Has anyone ever used Heat Cable?

I am looking to move Jafar from the aquarium into a tub and am trying to decide about how to heat it. The room he is in is pretty cool (about 68%). Right now, I am using an uth and a heat lamp. With the heat lamp off, the cool side temp drops a lot. So I want to move him to a tub and I am thinking about flexwatt. However, I talked to Rich at ReptileBasics and he did not think that that the flexwatt on the hot side would keep the cool side warm enough. I have seen people on here talk about having a piece of flexwatt on the hot side as well as the cool side with two thermostats, but I don't really want to buy another thermostat. So, I was also thinking about heat cable with which I could adjust the concentration of the cable under the tub to create a good temperature gradiant with just one thermostat. Has anyone tried this? If so, how did it work?

Thanks.

I just purchased a Vision CB-70 rack that came with a 50ft long heat cable. I love the heat cable. I'm able to rope it around and heat the enclosures however I want. It's very flexible and easy work with...

However you may want to take a look at how Vision products work with the heat rope:

http://visionproducts.us/racks/htm2/brochure2.html

Each level has little notches that the heat rope fits snug into. If you're using a tank, you could probably tape it to the bottom.

I've never used it, but you could always get a herpstat II *even though I seen you didnt want to get another thermostat* and do that. But im sure the cable would work, but how would you regulate a hotside and also a cold side? It would be one solid temp.

oh yes and I must add..the heat cable, just like flexwatt, must be kept on a thermostat! It gets HOT!!! was testing out to see how hot it would go and i saw it get up to 106 before unplugging it...Use caution...buy a good t-stat.

I thought that I would have a higher concentration of the cable on the hot side and gradually reduce the concentration towards the cool side.

Hmmmm makes sense, you should give it a shot. :)

We have an animal plastics T3 for one of our BP's and it comes with a heat cable..so far so good his temps are perfect on both sides...we have a herpstat on it aswell.

I hate heat cable alone. The stuff gets hotter than hell(130+ degrees) and its hard to disperse the heat evenly

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Originally Posted by Pork Chops N' Corn Bread

I hate heat cable alone. The stuff gets hotter than hell(130+ degrees) and its hard to disperse the heat evenly

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Well yeah with out a thermostat.... I didnt like it at first because it cable makes a zig zag pattern there for it has spaces between each coil...but its so tiny I stopped worrying about it.

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Originally Posted by TheAudOne

Well yeah with out a thermostat.... I didnt like it at first because it cable makes a zig zag pattern there for it has spaces between each coil...but its so tiny I stopped worrying about it.

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I'd rather use something that won't get too hot and melt the cages if the thermostat were to fail.

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Originally Posted by Pork Chops N' Corn Bread

I'd rather use something that won't get too hot and melt the cages if the thermostat were to fail.

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good point

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Originally Posted by Pork Chops N' Corn Bread

I'd rather use something that won't get too hot and melt the cages if the thermostat were to fail.

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and flexwatt won't?

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Originally Posted by nathanledet

and flexwatt won't?

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It's like watching a tennis match.

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Originally Posted by TheAudOne

It's like watching a tennis match.

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:popcorn: :D

You can use 2 pieces of flexwatt on 1 thermostat, just put a rheostat also on the cool side flexwatt, while still plugged into the Thermostat. With some fiddling you can get the cool side to 10 degrees cooler and still run off one thermostat

i use a thermostat on hot side and a dimmer on the cool side to get a nice gradient. sometimes you have to tinker with the dimmer but i just check it when i change water and it's usually good all day.

Plug the dimmer into the thermostat and adjust it over a period of time and you shouldn't have to touch it again

I like that idea Flagg. Sounds like the best idea for me so far. Thanks.