Tub / Rack heat options

I have the AP three tub sterilite series rack with belly heat and am extremely happy with it. Life is so much easier since switching to racks from aquariums and let me tell you i definately think my snakes are way more relaxed and the feeding response is even more tremendous. My temps are dead on along with my humidity. I run a herpstat with my rack also. Hope you'll be as happy as i am with mine! Good luck whaat ever your choice.

It really depends, sometimes back heat is a lot easyer then belly heat, but if your room is cold then use belly heat, but if you have a warm room all yr long then back heat will be ok

Belly heat all the way :)

I have racks with both back and belly heat. yes back heat is safer as the tub is not in as much contact. I keep most of my males in the back heat racks. breeding females, I have more success in the belly heated racks. I also have a snakeroom where these racks are kept and it's heat and humidity controlled.I know of breeders who use back heat even for breeding and have success with it. he just recently had a mishap using a helix that was over 10 years old and with backheat lost a rack of snakes. but most of the big breeders I know use belly heat. Buy quality equipment and check your equipment to lower the chances of a mishap.

RBI has some pretty nice racks, if you wanted to know more about them, we wrote a little article over at the reptile blog, Herp Daily

This is all just my opinion as I am not a biologist. This just works for me!

All 7 of our racks have belly heat and all of our displays have belly heat. We tried a back heat configuration and it works, but we were not happy with how the heat the tub saw depended on room temps. A room temp difference of 5 degrees F would cause up to 3 degrees F change in the "hot Spot" of the tub.

On a side note very few manufacturers of baby racks offer belly heat and those that do generally charge significantly more for the option. Unfortunately I think babies may need the most help with digestion, and thus, I definately pay a little extra to make sure my baby racks are a belly heat configuration.

I've got Cornel's World(Calgary, Alberta Canada, made by Greg West) PVCX Racks, CB70 and 2 MCB-L's, all with belly heat. perfect humidty, holds a perfect ambient, no digestion problems.

belly is the best for balls.

i personally think belly heat is the best

Ball pythons benefit from belly heat because they have higher temperature requirements. Belly heat uses the natural tendency of heat to rise PLUS conduction allows for the most efficent heat transfer possible. Since flex watt heat tape should not be used above 95 degrees (per manufacturer specs), you can not achieve a 95 degree ambient "hot spot" with back heat UNLESS your room is already above 92 degrees. Back heat can ONLY produce a ambient or a "wall" temperature, unlike belly heat that heats floor and air.(and of course snake)

this thread started over a year ago....