Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone here have experience using them for winter cooling? I live in Florida & am seeing it as the only practical way of getting our guys where they need to be.
Thanx!

i'm more a jack/ginger man

I have used sanyo refrigerators to hibernate various colubrids with great success. I have heard of others having problems. I have not encountered any. Colubrids where housed in various Rubbermaid's which in turn had towels wrapped around them from all directions, fridge was opened once daily for 5 minutes for fresh air exchange, during opening temp in fridge went up 10 degrees, but inter probe temp in Rubbermaid did not go above 50 (which is what it was set at) and I am sure snakes temps did not equilibrate to these subtle changes in temps since the door was immediately closed gain. The lowest recorded temp was 45 degrees and highest 55 with doors closed during 3 month hibernation period, all snakes showed no signs of illness and reproduced successfully. Some people have made claims of musculature damage using such techniques. I believe, I may have avoided any problems due to the towels utilized to cover the hibernaculum containers
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Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

I may have avoided problems because I opened the hibernaculum daily for fresh air exchange.
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Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

>>I may have avoided problems because I opened the hibernaculum daily for fresh air exchange.
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>>Frank Roberts
>>Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research
>>

Frank, thanks for that info, and I've heard of people using refrigerators with good results. I am going to be getting some cold adapted Eurasians this summer, and plan on using a refrigerator to cool them. I was thinking of just drilling a small air hole in the fridge door or cutting away a small part of the door seal, for air exchange. I know that this will compromise its cooling, but not sure how much. Maybe opening the door a few minutes every day is good enough. Any opinion on an air hole?

Thanks -Toby Brock

It would make the unit run constantly, I also heard of someone removing the door and covering with a sheet with great success.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

>>It would make the unit run constantly, I also heard of someone removing the door and covering with a sheet with great success.
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>>Thanks,
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>>Frank Roberts
>>Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research
>>

Thanks for the great info, Frank. I'll probably try your method of just opening the door every day for a few minutes.

-Toby

i brumated my black pines this winter in a wine cooler with a small aquarium air pump atached to the bottom and a small outlet on the top to relieve the presure so as not to blow the door open. i only opened the door to change the water every 5 days or so. it stayed in my room that was about 65 degrees all winter unless the appartment complex turned on the baseboard heaters but the cooler kept them between 45 to 55 for three months. they seem to be ok cause they started feeding 5 days after and have been breeding for the last couple weeks now. the one thing i did do was set up the cooler for two monthes with a couple wood trap boxish things with 6 inches of aspen in it to make sure it was holding its cool. if you try to test it without something in it you'll find out it fluctuates to much because the thermal properties of air are not so great. look on craigslist for the cooler i found a 200 dollar unit for 50 bucks

nate

I used an Avanti wine cooler in Ft. Lauderdale, where it hardly got down to low seventies all January and Feb. I only brummated them for about seven weeks or so. I put an aquarium air pump on a timer and ran the tubing into a small ziplock plastic tub with about an inch of water and air holes punched in it so incoming air would get chilled. I used the same tubs to put snakes, each bagged. I didn’t give them any water during cooling, just gave it to them after they were returned to normal maintenance. This set up worked good for me, maintaining 53 degrees almost all the time. There was one pretty cool night where the thing went down to the mid forties. Apparently the cooler goes so many degrees below whatever ambient temps are, I don’t think it is a precise temp control. Here’s some pics of mine being used. I’m with you on us south Florida guys fighting the heat- it’s too hot to incubate eggs, brumate, etc. I’ve mentioned more than once that what we need is “cool tape” instead of heat tape!

Here it is loaded with a few snakes bagged and placed in these containers. Some were really stuffed into these things.

Close up of the air pump I used- the smallest one I could find.

Here’s a close up of the tubs through the glass. The unit had a light and circulating fan. If it were a lot bigger, it would be fantastic. Great for a few snakes, though...

I like the setup. Although I live in the north east, this also works to create artificial seasons to make babies when other people have theirs a sleepin!!!! Imagine your snakes sleepin when its warm and breeding and laying during winter, would work well in Florida to avoid the heat and they are easy to condition and reprogram, especially if they are just hitting maturity and not biologically programmed.
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

I've used wine coolers in S. Florida the last two seasons.I just close the cooler door on a short piece of airline tubing for some ventilation, no pump used. Open about every 10 days to check water.

The big problem is space,I'm up to 3 coolers this year,but the really big ones are mucho $$$$. Not a rat but cooler baby below:

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Lloyd Heilbrunn

Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.

Thanks, everyone, for your input. I reckon the question I have now is, wine cooler vs refrigerator?

Thanks, everyone, for your input. I reckon the question I have now is, wine cooler vs refrigerator?

I know of one zoo that brumates their reptiles in refridgerators scattered throughout their reptile house. All sorts of fridges and even some retired coolers like those that display drinks at gas stations - basically fridges with a polycarbonate window.

All of them were run off of a cheap cooling thermostat from Grainger. I don't remember which Tstat but it was a cheap one.

There are a few thermostats sold in the reptile trade that can be manually switched to cooling mode. I don't recall which ones, however.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

wine coolers have a warmer temp range so i think it would be easier to not have to rewire it

The refrigerator is better because it is bigger. If you need the room, and most people either do or will eventually, I say go ahead and pick up a cheap one. I would look for the one without any special compartments inside. There are some very cheap no frills types that are real nice for the conversion. I am including a link to a thermostat you would want to use for more precise control of temps. It is made for controlling exact temps for home beer brewing. I do like that the wine cooler had a glass door, circulating fan and a light. If you can find something like that, or wire it up yourself, please keep us posted with your how-to and pics!
Good luck.

http://kegman.net/9025.html