if you need to. I put it here to hopefully get more traffic.

I am looking into getting an AP economy rack (cb70 3 slot) and was wondering what your thoughts were on it holding hot spot temps in a heated room. My herp room stays at about 78f all year (if not warmer in the summer) and I would need to maintain hotspots at about 95-100f (for blue tongue skinks). Do you think the open-sided racks would be able to maintain that high of a hot spot in a 78f room?

Also, for those that have them, what are your thoughts on stability of these racks? I will need to use bedding in the tubs (either aspen or Cyprus mulch), so they will need to support some weight... I might end up having this rack do double duty later on (i.e. might need to switch it to holding BPs), so whether or not it is sturdy enough to support adult females would be good to know as well.

Thanks for your feedback and help!

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Originally Posted by artgecko

Mods: Feel free to move this if you need to. I put it here to hopefully get more traffic.

I am looking into getting an AP economy rack (cb70 3 slot) and was wondering what your thoughts were on it holding hot spot temps in a heated room. My herp room stays at about 78f all year (if not warmer in the summer) and I would need to maintain hotspots at about 95-100f (for blue tongue skinks). Do you think the open-sided racks would be able to maintain that high of a hot spot in a 78f room?

Also, for those that have them, what are your thoughts on stability of these racks? I will need to use bedding in the tubs (either aspen or Cyprus mulch), so they will need to support some weight... I might end up having this rack do double duty later on (i.e. might need to switch it to holding BPs), so whether or not it is sturdy enough to support adult females would be good to know as well.

Thanks for your feedback and help!

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I have two that are 8x high. Mine hold 90F hot spots no problem (~40% power on a Herpstat) in a room that sounds much like yours. I have several large adult female BPs in both of mine and would have no concerns at all if they were completely filled with big girls.

I have 3 and I love them. No problem holding hotspots as long as the room is at a good ambient temp. As for stability, they are excellently made racks. One if full of hatchlings/juveniles another is full holding adult snakes both are without issue.

Thanks for the input guys!

I have one 4 tub stack in a heated room as well. It holds temps just fine and is very stable. The only issue I had was holding humidity. I have no holes in the tubs but it does not stay high enough with newspaper and a large water bowl. I now use the same mixture of substrates as in my tanks. Cypress, Eco Earth, and Repti Bark. Now all is well and my snakes are happy.