Risk of Fire: PVC vs Wood

[littlebiatatime]

Intuitively it would seem that PVC is less likely to catch on fire (and according to this boaphile article they say PVC is self extinguishing: http://www.boaphileplastics.com/safety.html)


However ignition cited by PVC that org puts at at around 400c:

http://www.pvc.org/en/p/pvcs-physical-properties

And I believe wood on average is 400F --> 200C ?


So both can catch on fire but PVC is the way to go?


Thanks

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I can tell you that after one of my t-stat failed which lead to this






I was happy to have a PVC rack, the rack is intact, if it had been a melamine or any other type of wood I can only imagine what would have happen.

[Mike41793]

What brand of t-stat were you using, deborah?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

What brand of t-stat were you using, deborah?

My colubrid rack (where the issue was) was the only rack hooked to a ranco..............for everything else I use Herpstat.

[Dave Green]

I've thrown away over a half dozen Ranco thermostats. In my experience they last a few years and then they start getting error messages and die.

[kitedemon]

Yes PVC is safer. It has a very high burn temp 750ºF (400ºC). When you look at particle board auto ignite temps are in the 425-475ºF. Add the out gassing most particle boards (fibre boards too) have they add a second concern of toxic gases. (phenols and/or formaldehyde)

PVC are dangerous if you can get them to burn but it is not easy, if the source of ignition is removed it often goes out.

The thing to remember is electrical sparks are 1300ºF careful inspection of all electrical heaters and cables is critical.

[The Serpent Merchant]

I also can speak from personal experience that PVC is the way to go.

Awhile back I was working on a project involving PVC pipe. I accidentally knocked the heat lamp over on my bearded dragon cage (Which is a PVC cage made by Animal Plastics) with the end of a long piece of pipe. The heat lamp was and still is on a thermostat, but the thermostat couldn't have prevented what happened next. The thermostat ramped the bulb up to full power to try to heat the cage back up, the heat lamp had a 150 watt halogen spot bulb in it so this really was about as bad as it could get. The bulb was making direct contact with the cage. I actually didn't notice it until I smelled melting plastic but by that time 15 minutes had passed. (I was going in and out of the house)

This was the only damage from direct contact with pretty much the most powerful bulb used in the hobby after 15 minutes:



The inside of the cage was fine. the top 1/3 of the PVC sheet melted and bubbled but the rest was intact.

You can get just about anything to burn if you get it hot enough, the difference is if it will hold a flame after the heat source is removed and how quickly it will burn if it does catch. With PVC the cage will melt before it holds a flame. While a melted cage isn't ideal and its not 100% fire proof it is about as good as it gets.

The material your cage is made with matters. This instance is one of the reasons why I stay away from the thinner plastic cages like boaphiles. That bulb would have gone straight through the cage.

[STjepkes]

Thanks for the informative thread. This was the last push I needed to decide on an AP economy rack over building my own from melamine or something similar.

[MrLang]

A thread like this makes me want to hook an oil heater to a herpstat with a backup t-stat and heat my whole room to 85 and let it ride.