Heat tape is just not getting that warm.

[Billy29]

Ok I set up a tub with a few sheets of paper towels. I'm off to work but let's see how warm it gets by the time I get home.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Albert Clark]

Yeah, ok. You can use the cypress but I would use very little to none. How do you know the heat tape isn't getting warm enough if you don't have it connected? I don't get what you are saying?

[Billy29]

I have a digital thermometer hooked up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Billy29]

I'm going to borrow a alcohol thermometer to compare


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Billy29]

I'm thinking if I got a 12 inch piece of heat tape and put it under a third of the tub it should heat things up. I can hook it up to a dimmer and a thermostat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tbowman]

Heat tape is made to heat a surface, not ambient.

I've heard of people using flexwatt to heat their homes and that it was first created as a residential heating element. Although all the talk about it not heating anything but the surface seems to contradict that.

[bcr229]

I've heard of people using flexwatt to heat their homes and that it was first created as a residential heating element. Although all the talk about it not heating anything but the surface seems to contradict that.

Sort of, it was designed to provide under-floor heating in a very small room such as a bathroom. It also requires a lot of insulation under the heating element and a floor with a decent amount of thermal mass, such as ceramic tile. Once the floor warms up, which can take a while, it constantly radiates heat up into the room. A thin plastic tub OTOH doesn't hold heat well, once the source is removed it cools quickly, and tubs aren't well insulated. PVC shelves don't insulate well either.

OP, for a tub you don't need to fill the whole thing with cypress mulch unless you're keeping something like Brazilian Rainbow boa babies that require 90% humidity or higher.

If low humidity is a problem put the cypress in the front few inches of the tub on the cool side and use newspaper for the rest. This is what I do in the winter months as my house humidity runs about 10%, and then I just dampen the cypress every night. It acts like a natural sponge and dries slowly over the next day.

[PitOnTheProwl]

^--- that right there

[Billy29]

I'm thinking a large surface area constantly radiating heat will up the tub temperature to 80 degrees


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KMG]

I'm thinking a large surface area constantly radiating heat will up the tub temperature to 80 degrees

You don't want to much of the tub floor heated. Speaking from experience and knowledge of reading about others with racks I really doubt you will be able to keep the tub bottom at the right temp and the ambient temp at 80.