UTH On Vision Cage Questions

Hey everyone. My wife and I are upgrading our home, and my existing cages I have built into bookshelves for my 2 BPs cant come with us because they are built into the house.

I've decided on the Vision 221 as a close enough replacement for what they are in, but I am going to have to go from RHP heating to UTH... I have all my thermostats still but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for UTH heating for them. I can use ZooMed stuff if I have to, I just don't trust that company I don't know why.

Also if anyone has any cage lock suggestions to keep the little escape artists in place that'd be great. I saw a lock on LLL reptiles but it was $16 which seems excessive.

Thanks in advance.

I have used Exo Terra Desert Heat Wave mats on my Vision enclosures for years with no problem (hooked up to a good thermostat). I'm switching to pro products heat panels as soon as they arrive... maybe today! Why can you no longer do heat panels with your 221 enclosures? I have one and don't see any reason you couldn't mount a small heat panel in it. Also, depending on where you live, I don't need my 221 anymore.

For the 221's you don't need the $16 lock. That one is only necessary for vision enclosures with a center support behind the glass. You can use a regular old display case lock, which should be under $10 at a home improvement store.

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Originally Posted by -ryan-

I have used Exo Terra Desert Heat Wave mats on my Vision enclosures for years with no problem (hooked up to a good thermostat). I'm switching to pro products heat panels as soon as they arrive... maybe today! Why can you no longer do heat panels with your 221 enclosures? I have one and don't see any reason you couldn't mount a small heat panel in it. Also, depending on where you live, I don't need my 221 anymore.

For the 221's you don't need the $16 lock. That one is only necessary for vision enclosures with a center support behind the glass. You can use a regular old display case lock, which should be under $10 at a home improvement store.

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I'm in NJ - but I'd be willing to pay shipping for your 221. I'll PM you. i suppose I could put my RHPs in there. I have one cage with 2 x 40 watt RBI RHP (i underestimated the heating needs of the cage they are in) and one cage with an 80 watt. The 80 watt is 22.5" x 12.5" so i dont think that will fit in a 221... I might be able to get away with 1x40 in each 221 though...

Hmm

I would take a close look at the clearance between the RHP and where the snake can get to. The site I saw said a height of 12" for the vision 221. Let's assume that is internal and not external. If you account for approx 2" for the RHP that leaves 10", if you put a hide in that is 3" tall on top of 1" of substrate your down to 6" of clearance. I believe it is recommended to have 9+ if memory serves. I'm guessing this is why it's recommended for this unit to be a UDH only unit. If the 12" is external you have even less clearance. The surface of my 80W RHP can get over 200F. Not worth the risk to snakes. That's why I built mine with 16" inside height.

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Originally Posted by gunkle

I would take a close look at the clearance between the RHP and where the snake can get to. The site I saw said a height of 12" for the vision 221. Let's assume that is internal and not external. If you account for approx 2" for the RHP that leaves 10", if you put a hide in that is 3" tall on top of 1" of substrate your down to 6" of clearance. I believe it is recommended to have 9+ if memory serves. I'm guessing this is why it's recommended for this unit to be a UDH only unit. If the 12" is external you have even less clearance. The surface of my 80W RHP can get over 200F. Not worth the risk to snakes. That's why I built mine with 16" inside height.

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I haven't seen a recommendation not to use RHP's on that enclosure. Vision recommends using only UTH simply to keep people from placing heat lamps on enclosures that don't have a heat lamp shroud built in.

That being said, I would recommend pro products panels which are only about 1" thick. Connected to a reliable thermostat with appropriate probe placement, the heat panel in the shorter enclosure will never approach the same surface temperatures that you will see attempting to heat a taller enclosure. In either scenario, the snake will eventually touch the heat panel, and the one in the taller enclosure will be hotter than the shorter enclosure, but provided enclosure furniture is not close enough to allow the snake to maintain contact with the panel, your risk of either setup resulting in a burn is substantially less than when using a UTH.

Full disclosure: I used a UTH on the 221 when it was in use. I would probably use a small pro products heat panel were I to put it back in use.

Didn't mean to imply anyone recommended not using an RHP just stating that manufacturer says to use UDH only. My 80w VE panels are about 1.75 inches I believe so I rounded to 2. My panels don't get quite that hot during normal use that was a reading I made during the full power burn in as recommended from the manufacturer. If your using them with success in this cage that's great. I personally was concerned with minimal clearance when building mine and thought to share my concerns with op.

I think i'm going to stick with UTH like they recommend. I can always resell the RHP...

That seems reasonable, but two quick points: 1) Vision doesn't make the under tank 'only' recommendation for 221's because of the height. They have up to 20" enclosures that list UTH as the only heat source. My strong opinion, considering they don't mention RHP's at all (and yet clearly they work fine in Vision enclosures) is that they are just letting you know those models do not have a built in heat lamp shroud like many of their other models. 2) I used Exo Terra Desert heat mats on several of my vision enclosures. Exo Terra, like the other major brands, told me not to use their product with Visions or any other plastic enclosure. Properly regulated, they work just fine. But either way, you just have to make a choice and use a good thermostat.

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Originally Posted by -ryan-

That seems reasonable, but two quick points: 1) Vision doesn't make the under tank 'only' recommendation for 221's because of the height. They have up to 20" enclosures that list UTH as the only heat source. My strong opinion, considering they don't mention RHP's at all (and yet clearly they work fine in Vision enclosures) is that they are just letting you know those models do not have a built in heat lamp shroud like many of their other models. 2) I used Exo Terra Desert heat mats on several of my vision enclosures. Exo Terra, like the other major brands, told me not to use their product with Visions or any other plastic enclosure. Properly regulated, they work just fine. But either way, you just have to make a choice and use a good thermostat.

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thermostats I got covered... Spyder herpstat 1's and a VE-100 .,...I dont like using ZooMed grade gear because of things like their thermostats and heatrocks... i suppose a heating mat is hard to screw up though