Flexwatt in AP Cages

I recently purchased some 4'x2'x15" AP cages. I got the 11" Flexwatt from them as well that measures 11"x20". My question is will this be sufficient to heat the cages? I currently have them hooked up to a Herpstat 4. My temperature is set at around 98F in one cage and 93.5F in another (I set them high last night to see if it would raise the cage temp. My snakes are NOT in there yet). Unfortunately the inside of the cages only have a small hot spot around 83/85F and to say I'm frustrated would be an understatement.

I am new with operating my enclosures with a thermostat and flexwatt so perhaps I'm missing something. Any advise or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Flexwatt is not intended to heat an entire enclosure, only a localized spot on the floor of the cage. In many cases, the temperature you would have to reach at the hot spot to heat a cage to proper ambient temp would cause serious burns on your snakes (definitely good thinking to test it out before putting them in there). Raise the thermostat temp until you achieve the correct hot spot temp (measured with a heat gun or digital thermometer), and then check if you ambient temp is sufficient. If not, you will either need supplemental heat or to raise the temperature of the room you have the cages in.

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

Flexwatt is not intended to heat an entire enclosure, only a localized spot on the floor of the cage. In many cases, the temperature you would have to reach at the hot spot to heat a cage to proper ambient temp would cause serious burns on your snakes (definitely good thinking to test it out before putting them in there). Raise the thermostat temp until you achieve the correct hot spot temp (measured with a heat gun or digital thermometer), and then check if you ambient temp is sufficient. If not, you will either need supplemental heat or to raise the temperature of the room you have the cages in.

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+1!!! our snake room stays warm year round to keep good ambient temps, and flexwatt serves as a hot spot.
spooky

For me all I need is the flexwatt, because AP cages are made from 1/2" PVC they hold in the heat very well. But if you need to increase your ambiant temperatures the best way to do so is with a Radiant Heat Panel.

How are you measuring your temperatures? When I have my thermostat set to 100-105 the floor of the cage stays around 91 degrees.

Also remember that the heat has to get through the PVC before the floor of the cage starts to warm up. I would suggest that you set your thermostat to 105 wait 2 hours, then measure the floor temperature.

This is how I measure my hot side temperature with the probe of my Acu-Rite

http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/...ant/photo2.jpg

If you can not keep the room your cage is in over 76-78 all year round I do not believe you will be able to get away with just flexwatt. I keep my room between 70-72 all year round and it will sometime drop to 68ish on really cold nights. So I use an RHP.

Aaron are all of your cages stacked? J/w Could the flexwatt from the other cages be assisting with keeping your ambient temps up?

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Originally Posted by jdouglas

If you can not keep the room your cage is in over 76-78 all year round I do not believe you will be able to get away with just flexwatt. I keep my room between 70-72 all year round and it will sometime drop to 68ish on really cold nights. So I use an RHP.

Aaron are all of your cages stacked? J/w Could the flexwatt from the other cages be assisting with keeping your ambient temps up?

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They are, and that might help. My bottom cage actually does have a RHP in it to help, but it only really runs in the winter at night. Also being in Florida helps as I haven't seen outside temperatures under 60 except 1 or 2 nights so far this winter.

I do know my 80 watt RHP only comes on for about 5-10 minutes every hour, not sure about night time when the temps drop a few degrees.

But that's with my ambient room temps in the low 70's and trying to maintain an 80 ambient inside the cage.

So I guess the point is, If your room temps are in the low 70's and you do not want to increase or maintain the entire rooms temps then you will most likely need an RHP.

My apartment stays between 72 and 77 but that's just because I'm cheap and I have the AC set to 78 and the heat set to 68. I swear my girlfriend is cold blooded it can be 78 in the apartment and she will be under a blanket lol

At least for me my cages once they settled down seem relatively unaffected by the room temperature.

I am measuring my temps with a Pro Exotics PE-1 Infrared Temp Gun. The probes connected to my Herp 4 are in the groves premade by AP, under the cage, and on top of the Flexwatt. Would it be a better to place the probes in the enclosures instead like in your pic, Serp Merch?

I boosted the temp in one cage to 105F and 100F in another. I will wait a few hours to see how well the enclose and substrate are heating up. Ambient temp in the cool side is around 74F. Since I live in an apartment the cages are in our living room and I can not raise the temp higher then 71F. Perhaps a RHP is my next step. I was really under the impression the Flexwatt was all I needed hence my frustration.

Thanks for the advise everyone.

I have noticed air flow in the room does drop the ambient temps in the cage to the room temps if I unplug my RHP. If the ceiling fan is on it does change the cage temps. If its off it does not.

Maybe check for drafts or a windy room?

No, the grove is the best place for your thermostat probe. I have a probed thermometer that I use to check my temperatures so that's what the picture is.

I really think that if you let things settle in with the doors closed and the floressent light on the ambiant temps will go up some.

A RHP is the next step but I don't think that you are quite there yet.

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Originally Posted by fortoday634

I am measuring my temps with a Pro Exotics PE-1 Infrared Temp Gun. The probes connected to my Herp 4 are in the groves premade by AP, under the cage, and on top of the Flexwatt. Would it be a better to place the probes in the enclosures instead like in your pic, Serp Merch?

I boosted the temp in one cage to 105F and 100F in another. I will wait a few hours to see how well the enclose and substrate are heating up. Ambient temp in the cool side is around 74F. Since I live in an apartment the cages are in our living room and I can not raise the temp higher then 71F. Perhaps a RHP is my next step. I was really under the impression the Flexwatt was all I needed hence my frustration.

Thanks for the advise everyone.

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Serpent Merchant's probe was for his thermometer, not thermostat. You are correct in placing your thermostat probe between the bottom of the cage and the flexwatt. Your thermometer probe is the one that needs to be inside the cage attached to the floor. You don't necessarily need a thermometer if you are checking temps with the gun, but I prefer to use both so I can get a quick view of temps just by glancing at the cage thermometer. If the ambient is 74 with the hot spot at only 85, then getting your hot spot up to temp might increase the ambient just enough. I shoot for a 78 minimum so that it never swings below 76 on cold night. Just keep tweaking the thermostat and checking, allowing a few hours between adjustments to see the impact.

The cage set at 105F has a hotspot of 96F and ambient temp of 76F. Obviously it's too hot so I turned it down a bit. I should have mentioned this is for my BP and the cage is divided in half. The other cage is for our Dumeril's and is set at 100F. The hotspot is 87F (ideal) but the ambient is room temp (71F). That's too cool. I might have to get a RHP for her and the new Carpet I pick up in March.

Glad I chose to get some feed back and monitor the temps before I introduced everyone to their new enclosure. Patience and knowledge is a virtue in this hobby.

The temps appear to be regulating just fine now. :gj:

For the BP it's 91F hot and 80F on the cool. The Dumeril's is 87F hot and 78F on the cool. Now to just boost the humidity because they are both at 37%. By Friday everyone will be introduced to their new enclosure.

Thanks again for the advice everyone. This forum has been very helpful.

That's great, I had a feeling everything would settle down.