I have a feeling we will prevail in this heat test that more closely resembles the actual reptile application but I would rather watch someone else do itI am happy with the results presented. Not a run away train on the temp and a pretty slow curve getting to its peak in a pretty severe scenario. Look at the temp being quoted on the old style 11" in OPEN AIR. Granted 75F room but it will still hit the peak insulated temp found with the new element. Now cover it up?
I agree, much of the element gets warmer than it really needs to. I believe this is an artifact of our hobbies constant need to borrow existing things from other industries. The way we went about it was slightly different. Initially I was after a target temp range and let the wattages fall where it may. Too little and it won't do the job intended or will be running flat out all the time to do so. Too much and it is, well, too much. You accelerate the breakdown of the laminate if things do get out of hand, you stand a hugely greater chance of cooking animals, etc. We tweaked it until it was in the zone we were after and then did the math on the wattages. That is the reason they are a little different than what we are used to up till now. This was not a copy and paste or knockoff exercise as the video might imply. The people behind this did a little thinking and testing first.
As for the thermal decay idea-
One drawback is indeed the cost but there are some other issues. I have played with thermal decay style fuses quite a bit. First is they have to have a significantly higher "break" point than the normal operating temp. If you run too close with them they will blow after an extended period that can be a little unpredictable. No one would be happy if their normally operating element just up and quit after a few months. So where do you draw the line and how consistent will it be in actual practice? Go too high with them and then they really don't accomplish much either. I am working on a new gadget that hopefully will help out with this issue some but we are still a little ways off.
You can get the new element in Canada from Exclusive Snakes. I have also talked to Greg and we will see where he is at when his current supply runs low.
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