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I have an older boaphile rack (pvc) made for rubbermaid 2221. It has back heat but the tubs are not getting hot enough in the bottom half of the rack (even though room temp is at 75F). So, I am thinking of installing 4" belly heat. My question is, would I use a dremel to cut out slots in the side for the tape to weave through? I am asking because I would hate to go ahead with the dremel and realized it doesnt work well on the pvc for some reason and ruin the rack.

Even my rack with belly heat needs to be in a room at around 80 degrees. The flex-watt is in routered grooves - I wouldn't be sliding tubs directly on flex-watt for too long, it'll malfuntion over time.
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Snake room janitor

I have a number of the old style racks myself. Mine are in an area that is more like 70 degrees. The fronts if the drawers are only about 74 degrees and the rear of the drawers are only around 80 keeping the Boas themselves at 76-78 degrees. Mine do very well at that temp actually. I keep many males just like that.

However, you can bump up your temps by covering the sides or back of the racks with Styrofoam insulation. This will help keep more of the heat inside the racks. You can use a dremel tool to cut the PVC but I would not recommend having the drawers slide directly on the Flexwatt at all. Additionally, you could stick an under cage heater on the outside of the rack to boost your temps a bit or even Flexwatt for that matter. There are a number of ways to boost temps that do not involve using Flexwatt in a manner it was not meant for.
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How often do they eat at that temp? Every 3 weeks?
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Once a month.
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