UPS----argh!

Hi guys and gals, my three new racks from Rich at Reptilebasics just arrived. These are the 32 quart with belly heat, and I just love them.

Unfortunately, UPS was having their BiCentennial package tossing contest and some burly Scottish guy must have hurled mine an amazing 13 furlongs end over end for the win. It now has a dual 3" crack down the side of it, right above and below the second shelf. I really hope that burly Scottish guy is happy.

I know Rich will take care of this one way or another, so I'm not complaining about him at all. I think he has great customer service. But, I'm just curious does anyone have any experience repairing PVC racks and to what success? In particular does a small fracture tend to explode down the side, or is PVC pretty stable with respect to that? Superglue??

Thanks!

JonV

superglue, or even silicone sealant (the one specifically for animals) and spread it over then smooth out. 2 step apoxy might get hard enough, and you might be able to find a sandable one so you can fix then sand back to normal. Good luck!

I would 2 part epoxy one side trying to work the epoxy as deep as possible. Let it cure fully. Then on the other side start with a superglue or something that will run down into the opening without having to be pushed. Might try 2 or 3 times waiting for a full drying time inbetween. Then cover it all with another layer of 2 part epoxy. Wait till it is fully cured. Sand it all smooth. Finish with touch up paint. The reason for so many steps is an air void is your biggest enemy at this point. Racks generally are not really abused and they really don't support a lot of weight. But an air void with trapped air will expand and contract as the air is heated and cooled. This could put pressure in an old crack that could cause it to crack again. If you lived closer I could get you some industrial Z1 resin, but it is hazmat for shipping purposes and waste unless it is fully mixed and cured, at that point you can eat off it! It also is extremely good at filling voids since we use it in large turbine driven steam turbine generators.

wow I just ordered my rack from Rich Monday. I hope it doesnt get cracked or damaged.

My last rack I got a few months ago from Rich was bent at the top, first one arrived perfectly fine. They do come packaged extrmely well so I don't know what is going on. It is still bent a little but was able to still connect to my others so I wasnt that worried about it.

Hope you've notified Rich and UPS and taken pictures of the damage that UPS did to the rack. I'm sure Rich will sort this out for you, he's a great guy. :)

grrr ups strikes again, they cost me tons of money with thier package throwing contests, i rather air freight or fedex, sounds like youll be ok though, good luck!

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Originally Posted by tideguyinva

wow I just ordered my rack from Rich Monday. I hope it doesnt get cracked or damaged.

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I have ordered 5 from him, and only this one has had problems. So I wouldn't worry about it. He emailed me this morning regarding the rack, I could return it if I want but I will try to repair it first.

JonV

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Hope you've notified Rich and UPS and taken pictures of the damage that UPS did to the rack. I'm sure Rich will sort this out for you, he's a great guy. :)

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Absolutely. He already emailed me this morning. I agree 100% that he's awesome, and he has great customer service. I'm going to try to repair the rack and then he and I will decided where to go from there.

He recommended PVC cement, so I'll try that.

JonV

Okay, so my next question is...how do I clamp this thing without gluing the clamp or board to the rack? I am assuming glue is going to come out of the crack after I get it all filled in..maybe cover a board in cling plastic wrap, clamp the boards in place, let that get glued to the rack and then sand it all off at the end? Or should I just try and hold it in place with my hands? I think this stuff sets pretty quick.

JonV

Same thing happened to me when I ordered a rack from RBI.

By the size of the dent in the box, I expected the crack to be a lot larger but thanks to Rich's packing job, it wasn't as bad as I expected.

Rich recommended using PVC cement to patch the hole. Other than the the aesthetic issue with the fix setting off my OCD, the rack is fine.

UPS is just rediculous sometimes. FedEx ground seems to be a little more gentle with their shipping.

I have 5 cages and 4 racks from Rich. They do an amazing packing job at RBI and so the fault that one of my cages and one of my racks were messed up upon delivery lies solely with UPS. I was able to repair the damage but I will swear that UPS dropped-kicked the boxes across the US! Rich might want to look into another carrier at one point.....

