...I have used flexwatt for 13 years. It is supposed to not be used inside the cage. Good people selling it say not to use it inside cages. I use it outside and under my cages and have had no problems. I have used it inside the cage and after about 2 years inside the cage with lots of humidity and moving cage furniture and larger snakes across it it will begin to wear and so I replace it. Like Gus posted it should be controlled with good thermostats. At full power it is too hot for anything but Bearded Dragons and they prefer to bask and need overhead heat anyway. Unlike Gus I have had good results with rheostats controlling my flexwatt. I use rheostats and proportional thermostats. IMO basic full power on off thermostats should be avoided. They supply full power when on and that is too hot using flexwatt. I would just guess that flexwatt at full power sandwiched tightly between cages may get so hot that that contributed too your delamination problem. Summation: Flexwatt is great product but needs to be properly controlled.
Jeff

>>Not too long ago i had some heat tape go out on me and take some of my pride and joys with it. Now i have e-mailed some Big breeders asking questions like what type of heat tape they use and if its ever failed and if so how long of service before it failed. I gave them my brand , how i had it hooked up and the 2 years of service i got out of it before it went bad. I also asked about some special crimper just for heat tape and if they had any info on them or where i can find them. To date its been 5 to 7 days since i sent out the e-mails and i know i didn't send to every big breeder but not one has sent me a reply. I'm doing this cause i can't find what went wrong with my heat tape and i would like to seeif its a pattern with this brand or maker. If you guys and gals would like to send your brand and info it would greatly apprecited and when i get numbers i will post them here so everyone can see what brands are working the best and what type of connections work the best also.
>>
>>
>>UPDATE TO MY PROBLEM----- I had a piece start to seperat, the element is in the center of 2 plasic sheets and the sheets started to seperate. I removed it let it cool down and plugged it in to measure the heat at different spots. At some spots it read 110 degrees where it wasn't seperated , at points where seperation started it read 125 or - 6 degrees at points of full seperation it read 146 degrees at a constant. on a new piece with nothing on it it reads 112 - 114 on the whole piece. on the piece that seperated at the center of seperation there is some light brown coloration. Just wanted to give you guys and gals an update on this and mayby what caused my problem and what to watch out for. If you would rather e-mail your info to me its boids1@netscape.com. Any info will br greatly apprecited Paul

[ Show Entire Thread ]