Which 41 qt rack to get?

Hey All,

Looking to get a pre-built rack with heat tape installed. Looked at Beeger Boxes but noticed the fire-storm of issues occurring with them lately. RBI is telling me that they can only sell their 41 qt rack with 4" heat tape. I don't have a dedicated snake room, and my ambient apartment temps are in the mid 60s, and likely would need a larger hot spot. Mildly disappointed that these two companies couldn't pull through for me. Any advice for where to turn next would be appreciated.

The only rack system that has the option of using wider heat tape is ARS http://www.arscaging.com/ars7010.html , it can be upgraded to 6 or 12 inches wide.

Thanks for the info but Beeger Boxes uses larger heat tape for their racks. Just didn't want to deal with their extended shipping times. Boaphile uses two strips of 4" heat tape. These are basically PVC book cases with heat tape. I have no clue how or why these are not customizable.

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Originally Posted by JoshSloane

Thanks for the info but Beeger Boxes uses larger heat tape for their racks. Just didn't want to deal with their extended shipping times. Boaphile uses two strips of 4" heat tape. These are basically PVC book cases with heat tape. I have no clue how or why these are not customizable.

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Try "C" serpents. They normally do 3' h.t. but I believe he will customize just about anything. His shipping times are pretty good too!:gj:

Have you considered building a custom rack? I haven't made one myself but purchased a used home made 41 quart tub rack and the person used 12 inch heat tape. It held temperatures very well all winter even when my room dropped down into the mid 60s. If you're handy it might be a good option for you and might even save you a couple bucks

I have actually built a few racks myself in the past out of melamine. I wanted to use PVC but I can't for the life of me find a good PVC supplier in Denver. Home depot will ship it out to me in store, but its ridiculously expensive and the cost to build it myself comes close to that of buying one already made.

Where are you located? I literally just picked up my 41qt rack from Ross of Beeger Boxes (I now own three of his racks) and it is Amazing! The larger heat tape is great and really bumps up the ambient temp so much so that I don't even have to use my space heater as often anymore. If I were you I'd just find a show he's vending at reserve one. He will built it for you bring it to the show and you just pick it up without have to deal with shipping cost. I pick up all my racks from him at repticons and speak with at everyone. I wouldn't let the other stuff deter you from getting a good product.

I am in Denver and unfortunately we do not get a ton of quality reptile shows out here. I think I might just order from Beeger Boxes and put up with an extended wait time.

Ross mentioned that with the larger heat pad he doesn't recess it into the PVC. Have you had any issues with this? Thanks for the info AlexisFitzy.

I second contacting Chris from C serpents. They had no issues customizing a sub adult rack for me (splitting it so it could be controlled on 2 separate thermostat channels for different temps).

He does ship and also vends shows.

Thanks guys, I actually emailed chris weeks ago and heard nothing back.

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Originally Posted by JoshSloane

Thanks guys, I actually emailed chris weeks ago and heard nothing back.

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Pretty busy time of year for him with show schedules and increased orders for incoming hatchlings. Once you get a dialogue going with him he's fairly quick to respond. I have a feeling a lot of those lone emails get eaten by the spam folder so just try sending a few emails over the course of a few days. Once you get a response you should be good from there with communications.

I will try to get in touch. Right now I have three sub adult boas and the dwarf male retic. Also looking to get a dwarf female to pair with him. I was planning on having two, 3 level 41qt tub racks for the animals while they are juveniles and progressively move them out into individual cages as they mature. Is there a better or more economical way to do this?

Before I setup my racks, I would use stand-alone tubs.... You can actually make it work pretty cheaply and the animals (boas, BPs, and a carpet in my collection) do well in the tubs.

Since you plan on housing the animals in cages when adults (I'm in exactly the same boat as you), it might be cheaper to just do tubs on some sort of shelving system.

Check out the long ultratherm "strips" they have at reptile basics. I've used one of these to heat 3 smaller tubs and 2 larger tubs.. Using one of these on a shelf will allow you to use one T-stat to control at least 2 tubs at once.

In my case, I put the tubs on a tv shelf unit (2 on top and 1 on each of the 2 shelves below) had 1 ultratherm strip on the top and smaller ultratherms on each shelf.

I think I remember reading somewhere that you aren't using a heated room, correct? If so, that makes it harder... When I was using tubs in an unheated room, I had to use lamps on lamp stands (with dimmers) over the warm end of the tubs to increase ambient temps. I would also stuff towels around them and drape towels over the tops of the tubs to retain heat.

Chris gives his cell number on his site, you might want to try calling him... It took him a while to respond to my first email too (I think the spam folder ate it). I know he has a FB page, but I'm not sure how often he checks it.