Heat Panels

Who uses them? Pros? Cons?
You obviously dont get belly heat... Seems like a very good way to control ambient temps though.
What are your thoughts?

Heat panels rock.. though a bit on the expensive side, set up in the proper way.. depending on species you can get "belly heat" from them the radient heat will warm the floor of the cage. They are the ideal heat source for arboreal animals. IMO they are the most natural type of heat you can give your herp and they dont dry the air as much as ceramic heat emitters or light bulbs

Heat panels ae an excellent source of heat. They are like said before the most natural form of heat for a basking animal. The only problem is that the majority of snakes donot bask. This is just my opinion but I would go with flexwatt.....UNless you using it for greens or what not..
-Matt Graybeal

Thanks for the input guys... I will be putting my BCI in a 5x2x3 wooden enclosure and Ive been thinking that heat panels would be a better way to heat it then a lamp or and UTH (which would have to go through the wood).

I was just about to ask about these... I've been building a cage for like over a month now (slooooow going... lol) and I'm still trying to figure out how to heat it through plywood. I have a 1" space under the floor of my cage, would a heat panel under there be enough to penetrate through the wood without having to drill holes or anything? Anybody have links to places that sell heat panels?

http://www.pro-products.com
http://www.beanfarm.com/heating/1.html

Lindsay, you can suspend them from the ceiling inside of your enclosure. That way you dont have to worry about it going through wood.

Thanks for the links KLG.

It wouldn't be worth heating a cage that large with heat panels IMO. Last time I looked at them, they were pretty expensive. I'd personally only use them for something arboreal.

For terrestrial herps, heat pads are almost always better.

Just curious Godfather, how do you heat your wooden enclosures? Does the UTH work well enough THROUGH the plywood?

I have a space for a Lamp, but would much prefer somthing that isnt going to toast my humidity...

We use the heat panels in our 8' & 10' cages for big retics. They work very well for providing basking spots in these cages.

They're much better used for creating basking temps as opposed to ambient temps.

K