Flexwatt questions?

[squale]

I just recieved my Animal Plastics T3 cage in Black and also my 11" flexwatt prewired from Matt. Matt gave me 2 seperate pieces of flexwatt, each piece is 11" wide by 1.5 feet long. And I have a Johnson Controls thermostat. So I have both pieces of flexwatt plugged into the Johnson Controlers power strip. Anyhow, I put a temp probe on the bottom of the inside of the T3 cage right over the flexwatt and I have the temp probe for the thermostat taped to the bottom of the flexwatt on the underneath of the cage. I have the cage elevated about 1" off the table so there is airspace running underneath the cage and room for the flexwatt to 'breathe'. My questions are as follows:

1.) I am trying to get the inside floor of the cage right over the flexwatt heated up to 90 - 94 degrees. I have the thermostat set at 110 degrees (remember the thermostat temp prop is taped directly to the bottom of the flexwatt underneath the cage). Well with the thermostat set at 110 degrees I can only get the inside floor of the cage up to 80 degrees (this has been running overnight). I keep my room temperature at 63 - 67 degrees during the winter. Should I increase the thermostat setting to say something like 120 degrees?

2.) Should the thermostat temp probe be taped DIRECTLY to the flexwatt on the underneath of the cage? Or should I put this temp probe on the INSIDE of the cage taped to the floor right above the flexwatt?

3.) Is there a certain way to put the flexwatt on the cage? Like do you need to have a certain side of the flexwatt facing up against the cage and the other side facing down? I just taped it on using that metal heat tape around all sides. I think I have the side with the writing (and darker black colors) facing DOWN away from the bottom of the cage. Does this matter, will the flexwatt put out even heat on both sides?

4.) My Johnson controls thermostat makes a clicking noise each time it turns on and off, is this normal? It turns on and off like every 2 minutes it seems..

Thanks

[ddbjdealer]

1.) I am trying to get the inside floor of the cage right over the flexwatt heated up to 90 - 94 degrees. I have the thermostat set at 110 degrees (remember the thermostat temp prop is taped directly to the bottom of the flexwatt underneath the cage). Well with the thermostat set at 110 degrees I can only get the inside floor of the cage up to 80 degrees (this has been running overnight). I keep my room temperature at 63 - 67 degrees during the winter. Should I increase the thermostat setting to say something like 120 degrees?

Run it a little longer (24 hours or longer), with the AP cages, the plastic (pvc) is a little thick, and takes a while for everything to get up to temp. Make your adjustments in small amounts until you get the desired result.

2.) Should the thermostat temp probe be taped DIRECTLY to the flexwatt on the underneath of the cage? Or should I put this temp probe on the INSIDE of the cage taped to the floor right above the flexwatt?

Taped directly to the probe, you'll get the most accurate temp readings on the tape. Completely wrap and burry the probe in foil tape, then tape the foil to the flexwatt. I keep my herp room at 75 degrees, and my Johnson that's in there is set to 108.... but my flexwatt is also touching the bottom of a sterilite tub... not the expanded pvc that you have.... so you'll need much higher temps.. it would seem.

3.) Is there a certain way to put the flexwatt on the cage? Like do you need to have a certain side of the flexwatt facing up against the cage and the other side facing down? I just taped it on using that metal heat tape around all sides. I think I have the side with the writing (and darker black colors) facing DOWN away from the bottom of the cage. Does this matter, will the flexwatt put out even heat on both sides?

Flexwatt will put out heat on both sides.

4.) My Johnson controls thermostat makes a clicking noise each time it turns on and off, is this normal? It turns on and off like every 2 minutes it seems..

Yuppers... totally normal. It's an on/off thermostat... so, the click is a switch inside the unit that allows power to flow to the output... as soon as the desired temp is reached, it'll click again when it turns the output switch off. It should be more often than 2 minutes... direct current to the flexwatt will heat it from room temp to over 120 in like 30 seconds... so, from 100 to 110 should only take about 5 to 10 seconds... you should hear a click about once every 10 or 20 seconds.

Hope this helps.

[squale]

okay sounds good, how hot should I get the bottom of the inside of the cage over the flexwatt? should I put a ceramic heat bulb on the top of the cage over the flexwatt side as well? then have no heat whatsoever on the other side of the cage?

also, is it a problem that I have about 1" of free airflow UNDER the flexwatt (I have all 4 corners of the cage sitting on little 1" blocks to get the flexwatt elevated off the table the cage is on. I didn't know if having this airflow under the flexwatt is taking it's temp away and not allowing it to heat the cage floor properly cause the heat can sort of escape I guess you can say?

my only concern about having the temp probe on the flexwatt instead of inside the cage is that when summer comes around and the ambient temps in my room get to be like 75-80 degrees, if I still have the thermostat say set at 115 degrees, then the inside of the cage is going to get WAY too hot. So it seems that I will have to constantly watch my ambient air temps in my herp room and adjust the thermostat accordingly is this right? sort of a pain in the butt I think

[kavmon]

for cages i like to put the probe inside the cage. secured by foil tape or zip ties. if you were using a proportional stat i'd say tape it to the probe instead. i've had success with rancos and johnsons with the probes inside the cage. it very important that it is secured properly. you might want to lower the gap/airspace on the bottom of the cage from one inch to maybe1/4 - 1/2 inch. in my setups with rancos and johnsons if you tape the probe directly to the tape, it never really fully heated up before it cycled on/off. you're just going to have to experiment a little and find what works.


vaughn

[squale]

since I have 2 seperate pieces of flexwatt side by side, there is about 1" of no heating element that is between the two pieces of flexwatt. Do you think the snake will be able to notice this 1" long area where the two pieces of flexwatt meet under the cage? or does the flexwatt heat radiate enough to fill the gap?

[kavmon]

the one inch gap should be fine, i tape the flexwatt to the bottom of the cage and use spacers or rubber bumpers to lift the cage about 1/4- 1/2" off the floor/shelf.

vaughn

[Wild Bill]

I always leave a gap between my probe and heat tape. It keeps a more accurate temp for me and it doesnt turn the thermostat on and off too often. I have mine set to 93 deg and it is 91 degrees in tub. here is a pic of the gap.

[squale]

well with my AP T3 cage, I found it was better to tape the probe for the flexwatt to the bottom of the INSIDE of the cage. This will keep more consistent temps for me and it doesn't turn on and off the thermostat so often now.

Anyhow, one side of my cage I have flexwatt and the other side I have a ceramic heat emitter overhead. What side of the cage should I make the hot side and which side the cool side? and what temps should I be running on each of these sides?

Thanks

(I was thinking of making the cool side the side with the flexwatt on it and running this side at about 82 degrees (the temp at the surface of the substrate, obviously the temp at the INSIDE surface of the bottom of the cage will be hotter but the 1.5" of aspen I have sort of keeps the heat down). Then I was thinking of running the hot side with the cermaic heat emitter and have that side be about 92-95 degrees (again this is the temp at the surface of the aspen substrate) I keep my room temp low in the 63-67 range so having the hot side over the flexwatt is sort of hard to do because the flexwatt would basically need to run continuously non-stop to make the hot side reach the 95 degree mark at the surface of the substrate.