To build or to buy, that is the question

[Zombie]

I wish I hadn't thrown out my table that was singed from heat cable before I got a pic. We had the cable in our animal plastics cage short out and it burned the pattern right into the top of the table and turned the cable grooves into a lovely toast color. Scary considering we didn't know until several hours after when our hot spot temp wasn't holding.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

I hear ya. There is definitely risk with any heating device. Although I would rather have a scorched shelf then have a full fire, ya know? Seems like I have heard more about fires with heat tape than cable. When heat cable malfunctions it just smolders. The coating is a fire resistant. Same reason I prefer metal or PVC racks to wood, fire resistant. You are right to point out that there is no fool proof method, everything has its risks...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2