UPS is Famous for destroying packages..I had bins shipped in that were very well bubble wrapped and the dopes crack 5 of 10.... Although they don't kill me snakes when I ship them so someone thier does care.....

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Originally Posted by JKBReptiles

UPS is Famous for destroying packages..I had bins shipped in that were very well bubble wrapped and the dopes crack 5 of 10.... Although they don't kill me snakes when I ship them so someone thier does care.....

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Also interesting is that UPS isn't supposed to ship snakes in the first place...

They ship and have been for years

So, now I repaired the rack and it's solid. Any thoughts as to painting? I feel like no black is going to match, so if I spray paint it there will just be a big blotch. Maybe some touch up paint rubbed into the set glue? Maybe some of that scratch remover stuff for cars???

JonV

mine came in yesterday. it was fine. this morning i got up and the temps are way the hell off. like 85 on the hot sides and my thermostat is sest for 96. ugh trial and error again

I can heartily attest to UPS and Fedex sucking. I used to work as a freight processor for a large company. We'd get several trucks a day, but Fedex and UPS are almost always guaranteed to have shattered goods.

We would get a lot of yankee candle everyweek, literally a ton in regards to weight. UPS is horrible with glass. You'd hear the shattered glass as they unloaded onto a pallet, and it just makes you mad. Our UPS guy was a douche too, so that didn't help any. Youd get these little slivers in your hands and finger just trying to sort through the broken jars. It sucked. I've seen them throwing boxes onto our dock or around the truck.

Fedex was a little better, they usually never broke anything, and our guys were awesome. But, they did have a pretty regular streak going of broken glass and goods. At least with fedex you could deny delivery instead of dealing with calling it in. Fedex fills their trucks to the brim, sometimes things fall, get lost on the truck, because the people that load the truck have no clue what the hell they are doing. I feel for those guys that actually try to do well.

Oh yea, Fedex also regularly forgot to deliver things on the manifest. Stupid delivery companies!!!!

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Originally Posted by tideguyinva

mine came in yesterday. it was fine. this morning i got up and the temps are way the hell off. like 85 on the hot sides and my thermostat is sest for 96. ugh trial and error again

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Are you talking 85 ambient or temp in the tub above the heat tape?

I have my DBS set to 99 to get 92 above the tape in the tubs (measured with a temp gun). Sounds crazy, I know, but it's what I had to do.

Tough luck on the rack Jon.......but sounds like it's totally fixable!

I don't recall where the number came from (or if I made it up :) ) but I believe that the max temp heat tape should be, for safety issues, is 95 degrees to avoid warping and potential fire risk....again I'm not sure on this (I'm sure there is some figure that is the max it should be?)

I personally don't set the temps above 95 on the tape.

Also from VPI's book they talk about their studies finding that the BPs themselves generate about +2 degrees of heat while digesting. They also talk about 90 degree hot spots being on the high side for a BP if I remember correctly.

Depending on the rack and time of year I run my racks anywhere from 90 to 95 on the tape.

Something that might help raise the temps for racks where the tape isn't in direct contact with the tub (the space is routed out) is to use foil tape to add another layer of protection on your tape and to also spread the heat outward more for more surface area.

Hope that helps!

find a local plastic supply shop that sell the pvc and they have a glue there that is made just for it and that glue will be the best for it.

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Originally Posted by jpman78

Tough luck on the rack Jon.......but sounds like it's totally fixable!

I don't recall where the number came from (or if I made it up :) ) but I believe that the max temp heat tape should be, for safety issues, is 95 degrees to avoid warping and potential fire risk....again I'm not sure on this (I'm sure there is some figure that is the max it should be?)

I personally don't set the temps above 95 on the tape.

Also from VPI's book they talk about their studies finding that the BPs themselves generate about +2 degrees of heat while digesting. They also talk about 90 degree hot spots being on the high side for a BP if I remember correctly.

Depending on the rack and time of year I run my racks anywhere from 90 to 95 on the tape.

Something that might help raise the temps for racks where the tape isn't in direct contact with the tub (the space is routed out) is to use foil tape to add another layer of protection on your tape and to also spread the heat outward more for more surface area.

Hope that helps!

