How safe???

[Kristy]

My husband is building our Ball a cage out of melamine, the problem is heating. I know a uth is not going to heat through the bottom of half inch melamine. So How safe would it be to use a zoo med heat mat and seal it between two ceramic tiles hooked upto a thermostat? I have a few extra zoo med heat mats laying around, if not those I can use something else. I prefer not to use lights unless I have to for extra heat like to keep the cool side temps up cause they really dry out the cage.
Thanks

[tmlowe5704]

you would be surprised how much heat will get through there. I use an exoterra underneath my 1/2" MDF enclosure and it will get it up to 100* on the surface. I can't imagine that thin plastic coating to stop much heat. There is a write up on another forum somewhere about a guy making boa enclosures out of 3/4" melamine and using flexwatt to heat it and it will get up there

[Kristy]

Really?? I am not too thrilled about the uth between the tiles. I am going to go out and buy a small piece of melamine and Hook up a uth and thermostat to it and test it out. I don't know what I didn't think of that before. Someone just told me that they couldn't get the uth heat to go through the melamine. I am gonna test it out.
Thanks!!!

[TekWarren]

I am passing on what I have learned here: Its probably not a good idea to sandwich a heating element between two solid objects. For quite a while I had flexwatt in my rack that was covered by hardboard (1/8" thick material). I never had an issue but Adam (8ballpythons) suggested that it could still be unsafe and I have since changed it to prevent the unexpected. Flexwatt isn't that delicate that it will ruin with a tub sliding over it...and if it does wear its not that expensive to replace.

If you need to use "panels" for heating it would be good idea to purchase equipment that was designed for that.

[Adam_Wysocki]

This is my understanding ... "Sandwiching" flexwatt is against the manufacturers suggestions for safe operation and if there were to be a fire, damages would not be covered by insurance if improper use was discovered.

The compression of the central component in the tape (resistor) causes tremendous heat build up which can be combustible. I know first hand of at least one rack that went up in flames from incorrectly installed flexwatt.

While today I do use flexwatt exclusively for heating my racks, when I had enclosures (melamine, wood, PVC, etc) I used to use radiant heat panels to heat them. After years and years of trial and error, RHP's were the product that I found that heated the enclosure most efficiently and unlike my other types of heating elements were completely safe to the touch. I have experience with many different brands of RHP's, but found the Pro-Heat panels from www.pro-products.com to be the best in the business.

Hope this helps.

-adam

[Kristy]

Thanks Adam,

I wasn't about to use the sandwiching without hearing any feedback on it. I have seen where people have done it but I have Always read that there needs to be airflow. I have also talked with my uncle who is a firefighter and he also said that it was a MAJOR fire hazard and that anything that produces heat needs to have airflow or it can become a major hazard.

I will check out the heating panels and also test just a uth on melamine to see how well the heat goes through.
If all else fails I will buy a cage from boaphile or something similar with the proper heating equipment. I just want to be sure my animals and more importantly my family is safe.
Thanks again,
Kristy

[tmlowe5704]

Just to protect me here, I have about a 1/2" gap from the bottom of the tank to the desk that it sits on. My exoterra has enough room to breathe. That is one thing I like better about this one over my zoo-med; the thickness.