How heavy is XPVC?

[Lorgakor]

Could one still use the regular pvc? Are there any downsides to it other than the weight? I am only asking because I can get it for a very good price.

Of course that presents another question, is regular pvc usually alot cheaper than xpvc? Or are they a similar price?

[adamjeffery]

xpvc that i can get here locally is $110 for a 4x8 sheet of 1/2 thick material. not seeing a benefit to pvc if it isn't lighter. unless its really cheap. 4x8 sheet of melamine is around 35 bucks. so if its not cheaper than that then i would build with melamine. if your looking for a light weight rack then pop the big bucks and go with xpvc.
adam jeffery

[kitedemon]

PVC is fairly strong specially 3/8 the way it heats is different it is easier to heat through but it looses heat faster as well since you are talking a rack heating through it isn't an issue but heat loss could be unless you heat your snake room to correct ambient temps.

[Simple Man]

I get my XPVC for $85 a sheet cut! PVC might be more difficult to cut if it is anything like the pipes and fittings. The closed cells of XPVC make it easy to work with like wood. Someone else might have to chime in on PVC but my experiences with PVC pipes/fittings are that they are a lot more brittle. I don't have any experiences with the sheets of it.

Regards,

B

[Lorgakor]

PVC is fairly strong specially 3/8 the way it heats is different it is easier to heat through but it looses heat faster as well since you are talking a rack heating through it isn't an issue but heat loss could be unless you heat your snake room to correct ambient temps.

The rack would be in a basement, which gets rather cold in the winter, so ambient temps are low in winter. This would be an issue with the regular pvc more so than the xpvc?

And no, heating the whole basement more, or using space heaters is unfortunately not an option.

[kitedemon]

Racks tend not to do well in cool spaces they are very space efficient and very poor heat efficiency. It is tossed as an option but often the people whom suggest it have 'snake' rooms where the ambient air temps are 80ºF.

I run a rack in a cool room but have had to use dual heating for both warm and cool and needed to insulate the rack as well to keep heat loss at a minimum. It is a big job and lots of time effort and cash to get right. I spent 10 days of adjusting the empty rack to get the temps correct and stable.

My rack is PVCx and sucks at holding heat before the modifications I made. I am currently in the process of designing a new one that will hopefully hold heating better than the one I have. In a cool room I'd not use PVC or PVCx or melamine but in stead look at stress skin panel construction as it is more efficient insulation from heat loss. you can build your own with out too many problems look up 'stress skin panels' use 1/8 door skin on the exterior and interior skins rather than chip board.

If you have a cool room perhaps you might give thought to stackable enclosures. Instead they cost more to build but well designed they cost less to run. Just a thought.

[Simple Man]

Racks tend not to do well in cool spaces they are very space efficient and very poor heat efficiency. It is tossed as an option but often the people whom suggest it have 'snake' rooms where the ambient air temps are 80ºF.

I run a rack in a cool room but have had to use dual heating for both warm and cool and needed to insulate the rack as well to keep heat loss at a minimum. It is a big job and lots of time effort and cash to get right. I spent 10 days of adjusting the empty rack to get the temps correct and stable.

My rack is PVCx and sucks at holding heat before the modifications I made. I am currently in the process of designing a new one that will hopefully hold heating better than the one I have. In a cool room I'd not use PVC or PVCx or melamine but in stead look at stress skin panel construction as it is more efficient insulation from heat loss. you can build your own with out too many problems look up 'stress skin panels' use 1/8 door skin on the exterior and interior skins rather than chip board.

If you have a cool room perhaps you might give thought to stackable enclosures. Instead they cost more to build but well designed they cost less to run. Just a thought.

kitedemon is right on this one. I run my racks in a 78-80 degree temp controlled reptile room. Most racks won't do well in a cool area because the Flexwatt can not compensate for the ambient temp once it gets below a certain point.

Regards,

B

[EverEvolvingExotics]

I have never had the option of a reptile only room. I have belly heat for the hot spots and I run 1-2 pieces of 11" flexwatt up the back of my racks to provide the ambient temps. This has worked well for me for many years, I will continue to use this method until I can finally have my own reptile room.

I can't wait to get some XPVC when I move to San Diego, until then melamine will continue to do the job...