RBI hatchling rack. Is this normal?

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I have lots of RBI CB70 racks. On the CB70 racks, in my 75 degree room, I have the heat tape set at about 95 degrees to establish about a 89 degree warm side. They are all belly heat.

The questions I have though are about this RBI hatchling rack I recently got at a show.

http://www.reptilebasics.com/images/D/d-16181-31.jpeg

It has back heat. 11" flexwatt. My question is, I have to have the heat tape at about 115 degrees in order to get 90 degrees on the 1/3 of the tub closest to the heat tape. Should I have to have the heat cranked up so high?!

To give all the info, I have the rack sitting on an insulated base. I am measuring temperatures with an RBI Heat Gun that I know is VERY accurate. The room temp is about 75 degrees. It has been running for over a day so it has had plenty of time to get heated up.

Just seems like it is wrong for me to have to have the temps so high. Anyone with this this rack please chime in! At what temperature am I pushing the limits of the rack?

[waltah!]

I have their sweaterbox rack with back heat and I can set the helix at 91 to keep at about 89 on the warm side. My room temp is usually 75-78. I have the probe on the back wall about a half inch away from from the 11' flexwatt. The actual flexwatt reads at around 95 or so.

[FIREball]

I have their sweaterbox rack with back heat and I can set the helix at 91 to keep at about 89 on the warm side. My room temp is usually 75-78. I have the probe on the back wall about a half inch away from from the 11' flexwatt. The actual flexwatt reads at around 95 or so.

Measure your heattape with your thermometer and tell me what it reads, Im sure its close to 115deg. I feel its safer to put the probe on the flexwatt itself and raise the thermostat accordingly, even if you have to set it around 100deg to reach your desired 89

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Ok... so you think the 115 flexwatt temp for this back heated rack is ok?

[waltah!]

Measure your heattape with your thermometer and tell me what it reads, Im sure its close to 115deg. I feel its safer to put the probe on the flexwatt itself and raise the thermostat accordingly, even if you have to set it around 100deg to reach your desired 89

I'll check it when I get home today. I could very well be wrong...trust me it's been know to happen LOL

[FIREball]

Ok... so you think the 115 flexwatt temp for this back heated rack is ok?

I dont have experience with back heat so I cant tell you. Id give Rich a shout tomorrow and he can set you in the right direction.

I'll check it when I get home today. I could very well be wrong...trust me it's been know to happen LOL

I made this mistake of moving my probe off the flexwatt only an inch and set the Helix to 95 to get my desired 89. I walked into the room and could smell the plastic melting. My heat tape was over 120deg and it was melting my tubs. I moved the prob back to the tape and just bumped up my Helix to 100...all is well now

[waltah!]

Yeah, I forgot that I had moved the probe to the edge of the flexwatt instead of just off of it. I have the Helix set at 91, the warm side on top of aspen was 87.5 and the flexwatt in the center was 92. I knew I moved that Helix probe for a reason I played around with the placement so much at one point I forgot what worked!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

Talked to rich this morning. he said I will be fine with the heat tape set at 115 degrees. He said he doesn't normally have any problems with damage to the incubator with 11" heat tape on the back. He said the majority of problems come when 3" heat tape gets too hot.

On a side note, he also suggested that instead of keeping the hot spot on the baby balls at 90 degrees, that I keep it more around 86 to 87 degrees. He recommended this because the tubs are so small there isn't much of a heat gradient.

Guess the temperature suggestion makes sense. Does anyone disagree? That does allow me to turn down the heat tape quite a bit (don't know exactly how much yet, just stated to reset the temps

Yet ANOTHER perfect example of good customer service from Rich.

[nixer]

my probe is about about 3/4" away from the heattape and my herpstat2 is set at 88. right now just observing the snakes in there they are all at the front of their tubs, but most once i feed them they typically move to the back which would obviously lead me to agree with rich 100%. also i have never seen info on his site or in his directions that i could argue against.

[PythonWallace]

Talked to rich this morning. he said I will be fine with the heat tape set at 115 degrees. He said he doesn't normally have any problems with damage to the incubator with 11" heat tape on the back. He said the majority of problems come when 3" heat tape gets too hot.

On a side note, he also suggested that instead of keeping the hot spot on the baby balls at 90 degrees, that I keep it more around 86 to 87 degrees. He recommended this because the tubs are so small there isn't much of a heat gradient.

Guess the temperature suggestion makes sense. Does anyone disagree? That does allow me to turn down the heat tape quite a bit (don't know exactly how much yet, just stated to reset the temps

Yet ANOTHER perfect example of good customer service from Rich.

Hey Mike, I had 11" unregulated flexwatt melt the bottom of a wine cooler and turn to ash when I was trying to find out if 2' would be enough to quickly get it up to 90. So the 11" can get hot enough to do some damage, but with the Herpstat you should be fine.