Heating pad on Rubbermaid tank?

[ZoeFugazi]

another question folks....i have my BP in a rubbermaid tank. Im lookin to provide heat from below and was wondering if these heating pads work ok on plastic rubbermaid tanks? Will the pad melt the plastic? Anything special i should do before applying the heat pad?
-kev

[Darkice]

As long as you have some kind of temp controls it wont hurt the rubbermaid. If no temp control
is used the temps can spike up to 120 and that will brown the plastic and make it brittle over time.

[anatess]

You need a thermostat. The snake will burn before the plastic melts. So, you would be more worried about the snake's survival than the plastic container.

Look at it this way, your body temperature is about 97 which is the high temps on a snake's tub. You can hold plastic container under your armpits and it wouldn't melt.

BUT, a UTH without a thermostat can produce heat much higher than 97. It can go up to 140 degrees when there's not much air circulation underneath the tub. So, yeah, that will cook your snake and he will die.

A RUB (really useful box plastic container. This is what I use.) has temperature tolerance up to 176 degrees, so an uncontrolled UTH won't melt the plastic. Polypropylene (the compound used in making plastic containers like rubbermaid and RUBs) will experience chain degradation in time when constantly exposed to very high temperatures - this will manifest itself in the form of cracks and discoloration down the road.