Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I want to try something with my ve-175 iris plastic tubs, but wanted to get opinions first.

Some of you may know that I have two of these tubs in a hanging-style rack, the tubs hang from wooden frames and slide out on drawer slides from the rack so I can open them.

I had heated them via flexwatt taped to the undersides of the tubs (with thermostat, of course), and then Reflectix taped over the flexwatt to try and direct the heat upwards.

Well, our recent humid weather and heat caused the tape to fall off (I had used duct tape).

My question is, if I silicone flexwatt on to the inside floor of the cage (making sure to waterproof the connection points), with the thermostat probe on top of the flexwatt (or the thermo probe under the flexwatt), would that be safe enough?

I line my cages with newspaper and then dimpled kraft paper, and the water dish would go on the opposite end of the tub where no flexwatt would be.

Opinions about this? I've never put flexwatt INTO a plastic (tub) cage before. I know some people have siliconed down flexwatt into PVC cages and wooden cages.

Thanks!
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP

JMO, But NO.

A snake sitting on the tape is just asking for trouble. And the snake will find it.

My first big female bp was a rescue. They had an UTH and she still got a bad belly burn on an aquarium.

I even tell ppl to place ceramic tile over UTH's. they spred the heat out more and less chance of a hot spot.

On that topic years ago, I took 6"s of 3" tape and sandwiched between to 9" floor tiles as a kind of hot rock. It worked well, I did one with latex adhesive and one with standard mortar.
I'm not saying it is a safe thing, but the more even temp of the tape worked much nicer than the old use of a 2200 ohm resister.

I guess my point is something has to be on top of the tape.

My wire rack I use for my tubs has 1 layer or 6" aluminum flashing, then a layer of 6" wide 1/4" fiberglass sill sealer, then 3" or 4" heat tape, then 1 more aluminum 6" flashing.

Metal helps spred the heat and the fiberglass bounces heat up.

Where was I?

Oh yea NO,, just my opinion
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.herpzilla.com

Well, I've used flexwatt and other UTHs under both plastic and glass cages in the past and never had a problem (thermostats used with ALL of them).

Putting tile on top of the flexwatt is an idea. I'm concerned about having the flexwatt IN the plastic enclosure, I remember a few people have mentioned in the past using flexwatt siliconed onto the floor of wood cages, just wondering if that'll work in a large plastic tub as well. Anyone here who has done either?

Even with tile on top, just wondering how well silicone works for sealing the electrical contacts of the flexwatt in case of a water bowl getting tipped.

Thanks!
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP

Sorry if I mis lead you. I meant tile in the tank and used with stick on types of UTH.

I have some of those in the cage safe heat pads. Sorry I just don;t trust it. Flew would be worse in my opinion.

I'm not sure why you want it in the tub? Then each time you move it you have to fuss with it? The idea of the flex is it's ease of applying heat.

And teh reason I would not trust it in the cage, is it is basically an electric train track with resistors running across it in parellel. If a portion of one resistor strip shorts, it will make a very hot spot. Now under the tank it will help to spread that out, but in the tank where a snake can sit on it and let teh temps rise as its body insulates the heat, is just not a great plan in my book.

Good luck in any case.
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.herpzilla.com

The reason I'm thinking about putting it IN the tub is that the tubs are hanging from a frame rack, and do not sit on a shelf, the bottoms of the tubs just kind of float in space.

I had the flexwatt taped to the underside of the tubs, but that's not working well. I might just wind up siliconing them to the bottom of the tubs though.

Thanks.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP

Maybe add a shelf under it for flex watt?

They use to make pads they claim were safe inside. And I just spoke to a long time friend that has olive pythons that put pads in his wooden cage.

Just be careful. If you see a snake parked on a pad, try to slip a thermometer in there to see what the temps are rising too.

Good luck
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.herpzilla.com