fire safe homemade rack??

[PitOnTheProwl]

First off you obviouslly arent understanding. I will go slow. Particle board suck with humidity because the humidity cause from your bin will soak into any bare wood. This is why melamine is the best wood based product for racks

building them to run with the lids on helps out 100% BUT its a pita too

[snake lab]

Britt,
You asked for oppinions. Thats all i was offering. An oppinion based on experience. Any bare wood is bad. The reason melamine is used is because its coated so it will last longer. It isnt foolproof. It will break down over time but does last a long time. The best racks for the money are plastics. My point about freedom breeders wasnt that they wont let your tubs melt. My point was that they would be the most fire proof rack considering your rack fire risk is not at the flexwatt. Its at the connections. Flexwatt doesnt get hot enough to start a fire. Electrical arcing at the the connections is where its usually going to happen thus melting the plastic clips and starting the fire. If your connections are right, a good thermostat is in place then you should not have any issues. When you ask for advice i would think you want advice from people that have experience with the topic. Just cause you didnt get the answers you expected isnt a reason to go on the attack cause i was in no way trying to attack what you were saying. Im simply trying to steer you in a better direction with a setup youll be happy with.

[HighVoltageRoyals]

Britt:

You have to understand that some people are blunt in their question answering and you shouldn't take offense because most of the time, none was implied. Try not to take suggestions so personal, even if they are worded a bit harsh and can be taken in the wrong way. Snake Lab really did give you valuable information in his post and, coming from a grammar nazi, shouldn't be criticized for his misspellings and errors.

http://youtu.be/0uaClHZVvD0

[brittani72]

ok i am sorry but the first few responses i received on this thread were not only supportive but helpful in pointing out issues i should take into consideration. i was caught off guard with your post flat out dismissing my plans, and i really couldn't see what the problem was with it.

I do know that I have researched this product quite a bit, and I am not sure if you guys have or not but I have found out that not only is it resistant to fire, but it is also resistant to water, bacteria, fungus, mold, insects, and rodents.

I realize that I cannot make a 100% fire proof rack, I was just trying to build a rack that is as equally fire safe as a professionally built rack. I am on here asking you guys and researching this product endlessly because I DO care about my snakes. I don't expect the company to be able to tell me if their product is safe with snakes I expect them to be able to tell me exactly what chemicals if any are released from their product and in what conditions this release happens (ie what temps). So far I have found out that the chemical that stops a fire is released at 160 degrees but this is with normal use. I expect them to to be able to tell me if this holds true when their product is heated constantly 24/7 to 100 degrees. If the product is not activated until 160 degrees, and no chemicals are released before that point, I really don't see the risk that keeps being mentioned, maybe you can help me out with that. Maybe you see something I don't on the chemical aspect. This is why I am posting, to find out if you see something I don't.

Again I realize that while the rack may be fireproofed, the connections on the heat tape may not be, I understand this, I just don't see how it pertains to me more than the next guy. Isn't this true with ANY rack using heat tape? Or am I missing something?? Does something about this particular set up increase this risk??

Also I am gathering that some of you think the fire retardant may not be necessary, Is it really true that heat tape cannot get hot enough to cause a fire?? Could this work without the heat tape (excluding the humidity factor)?? Would it be safe to use the bookshelf, some heat tape, tubs and a thermostat??

As far as the humidity goes, I know that the wood wouldn't last forever being in a room with 50-60% humidity 24/7 but I don't really expect it to.

I don't want to argue about the cost of rack vs cost of snakes but I really do not appreciate being made out as someone who doesn't give a :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: about the snakes or their well being. Would I even be on here if I didn't care?? Why wouldn't I just do whatever I want with no research or questions to you guys?? I have one more question...are you honestly telling me that ALL of you, EVERYONE who cares about their snakes, spent more money on the setup than the snakes in it?? I just don't understand this. If an Animal Plastics rack costs around $125 with heat (model 1851(4)) and a decent thermostat costs around $140 for a herpstat 1 (http://www.spyderrobotics.com/home/products.html), you are telling me that all the snakes in the theoretical rack cost less than $265???

[RichsBallPythons]

Only way to have a rack survive a fire is be made of a Dense Steel that dissipates heat fast.

But even with the best heat resistant racks, the immense heat will still kill the snakes.

[brittani72]

here is some information from their website

Flame Stop I is a water-based, post-treatment interior fire
retardant that penetrates the material and bonds with the cellular
structure. The penetrant protects the substrate by developing a
self-extinguishing reaction when the treated material comes in
contact with an open flame.

Flame Stop I was formulated with the
user in mind because it is non-toxic, non-combusƟble,
non-carcinogenic, easy to apply, and contains no PDBEs.

Are there Bromides or Formaldehyde in any of Flame Stop’s products?
No, since Flame Stop fire retardant and firestop products were invented we have never manufactured a toxic product. While Formaldehyde might be considered non toxic at very low levels, it remains a known Carcinogen and will not be used by Flame Stop. Fire Retardants that contain toxic chemicals give the industry a bad name.



The ONLY reason I wanted to use this stuff is because I was worried about the safety of having heat tape directly on wood. I am not planning on it protecting my snakes if a fire started somewhere outside the rack, that is not my intent and as far a I know impossible. I just don't want the rack to be the thing that STARTS a fire (with the heat tape sitting on wood) Of course if it is true that heat tape cannot get hot enough to start a fire when installed on wood then all of this is irrelevant and I will build the rack as planned without the flame retardant.

[brittani72]

btw the company got back to me and this was his response.

Brittani the product in question FSII to be applied to raw wood is not toxic
and at these low (100 deg ) temps will not off gas or be injurious to these
beings . Thanks Bruce


so much for thorough...my email to him was about 2 pages

[brittani72]

Sounds like a pointless risk (chemical) to your snakes. Once the plastic tubs are put on the rack, it will no longer be fire resistant, irrelevant to what chemicals or materials are used to make the rack.

why?

[mattb]

why?

I believe that he means that once the tubs are in there they are the weakest link that if you were to have a short from the flex watt the plastic would go.

I will say that I am just starting out keeping multiple snakes. And I have made my own rack which I did not spend much on. I used wood I had here and most that was spent was for the flex watt and the thermostat. I am working on another to hold 28qt since my little ones are getting bigger the thing with the flex watt is you want to put foil tape down and then put the flex watt on top it does two things. 1. It keeps the tape directly off the wood. 2. It projects the heat upward so that the heat is not wasted.

That being said as long as your flex watt is properly wired and connected to a thermostat there is about as much chance of it catching fire as your fridge or computer or any other electronics in your house. Can it happen? Yes any of those things I said could start a fire that's why you need to make sure that you check on anything that you think is out of the normal and have your smoke detectors in place just like you would if you didn't have the snakes.

I hope this helps and does not come across as anything else but trying to help.

[snake lab]

Britt. You said that you only wanted to use this because you were worried about the heat tape directlly on the wood. Flexwatt itself doesnt get hot enough to start a fire. Paper catches fire at around 420 degrees or higher. Wood catches fire hotter then that. There is no way flexwatt can get that hot. You have nothing to worry about in that regard. Electrical malfunctions cause most fires.