? about what is over heat tape on cooler incubators

[KenW]

I have a 52 quart cooler that I'm converting to an incubator. I'm going to put heat tape on the bottom and use a thermostat. My question is what goes on top of the heat tape? Can I add that egg crate/plastic light diffuser directly on top of the heat tape? Will the heat tape melt the plastic? If I can't put the plastic light diffuser on top of the heat tape, what would you recommend? My initial plan is to have heat tape on the bottom of the cooler, then the plastic light diffuser, then a layer of water bottles lying on their side, then another plastic light diffuser, then the egg boxes on top with the thermostat sensor in one of the egg boxes. That's my initial idea. I'd welcome any suggestions or input. Thanks in advance.

[decensored]

What most people do is run the heat tape along the back of the cooler. Helps with heat regulation. If you put it on the bottom under all that stuff you are going to have a hard time keeping the temperature uniform and if you put the egg boxes on top of the heat tape you're going to have a much higher ambient temp in the bottom boxes than the ones above it.

What I did was run a foot and a half in the back of my wine fridge incubator. Installed a computer fan on the top to push the warm air down and circulate the temperature. And I placed water bottles on the bottom. Then stacked my egg boxes on the water bottles.

[KenW]

Thanks for the info. I hadn't thought of putting it along the back wall. I had seen that done on converted refrigerator and wine cooler incubators. My cooler is one of those Igloo coolers that you use to take cold sodas and beers to the beach. All the pics I've seen for this type of cooler have the heat tape on the bottom. After doing a little more online research I see people put water bottles directly on top of the heat tape or they create a small platform to lay the light diffuser on using pvc connectors and piping.