CB-70 Heat Tape setup - For Chad Schwinn

Chad sent me a PM asking about how we set up our heat tape on our CB-70 racks, and I told him I would take some pics, so here they are. We actually build the metal inserts out of 4" metal flashing. The heat tape is taped to the metal, and the metal screwed to the rack. All heat tape connections are soldered.

Chad - Hope this helps.

http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/cb70heat1.jpg

http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/cb70heat2.jpg

http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/cb70heat3.jpg

http://www.baileyreptiles.com/pics/cb70heat4.jpg

Nice looking, how does the metal sheet affect heating? I've always been leary about attaching heat elements to metal that can transfer a current. I'm wondering though if it helps spread the heat and how it affects your stability?

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Originally Posted by TekWarren

Nice looking, how does the metal sheet affect heating? I've always been leary about attaching heat elements to metal that can transfer a current. I'm wondering though if it helps spread the heat and how it affects your stability?

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All the breeder quality racks (FB and ARS at least) attach the heat tape to a metal plate just like that. For me, with ARS racks, it works perfectly!

The flexwatt is under the metal sheet? I'm interested in trying this to see what it does for me in a rack.

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Originally Posted by TekWarren

The flexwatt is under the metal sheet? I'm interested in trying this to see what it does for me in a rack.

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On mine, the flexwatt is under the metal strip and then reflectix is stuck to it to keep the heat radiating up.

looks like a good setup for flexwatt! i've seen this on the freedom breeder racks, works good. you can actually get 2 forms of heat transfer that way. the tub that slides on top of the metal strip would get conductive heat, the tub below would get radiant heat from the flexwatt hanging above.



vaughn

Vaugn,
You are absolutely correct. If I have hide boxes in my racks, I find that the snakes get on top of the hides, and actually try to get at the heat from above. Another perk, is that if, and it has happened a few times, a snake gets out, rest assured, I can always find it jammed up under one of the heat panels.

Thanks!!!


I am definitely thinking about going to a tub when fluffy gets to big for his current situation.

I did not want to attach anything to the tub itself. This looks perfect for what I had in mind.

Can flexwatt be plugged into a ReptiTemp 500 -- or should I stick to the ReptiTherm UTHs that I am using now?

that's good stuff thank you for posting that!

im going to be building a rack very soon and i was wondering how the heating tape works.. i thought that the heating tape was like the heating pads.. so you only use one small strip across the bottom of the tub? Should I be using more than one for more heat or what I don't think one strip will work.. and with this ill be needing a thermostat how does that work and hook up? And which one would you think I should buy, lookin for something cheaper.. what would happen if you didnt use it? Thanks in advance for the help! And I was also wondering.. with the racks it doesnt need to be lighted right?

this design is from freedom breeder racks


www.freedombreeder.com

most racks like these are in heated rooms. the room temp is the cool side temp. one strip will heat a tub just fine, some breeders put 2 strips on the bottom rows, some have different thermostats for the bottom rows. racks with flexwatt and proportional stats like helix work very well and ball pythons thrive in them. no light needed in the racks.

proportional stats
www.helixcontrols.com




vaughn

im going to need to build my own design that will heat all the tubs inside the rack to a room temp. and have other heating for the warm side. balls need good ventalation right, so i couldnt make it a closed up rack? where im going to have to have the rack it'll be too cold.... so would you know how i can heat the tubs in the rack properly?

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Originally Posted by jwk811

im going to need to build my own design that will heat all the tubs inside the rack to a room temp. and have other heating for the warm side. balls need good ventalation right, so i couldnt make it a closed up rack? where im going to have to have the rack it'll be too cold.... so would you know how i can heat the tubs in the rack properly?

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I'm no rack expert, but here's the thoughts that come to mind anyhow...

One...if you know the room the rack is going in is going to be cold, you could make life easy on yourself and just get a space heater for it. Warm the whole room up.

Two...if for whatever reason you won't get a heater...maybe you could go with two strips of flexwatt on each level instead of one...so that one strip warms up to 93ish...and the other strip warms up to 83ish. That should keep the ambient temps in each tub warm enough.

would a tub 16"x20"x5" work for a bp.. and how big will this hold? and the flex watt will work on wood right? is there any other kind of heating tape that will work good on wood?

Judy's idea sounds the best to me. I personally would warm up the room to the desired ambient temp.. That is how our room works. In answer to an earlier question, if you do not use a thermostat, the heat tape plugged directly ninto the wall will heat up to greater than 120 degrees, and will melt holes in your rack, and potentially sverly burn your animals. This is not from personal experience, but I do know someone who did do just that. A thermostat is a necesiity and not an option. I wire my heat tape in series, and have one plug per rack to plug into my Helix. I plug three racks into one Helix, and have had no problems.

Okay I think I understand how the heating tape works. Will this thermostat work with it? http://mgreptiles.com/ZOOSTAT.html and what are the disadvantages of this one compared to the others? and for the flex watt this is what i should be getting correct? http://mgreptiles.com/flexwatt.html and is there any differences when buying, how many feet of it do you think i should buy for about a 4 foot rack with 5 tubs going down?

Tim,


Thanks! I don't know how I missed this post so many months ago!!! That is exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks Again!

No problems Chad. Actually I thought you might have seen it and just didn't respond. I hope it helped.