Heating a Plastic Cage

[ziggy7]

I am looking at getting a 4' x 2' cage made from CPVC. I like either the animal plastics or Reptile Basics. My main question is -

Is flexwatt enough to heat whole cage?
i would like 90 hot and 80 cool side i keep my house at 70 - 75 degrees.
Would i need two thermostats one for hot side and one for cool or can i just heat the one side. Or is it enough to just heat one side?
Also has anyone bought the reptile basics cages? I know AP is very popular but haven't heard anything about RBI. Unfortunately AP has a 2-4 week wait currently and haven't heard back from RBI yet.
The other thing i am looking at would be pro-products radiant heat panels. They seem the best but are expensive.

Thanks for any insight...

[kavmon]

check out this setup,




bryce's setup is one of the best i've seen, imo.

proportional thermostat, radiant heat panel and digital thermometer! the bp ritz!!


vaughn

[ziggy7]

Yes i think thats the way i am leaning maybe not proportional thermstat i am thinking Johnson Controls. It is just so expensive once you start getting everything and i would need a total of 3 cages. It seems no matter which way i go i would need the heat panels just for the ease of not having multiple thermostats in cage but the panels are expensive. My eventual goal is to have a set up i can stack so my whole house isnt taken up with big ugly glass cages.

[BD1]

I am looking at getting a 4' x 2' cage made from CPVC. I like either the animal plastics or Reptile Basics. My main question is -

Is flexwatt enough to heat whole cage?
i would like 90 hot and 80 cool side i keep my house at 70 - 75 degrees.
Would i need two thermostats one for hot side and one for cool or can i just heat the one side. Or is it enough to just heat one side?
Also has anyone bought the reptile basics cages? I know AP is very popular but haven't heard anything about RBI. Unfortunately AP has a 2-4 week wait currently and haven't heard back from RBI yet.
The other thing i am looking at would be pro-products radiant heat panels. They seem the best but are expensive.

Thanks for any insight...

I just ordered one of the pro-products for my AP T-10 tank. The owner (Bob) was great on the phone and very helpful, we emailed each other back and forth and he was very informative with suggestions. He said the heat panel should be more than enough to heat the cage by itself, I'll let you know how it works when I get it.

[ziggy7]

I ended up going with Reptile Basics. It has a 11 x 18 piece of flexwatt built into the bottom of cage. So far it does a pretty good job of heating the cage it is a 4' x 2' x 11" cage and it maintains a nice hot spot and the far cool side is 78 degrees would like it a notch or 2 warmer on cool side but for winter seems pretty good. This cage holds humidity very well it is steady 45-55%. No spraying and i am using paper substrate.


The reptile basics cage is very nice. Rich got it to me with in 10 days would have been sooner except he had a reptile show in NJ. Very easy to deal with and responds quickly. He even offered to drop it off on the way through baltimore but i couldnt get off work. Plus every other place i tried needed at least a month to make cage and i am impatient. The construction is very sturdy and professional. I can find no faults in cage at all and the flexwatt is installed inside a sandwich layer at bottom of cage. I actually cant even tell the two pieces of plastic apart. Very well made. I will get my other two cages from him also. The service and quality are top notch.

As far the heat goes i will keep an eye on it. I may still go with a panel especially for my Diamond jungle cross.

[juddb]

I would stay away from those log hides.... I would go with something a little more snug and less open for the BP... just my

[krood]

FYI: Alt+0162 = ¢ (lol)