Undertank Heat Mats - Air Gap? Styrofoam?

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Originally Posted by C.alex

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What do people think about something like this silicone heat mat? The raised texture could help hold the UTH against the bottom while still leaving air channels if you trimmed off the outer lip, and it doubles as a protective surface for your table (and this is just the first one I grabbed, there are plenty other textures/size/etc): https://smile.amazon.com/ZLR-Silicon...353311&sr=8-43

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If you just want something to support the UTH (keep it against the bottom of the glass tank), one thing I've used in the past is just a scrap piece of folded "hardware cloth" (welded wire mesh). I'm always making my own tank tops- no, not the kind I wear! :P And then I used a tile underneath it (much cheaper than a fancy silicone mat)- the tile wasn't thick enough to reach up against the UTH, & the "hardware cloth" has tons of air flow.

Setting up a tank, you can really get creative- there's many ways to do things that will work & be safe. I guess that's why if my garage could talk, it would tell you what a "pack-rat" I am. I rarely need to run to the hardware store.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I guess that's why if my garage could talk, it would tell you what a "pack-rat" I am.

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You and me both haha.

Thanks for all the input, lots of good stuff here :)

I'm curious enough about the silicone mat (yeah, just a plain mat, sorry for the 'heat' confusion!) that I'll probably order one just to see if the idea is viable. If not...well, I'll have a new trivet for cooking haha.

Oooh, hardware cloth. Never thought about that, and I have a ton of it laying around.

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Originally Posted by Spicey

Oooh, hardware cloth. Never thought about that, and I have a ton of it laying around.

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Really useful stuff... Many of my tanks are on solid wood cabinets made for aquariums, so there's a large gap underneath the tank bottom. It's good for the UTH to "breathe" but sometimes the tape holding it onto the glass will eventually loosen & let go in time, & I wouldn't want the UTH to fall off unnoticed & park itself in the items stored below, so I've used pieces of hardware cloth under the UTH for this too- just for safety. It's unlikely that my Flexwatt would be hot enough to ever cause a fire, but hey. And besides, many here are running much hotter UTH than I am.

And for those of my tanks that are on solid wood-top cabinets, I definitely use ceramic tiles (+folded hardware cloth for some) to isolate the UTH from the wood, as the heat builds up more this way.
I've been keeping snakes a long time, & many years back when I was fairly 'new' I subscribed to a publication about snake-keeping from the U.K.- and in that there were 2 accounts of people who set their wood dressers on fire from the excessive heat of their apparently unregulated UTH that dried out the wood over time. So I've been more than careful. ;)