RHPs in VE175 tubs?

[treaux]

So with our two new adult boa additions, Beks and I have been looking at caging options and decided to go with a couple of VE-175 tubs for the time being. Now in our house, it gets pretty cold in the winter and heating is always an issue for our snakes in tubs (usually involving insulating racks and using space heaters for the cold months).

Since we eventually plan to get some nice PVC cages for our boas (probably two 6x2x2s), I was thinking of buying a couple of 120 watt RHPs from RBI now and mounting them on the inside of the lids of the VE175s. This would provide a hot spot as well as ambient temps and I prefer RHPs in general for heating my snakes.

Has anyone done this? Any downsides to think about?

Considering the tub is 14" tall and I use RHPs in my 11" tall T8, I'm not too worried about accidental contact as they won't get hot enough to instantly burn the snake. Mounting the tstat probe should be easy as I can melt a hole about half way up and just fish the probe in and secure it with tape on the outside so it doesn't wind up on the floor of the tub.

Then when we get our PVC enclosures I can easily move the RHPs to them and keep the 175s as quarantine or backups.

[Sauzo]

Hmm never heard of mounting a RHP on the roof of a tub. How would you slide the tub out as the gap between the top of the tub and the shelf of the rack are very close so snakes cant squeeze out. I think your best bet with a rack is to use a space heater or oil heater in the room you keep the rack.

[BPGator]

I'm not sure how sturdy the lid is on this tub, but if you were going to mount an RHP, I think you'd want to mount plywood or something similar on the inside since the RHP would be in direct contact. The surface of the RHP can probably get to 160°F which could warp the plastic lid.

Another thing to consider is your thermal gradient. The 120W RBI RHP is 32" long and the tub is 52" - not sure how good of a gradient you would get in the tub.


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[Sauzo]

Oh woops, I totally misunderstood the OP. I thought he was trying to mount them in tubs in a rack lol. Just with tubs with a lid, pretty much what BPgator said. It would be hard. You would probably need to mount the rhp to a piece of acrylic, then mount the acrylic to the inside of the lid of the tub. Then on the outside of the lid you would probably have to mount 2 flat pieces of aluminum rod which would stretch perpendicular to the length of the tub so they put the weight of the rhp on the sides of the tub. Would be way more work than its worth. Now if you were using something like a small 25 watt RHP, you could probably mount that to a sheet of acrylic on the top of the tub. I saw guys who mounted them to the top of Exo Terra cubes using acrylic sheets in place of the screen top and it works out well.

[bcr229]

I would use plywood over acrylic - acrylic conducts heat well and the heat coming off of the top of the RHP will definitely be an issue. Also not sure if the lid would hold the weight, it may need a framework on top to hold the screws securely.

I would use two UTH's instead, set one for a 90*F hot spot and the other in the low 80's. Put a hide over each.

Would it be feasible to run a small space heater in just the room they are in?

Another thought is that I have the small chest freezer in the snake room. The exhaust from that helps keep the room toasty in the winter if I close the door, even if the rest of the house is cold.

[treaux]

Thanks for the input. I think I meant to say 80 watt RHP, not 120. I use a 40 watt on each side of my T8 and it does fine.

And yes, I plan on keeping the lids on and keeping them on industrial shelving for the time being.

The tubs haven't yet arrived, but seem to have just been redesigned by IRIS. If the lids are as sturdy as the ones to my sweaterboxes, I think an RHP will mount up fine. My thoughts for mounting was to use a strip of wood behind the lid to screw the RHP screws into (something maybe 1/4" thick by 3" running the length of the RHP behind the screws).

Space heater isn't really feasible as my room is huge and takes a ton of heat (plus my power bill jumps by $400 if I try to do it for a month).

Worst case scenario if I can't maintain temps is to move them into my walk in closet and use a space heater. I know two RHPs would be better to control the temps, but it's much more expensive. I may start with the 80 watts and add another 40 watt to the cool side if I can't get a good gradient.

[Coluber42]

I used a RHP to heat a 20-gallon tank very successfully in a room that gets as low as 55° in the winter. In this case, the RHP is just for the ambient temperature, and I used a UTH for a hot spot. It works really well for making a nice, even, easy to regulate ambient temperature even in a cold room.
To mount the RHP to the lid of the tub, just put some wood on the top of the lid so you have something decent to screw into and it should be fine. You can also use some additional material as a spacer or insulation if you're concerned about warping the lid; for example, a 1/4" piece of plywood between the panel and the lid, or a sheet or two of corrugated plastic (that stuff that some kinds of campaign/yard signs are made of). So your stack from bottom to top would be: RHP, plywood, lid, plywood (or whatever - just something you can screw into that will support the lid and the panel from the top). The additional layer of plywood will also help support the lid if it turns out not to be as sturdy as you're hoping.

If you're really worried about the panel overheating the lid of the bin, you could use a secondary thermostat with the probe in between the two to make sure it won't. But actually, I think the bin lid will probably be fine up to the temperatures the panel will get to.

[treaux]

Tubs and RHPs are on their way and will be here by this weekend. Will post some pics when we get them set up.