HELP heat tape not working

I have a rack from boaphile it is 5 tubs high, 32 qts and sideways. I have a ranco thermostat. The thermostat is set at 100 (which usually puts the warm side of the tubs at 88-90 degrees, but the tubs are not being heated at all. Everything appears to be plugged in....the thermostat is reading the themperature (like it says that its 77 degrees in there) and it keeps turning on like its trying to raise the temps but its not working. I don't know what to do. I have most of my snakes moved over to my room-mates rack, but two of them could not fit.....any suggestions besides call boaphile (which I'm about to do)??

I'd try plugging the Ranco into an incandescent lamp and see if it lights up. If it doesn't you're obviously not getting power from the thermostat. If it lights up, you probably have an issue with the connections to the heat tape, and yuou should double check all the connections.

You will also want to check your probe. Sometimes the probe is pushed back. Does the heat tape feel hot? If not, it is probably the connection to the tape itself. Plug the flexwatt into the wall, as opposed to going through the thermostat. This would tell you if it is your flexwatt or your thermosat. Good luck.

I called boaphile and the guy ran me through some "diagnostic" type tests. He decided that it was the heat tape. The rack is still under waranty so they are going to send me replacement heat tape and then talk me through the installation. In the mean-time, I have all but two of the snakes in my room-mates rack. The other two I have moved to a sterilite container with a heating pad underneath. So, I hope everything will be ok until the new tape comes. Thanks for the replies.

how long have you had the rack set up for and such? is this a recent thing or something that you are noticing with a freshly started rack?

I have had it set up since October or September. I'm just glad that I caught it so fast and it didn't happen while I wasn't here for the weekend or something.

my heat tape stopped working once. It turned out one of the connections just wasn't fully seated down into the metal strip on the heat tape. Since you're getting new stuff anyway, pull out a hammer and try to lightly tap down at the connection points for the flex watt, if you break any sort of protective cover, add a bit of electrical tape over top, plug it in to the wall socket and see if it works. If it does, great you have free heat tape on the way - if not... Hey, you have free heat tape on the way! But that's all it was for me.

GirDance: Thanks, so are you talking about were the heat tape is connected to the power cord? Should there just be one place to check or more than one?

Yes, there should be two spots where the electrical cord will connect with the metal one on either side, usually with a small metal or alligator clip that has teeth which dig into the plastic to connect with the metal components of the heat tape. If it's using clips wacking it might help better seat the clips, if it's soldered on it would most likely need to be resoldered to correct.