My video review of the Freedom Breeder snake rack 1020-70 (2017). Didn't like it!

[Warren_Booth]

I have to say, I recently got two FB1030's and absolutely love them. I have always been a big fan of ARS, but I was offered two nearly new 1030s in a trade and decided to take it. I am 5'7" and assembled them easily on my own. It took no effort to align them. Simply align the rear pair first, then drop the front two in. Took me about 30 minutes to assemble one rack.

The tarnishing can be unattractive but wipes off easily. It is much more beneficial to have that than powder coat, as if or when the coat chips or cracks, rust can form.

The tubs is a pain, but I have had the same from vision and several other companies. It did not affect the animals, nor my ability to clean them. But, if you are not happy, get them to send you replacements.

Putting castors on anything is a pain. Not much you can do about that. Not adding them at the shipping stage reduces the dimensions and cost to ship I would imagine.

I got some industrial strength Velcro and attached my power stripes to the side of the rack. Others use cable ties. You will have the same issue with ARS. Same goes for the thermostat mount. Personally, looking at that it looks pretty self explanatory. The front clip clips onto the top rail of the rack. The stat sits on top of it.

The panels are easily removed, on my two. You pop off the front clip (I use a small wedge to do this), and then slide out the top panel. Then, I can clean them thoroughly and easily, and replace them. They slide back in. Locate in the slides, and the clip goes on the front. They don't need to be a solid sheet as they are simply a barrier to prevent the snake from escaping. The clip at the front needs to be secure so that they cannot slide it out and escape. Something I saw as common sense.

Overall, I have had a completely different experience with mine than yours. I have loved mine so much that I am going to order an additional base level with castors, an additional 1030 level, and 3 0801 levels, then build three hybrid level racks from these. Prior to this I was using reptilebasics, which are great, but my animals have truly thrived in these FB1030s. I do not have the dividers (but again they look common sense to use (you pop out the circle that fits your snakes girth), but I have animals that were live feeders or fussy feeders totally switched to defrost and feeding as soon as the drawers open.

As I say, different experience, but mine was nothing but positive, and totally changed my opinion of Freedom Breeder racks.
Warren