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Hey, I know you! :)

I found that the tape I use to hold the probe to the heat tape actually keeps in some heat as well. So if I temp gun over the exact area that the probe is taped to it will only say, roughly, 96/97 even though that probe thinks it is at 99 since it is insulated by the tape used to hold it down. The other thing is that I have my prob taped to the heat tape on the second from the top slot...which is the hottest slot in the rack. If I move down to the bottom I am at low 90's and the slot above it as well. So these are the absolute hottest temps in my rack.

I agree that these may be 1-2 degrees higher than I would ideally like. Unfortunately, the snakes live with me in my bedroom so I can't stand having the ambient temp in the room hotter than 76 or so. As a result, I have a bit of an exaggerated heat gradient, which is not ideal but has worked just fine thus far. It will be easier when I have a dedicated snake room.

I also have a backup Ranco (as everyone should have a backup!) in case something were to fritz.

JonV

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Originally Posted by gncz73

find a local plastic supply shop that sell the pvc and they have a glue there that is made just for it and that glue will be the best for it.

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Yep, used PVC glue and it worked perfectly. The touch up paint job isn't perfect, but the rack is solid!

JonV

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I can heartily attest to UPS and Fedex sucking. I used to work as a freight processor for a large company. We'd get several trucks a day, but Fedex and UPS are almost always guaranteed to have shattered goods.

We would get a lot of yankee candle everyweek, literally a ton in regards to weight. UPS is horrible with glass. You'd hear the shattered glass as they unloaded onto a pallet, and it just makes you mad. Our UPS guy was a douche too, so that didn't help any. Youd get these little slivers in your hands and finger just trying to sort through the broken jars. It sucked. I've seen them throwing boxes onto our dock or around the truck.

Fedex was a little better, they usually never broke anything, and our guys were awesome. But, they did have a pretty regular streak going of broken glass and goods. At least with fedex you could deny delivery instead of dealing with calling it in. Fedex fills their trucks to the brim, sometimes things fall, get lost on the truck, because the people that load the truck have no clue what the hell they are doing. I feel for those guys that actually try to do well.

Oh yea, Fedex also regularly forgot to deliver things on the manifest. Stupid delivery companies!!!!

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I had a friend who worked for UPS and was absolutely horrified to find out that people ship snakes through UPS/Fedex. It wasn't a fear of snakes or anything, he knew how the boxes were often handled.

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Originally Posted by nevohraalnavnoj

I found that the tape I use to hold the probe to the heat tape actually keeps in some heat as well. So if I temp gun over the exact area that the probe is taped to it will only say, roughly, 96/97 even though that probe thinks it is at 99 since it is insulated by the tape used to hold it down.

JonV

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Okay, I rechecked this and I was actually wrong. The temp gun does say exactly 99 right on the heat tape. I still only get 90 degrees surface temp in my hottest tub though. I wondered how the tub could be 9 degrees cooler than the heat tape. I think it's probably a combo of 3" heat tape and the fact that the racks from Reptile basics have little risers in the back to keep the tub up and off the heat tape...so there is probably more clearance between the tub and the tape than I had initially thought.

JonV

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Originally Posted by nevohraalnavnoj

Okay, I rechecked this and I was actually wrong. The temp gun does say exactly 99 right on the heat tape. I still only get 90 degrees surface temp in my hottest tub though. I wondered how the tub could be 9 degrees cooler than the heat tape. I think it's probably a combo of 3" heat tape and the fact that the racks from Reptile basics have little risers in the back to keep the tub up and off the heat tape...so there is probably more clearance between the tub and the tape than I had initially thought.

JonV

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actually that little riser is for the feet of the tub when you slide it in and out to help stop the tub from sticking and hitting the heat tape. the heat issue is more due to the fact that the tubs have feet on the bottom.
bill

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Originally Posted by nixer

actually that little riser is for the feet of the tub when you slide it in and out to help stop the tub from sticking and hitting the heat tape. the heat issue is more due to the fact that the tubs have feet on the bottom.
bill

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Interesting, so there is probably a vast difference between settings for those people whose tubs directly contact the heat tape and others whose tubs sit significantly up off the heat tape.

JonV