Powder from CHE’s

[Vegan.Hiker]

I searched but couldn’t find anything. I was changing out a CHE today that had gone dead and noticed a pretty sizable film of powder on the inside of my heat lamps. Basically the whole inside of the lamp where the heat is supposed to bounce of the inside and reflect downwards. I have always used CHE’s and it has never looked this icky. I’m wondering if it is because I have built in humidifier piping that emits a good amount of fog (heavy evaporation near the CHE’s)?

Anyways, they cleaned up easily with wet paper towels. I’m not changing my whole custom built humidifier/humidistat setup, so I guess I’ll just have to clean the lamps every few months. So my questions are:

- How toxic is this powder. Small traces may have fallen through the top screen into my balls terrarium. I changed her water out after, but I’m wondering if I need to do a whole new tank/substrate cleaning. It was a very minor amount. If it is toxic, I will detach all of the springs to avoid wiping them down over the screen top in the future. I’m guessing it may just be minerals from the evaporated fog since my water is a little hard where I live, even though I use filtered water in the humidifier.

- Is this powder flammable at all? I’m sure the inside of the lamps get up to 400-500 degrees (haven’t put the Infrared therm on it), but I want to make sure it’s not some flammable chemical residue from the bulbs that I have to worry about igniting.

I’m probably over-thinking and it’ll probably be just fine with a wipe down 2-3 times a year, but my joy in this hobby is in providing as close to most ideal, natural, healthy setting for my ball as possible, so I want to be 100% sure I know what I’m dealing with here.

Thanks,
John

[Bogertophis]

I'd be asking the SAME questions but unfortunately I have no answers for you...I'd contact the manufacturer though, & links for product safety.

I rather doubt the powder is flammable, & if anything, I'd worry about it being toxic. Glad you're paying attention.

[Vegan.Hiker]

Thanks. I thought about contacting the manufacturer but it occurred equally across lamps of different brands with different brand CHE’s. I also used these same lamps/bulbs in an earlier setup without the same result, so I’m really leaning towards it being minerals from the evaporation of the fog hitting the really hot inner lamp. I’ll keep searching though, and hopefully someone here will definitely know what it is. Also - it had no odor to it.

[Bogertophis]

Let's hope it's just "fog residue" & not from the equipment itself. Not seeing it, so you're in a better position to judge. Kudos for paying attention, caring & asking.

[Faith.luu]

First reading it I thought about calcium or some kind of mineral build up. I think the combination of heat and added vapours in the air could have caused some kind of mineral build up on the interior of your lamp. Similar to calcium build up when you have a mixture of stale water and air. The water molecules will evaporate and the minerals in the water will remain and solidify.

That’s just one possibility, but there could be many others. Maybe it’s something wrong with the lamp rather than the CHE bulb?

[Vegan.Hiker]

Thanks all. After some pretty exhaustive searching and coming up short on any explanation that would point to chemicals emitting from the equipment, I can safely conclude that the buildup is merely mineral residue from heavy fog evaporation near the Che’s. Wiping the lamps down a few times a year is no big deal as long as I know my little girl is safe.