flex watt

can you pick it up at a hardware store or do you have to order it online from a source like Reptilebasics.com?

i got mine from a show.

never seen it at the hardware store. :)

Aleesha, in Canada, flexwatt is technically illegal to some extent, as it did not meet CSA safety standards, so really your only option is to order it from a herp supplier. These are the best 2 bets for flex in Canada...

www.niagarareptiles.com ...... Jon is an excellent guy to deal with and has amazing customer service, I actually wont deal with anyone else on a product that Jon carries, he's just been that good to me ;) If I order flex from Jon on Monday night, I have it wednesday morning :) he's got nice snakes too ;)

www.cornelsworld.com ....Greg West has an excellent rep, and I've heard nothing but positive things about him, he's in Alberta, whereas Jon is in Ontario, so you might save a dollar or 2 on shipping, maybe not even.....

I personally recommend Jon @ Niagara, but I've never personally dealt with Greg, so I guess I'm biased ;)

thank you sooooooooooo much chris! once we get the rack built we will order from jon! we are going to get one of those helix babies as well :)

No problem...Jon's a great guy, feel free to ask him any question's you might have, he'll be happy to answer them, and Jon really knows his stuff ;)

thanks chris... i will take him up on that!

it's our first rack system... so my hubby has been reading all the threads on racks here... and i've been bringing up sites and photos for him so he can decide how to do it best.

we have decided to do 2 large bins on the bottom for our boas and then 10 ball bins. so it should end up about 4' tall. my hubby is soooooooo freakin' accurate when he builds things... i'm amazed at his work... so i'm looking forward to seeing this rack when he's done. i'll be sure to post pics!

Cant wait to see it :) the 2 biggest pieces of advice I can give you are....Dont make it fit to snuggly, or one day you'll find that a tub wont pull out, or fit back in due to swelling...and seal up every joint, chip, or exposed surface or you'll have swelling issues alot quicker than you planned ;)

what do you think... if the tub is 6" high... then how much space between the 'shelves'

It depends on whether you use a router to make a channel for the flex or not, and personal preference, the gap you leave also affects maintence of humidity...On the first two sets that I built, I didnt route a channel, and left a gap of 1/8", and drilled 1 row of 5/8" holes spaced 1/2" apart on the tubs, it works great, but I dont like it now because the tubs dont slide as freely as I'd like...the next racks I build will be like I've seen at Corey's and a few others, which is..route a channel for the flex, leave a 1/4" gap and NO holes in the tubs, seems to work great, and I love how easily they slide out ;)....I'd Imagine you'd need locking pins to house Boa's like that though, not sure....

ya we are going to lock the boas in... cause they are naughty snakes - and after reading your post... sounds like routing a channel for the flex is the way to go! i like the idea of not drilling the tanks.

now... another question. how long of a piece of flex watt do you put on each shelf? do you put it from the back towards the front or do you go side to side? i've been thinking side to side would be better but it may use too much flex watt.

When running flex watt its always better to run 1 continous piece from top to bottom. thats why its important to route both side walls and every shelf bottom, so you can snake the flex watt through in one piece. run it from side to side. I like the 4" wide flex watt. :)

ahhh... so like an "S" weaving back and forth... okay... thanks!

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Originally Posted by Uncle Festae

It depends on whether you use a router to make a channel for the flex or not, and personal preference, the gap you leave also affects maintence of humidity...On the first two sets that I built, I didnt route a channel, and left a gap of 1/8", and drilled 1 row of 5/8" holes spaced 1/2" apart on the tubs, it works great, but I dont like it now because the tubs dont slide as freely as I'd like...the next racks I build will be like I've seen at Corey's and a few others, which is..route a channel for the flex, leave a 1/4" gap and NO holes in the tubs, seems to work great, and I love how easily they slide out ;)....I'd Imagine you'd need locking pins to house Boa's like that though, not sure....

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how deep would you need to make the channel for the flexwatt? my hubby wants to get started on it before the flexwatt comes.

bump... to get an answer...

If you go on the Boaphile site you can see a good pic of the flex laying in the recessed groove. My guess is about 1/16 or 1/8".

I'm not questioning Ed's suggestions but have been thinking about the continous length of flexwatt. I can definately see how one continious length would be best and most efficient.

With my home made rack I setup each level with its own strip of FW and individual power cords. Each length was measured and cut exactly for accuracy when heating w/stat. My reasoning behind this was that I more than likely will not have hundreds of racks any time soon but I do have animals of varying age/maturity. With this option I can control each level, for example if I have a breeding pair, I could plug them into a different stat and/or a timer for cooling purposes while not effecting the other animals in the rack. Or...should the rare case be that I have a completely empty level I have the option to unplug that section rather than heating that level for no reason.

I could be off, just my method of thinking. My impression with the continous strip would be if someone had many different racks and could easily move breeding pairs (for example) to another rack that is just for cooling.

okay so we are going with rich at reptile basics. 11" flex watt across the back and along one side of each tub (like an S weaving down through all the levels of tubs). we have a hard time keeping the ambient temps right in our home (as we keep our home on the cool side in the fall/winter/spring months.

robin recommended using the 11" instead of the 3" and rich agreed.

i'm picking up the helix t-stat and of course the wire/clips/insulator kit.

so they'll be shipped next week... and then my hubby can get the rack built (with a 1/8" groove for the flexwatt)... adam is going to be starting on our CITES next week and so... without too many delays we will have our 4 new babies home early next year!

