Reptile & Amphibian Forums

....How goes the battle with the heat cable? I haven't done much with mine for a while, due to working like a maniac, but got at it today. The cable I am using is the kind used for heating water pipes to keep them from freezing. It was a pain to figure out how to re-wire it since it comes with a thermostat built into it that kicks in at a way too low temp. I cut that out, and re-wired it back to the plug. Now its plugged into a reg thermostat, and under the tub.(it is in a groove in the shelf the tub sits on, made with a router to avoid direct contact with the tub. sits about 1/16 inch away) So far, so good. Now I'm testing to find out how much I need under the tub, and ensuring there are no hot spots. (I am thinking better to have more cable under the tub, and have it on less often to get more even heat)
My new babies will be here in a few weeks, so I really want to get this done and tested, but I do have back-up enclosures for them if its not all ready, and I am not fully confident it will work perfectly.
Let me know how its going for you!
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

"(I am thinking better to have more cable under the tub, and have it on less often to get more even heat)"

One thing you might want to consider, (besides what temp. that pipe cable runs at 0) is that if your stat fails and runs wide open the more cable under the tub equates to more stovetop for pan fried snake dinner.
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1.0 pastel ball python
0.1 mojave ball python
0.1 normal ball python
0.2 3-toed box turtles
2.3 eastern box turtles
0.0.5 3-striped mud turtle
1.0 northern diamondback terrapin
2.1 tiger salamander
1.1 red-sided garter
1.0 anerythristic red-sided garter
1.1 Iowa snow plains garter
1.1 Het butter stripe cornsnake
0.1 anerythristic motley cornsnake
1.1 Blue garter (Puget Sound)

VERY good point! I will be running a separate thermostat for each tub, and they will run through a single back-up, but I do think you have a great point. Thanks!
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

a few days ago about your plan and I thought it was a pretty cool idea. I want to try this myself. I was thinking how would you get the cable to the next shelf without having one piece of heat cable. I was thinking that you could use the router(like you did)and make a trough for the cable to sit in. You could weave it around until there is enough cable for the shelf. Then you could put a hole in one of the back corners and when you were done weaving it on that particular shelf, you could put it through the hole and start filling the trough on the next level. I don't know if my idea would really work but it would be cool just to find out. What do you think?

I was thinking of that, and its a good idea. The problem I saw with that method is that then the whole thing runs on one thermostat. Unfortunately the tubs will require different amounts of heat to maintain the same temps. (ie. the lowest one will likely need more heat since its closest to the groun, the middle will need less, since its between two heated tubs already etc.) By using separate cables for each, I think I will be able to maintain more accurate temps, since then they can all be on their own thermostats. My reasoning is that by saving the money by building my own, I can spend more money on keeping my husbandry accurate.
I really appreciate the suggestions, and please keep em coming! I figure if everyone kicks in their two cents, I can build a super efficient, cost effective rack, and then I can share the plans withh everyone here, and we will all benefit!!!
(ok, ok, maybe I got high hopes, but please do keep the suggestions coming!)
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James.....
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought the beast back."

well -after an eventless trip to the dr. for my sick kids, followed by a trip to the ER for my husbands broken hand- i'm home!! YAY!

The piece of cable i have is some 40 ft long- so i will be running it as one continuous piece. through one tstat. I've had the cable hooked up now - just plugged in with some heavy tubs sitting on it- i've not had any melting and thus far, i've got the tstat set so the tubs have a good temp, they have a water dish, and bedding inside, there is condensation on the sides of the tub- it looks great!

we are routering out the troughs as well- we've determined, by playing with the # of rows right now, that 2 rows per tub will be enough....

I have been worried about if the tstat fails, then there will be a giant strand of super hot, tub melting, snake cooking, cable laying here... so i'm not sure if i'm even ready to put snakes in the rack... makes me nervous...

anyway- i am about to buy a new digi camera so i'll be able to get some good pics up...

and poor hubby has to do this rack for me- broken hand and all. lmao...

Beth
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