ROCK ON!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Uncle Festae

Aleesha, in Canada, flexwatt is technically illegal to some extent, as it did not meet CSA safety standards, so really your only option is to order it from a herp supplier. These are the best 2 bets for flex in Canada...

www.niagarareptiles.com ...... Jon is an excellent guy to deal with and has amazing customer service, I actually wont deal with anyone else on a product that Jon carries, he's just been that good to me ;) If I order flex from Jon on Monday night, I have it wednesday morning :) he's got nice snakes too ;)

www.cornelsworld.com ....Greg West has an excellent rep, and I've heard nothing but positive things about him, he's in Alberta, whereas Jon is in Ontario, so you might save a dollar or 2 on shipping, maybe not even.....

I personally recommend Jon @ Niagara, but I've never personally dealt with Greg, so I guess I'm biased ;)

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so we are finally getting this rack built. jon @ niagara doesn't seem to sell flexwatt or t-states anymore. and rich's site is closed down while he moves it to another server...

and i want to get it this week so my hubby can make the rack next weekend.

any suggestions from anyone? and please... don't suggest matt from mgr :P

i just pm'd rich to find out when he's going to be up and running...

just my luck, i finally get my hubby motivated and the flex-watt is unavailable :( sheeeeesh

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

i just pm'd rich to find out when he's going to be up and running...

just my luck, i finally get my hubby motivated and the flex-watt is unavailable :( sheeeeesh

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Unavailable? Rich is still accepting orders over the phone while he moves servers.

oh okay, it doesn't say that on his site... at least i didn't see anything that said that. i'll go back and check.

it doesn't say you can do any phone in orders... so i'll wait for him to respond to my pm.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

it doesn't say you can do any phone in orders... so i'll wait for him to respond to my pm.

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I just talked to him this weekend on the phone. He is definitely taking phone orders. I would give him a call in case he doesn't check PMs often on this site. (336) 880 5798

thanks jamie. i'm going to give him today to check his pm... as i don't want to call long distance if i don't have to :P

Aleesha, he told me a few weeks ago that he doesn't check his PM box regularly here. Best bet is to give him a phone call. Are you like the last person ever that still pays extra for long distance?

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

Aleesha, he told me a few weeks ago that he doesn't check his PM box regularly here. Best bet is to give him a phone call. Are you like the last person ever that still pays extra for long distance?

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Or at the very least, shoot him an email which he checks more regularly. reptilebasics@triad.rr.com

okay i called him. :D

he doesn't like to send to canada as he has lots of problems with lost orders... so i came up with an idea. i called adam and asked him if it would be okay for rich to send my stuff to him and he could forward it along with my snakes.

adam said "absolutely, no problem at all" and rich was thrilled to be able to send it within the USA so all is good here. the order for 14' of flex watt and a helix t-stat is placed and it looks like our CITES should be here this week... so i'm very very VERY excited right now.

thanks jamie and brad... ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

okay i called him. :D

he doesn't like to send to canada as he has lots of problems with lost orders... so i came up with an idea. i called adam and asked him if it would be okay for rich to send my stuff to him and he could forward it along with my snakes.

adam said "absolutely, no problem at all" and rich was thrilled to be able to send it within the USA so all is good here. the order for 14' of flex watt and a helix t-stat is placed and it looks like our CITES should be here this week... so i'm very very VERY excited right now.

thanks jamie and brad... ;)

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Rock on. Two guys that get it done EVERY SINGLE TIME! Adam and Rich are two of the best out there.

and now to light a firecracker under my hubby's butt... and i'll have a nice rack to quarantine those new snakes in - in no time!!!

Quarantine an 8Ball?

I quarantine my collection from the new snake! ;)

Yup, we'll be going through a quarantine process. We feel no matter where you get your snakes from, it's important to have good quarantine practices set up. :P

Actually we are in the process of selling our hog island boa and our rtb (we think we have buyers) so we can create a quarantine area for our balls as currently the boas are in the only space we have available as a quarantine.

Fortunately, we'll be able to go visit and handle our boas on a regular basis cause I know the homes they are going into. ;)

I was 1/4 kidding. :P

i knew that :P

oh and the question i have asked here... about how deep a channel for the flex-watt... rich recommends 1/16" and an extra 1/4" in width for the 11" flex-watt. in case anyone else is ever asking the question, "how deep do i take this router to create a channel for my flex-watt?"

well just returned from the hardware store... picked up two sheets of 3/4" mdf, 4 wheels and lots of screws.

the hubby is in the garage right now cutting the pieces... then he's going to paint them (cobalt blue to match the room) and... then we can add some snakes to them!!!

i have all the bins, ready to go in. all i need to pick up is hides and water dishes!

1/16th is plenty. on 3/4 mdf you could do 1/8 and still have plenty of space!



vaughn

I have a little off-topic question about quaratine racks. Let's say you're getting a ball python or two from more than one supplier and you put them in the same quaratine rack. Isn't this risky? What if one of them has a respiratory infection? It almost seems like you'd need a couple quarantine rooms/racks, or just get one snake every month or two if buying from different breeders.

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Originally Posted by JasonGranger

I have a little off-topic question about quaratine racks. Let's say you're getting a ball python or two from more than one supplier and you put them in the same quaratine rack. Isn't this risky? What if one of them has a respiratory infection? It almost seems like you'd need a couple quarantine rooms/racks, or just get one snake every month or two if buying from different breeders.

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I use a single quarantine room. Every new acquisition extends the quarantine period of any snakes already in quarantine to an additional 3 months. This is just part of it. The other part is knowing who you are buying from. Taking care of due diligence (research, ask questions) is a big part of making sure you bring the healthiest possible animals in to your facility.

so, in other words, plan your purchases to either come at the same time or three months apart! :D

Okay, got it, thanks.