Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had 2 double Ranco thermostats go out over the past 4 yrs. The first one, I think the primary thermostat went out somewhere along the way, and I was getting an error message I couldn't fix. So I switched to my other one and it has been working okay. Then yesterday I moved my 2 cages to a new room (2 flextape, 1 w/ radiant heat panel), plugged all the heaters in, plugged the Ranco into a surge protector, plugged the surge protector into the wall plug ... and ... boom! it blew. house fuse turned off. so i reset it. surge protector doesn't work, power strip that Ranco plugs into doesn't work. Ranco reads temp on 2nd thermostat but primary seems to be totally dead.

Also, I'm in a rural area and for some reasons, sometimes have short power outages.

So, need a system right away. Alto okay temporarily as temps are 90s day and 70s night (if i don't use ac). Looking into Helix proportional control as opposed to the Ranco. Would it be best to plug it into an uninterrupted power supply before going into the wall? or at least into a better surge protector (which I already bought), to start. and eventually get a Ranco as backup?

Also, the Helix comes grounded or not. If I plan to add more than 3 plugs to the Helix (and add an extension cord) should I get the grounded one? or would it matter?

I know to keep wattage down, but it should be okay w/ 2 to 3 cages.

thanks,
Donna

Without being there to see, I can only surmise.

Sounds like you have faulty wiring on your heaters or inside the Rancos. The reason I say this is the breaker tripping you just experienced. That means short circuit. Probably not the radiant heat panel, but Flexwatt is a common source of unintentional shorts due to unprotected connections.

I would check all connections before you plug anything else in. Plug the radiant heat panel directly into the wall by itself and verify all is OK. Then inspect all Flexwatt connections visually. Using a multimeter, verify there isn't a short circuit betwwen power leads on the Flexwatt while unplugged of course.
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Mark

thanks for the tip on troubleshooting the heaters. I suppose if I plug each one indiv. into the wall, and it trips the circuit breaker, I know I have a problem.

I don't own or know how to use a multimeter. but have looked it up online. Would you touch the probes to each prong of the plug onto the multimeter (w/ the heater unplugged, of course)... and see what it reads? I don't know which probe would go to which prong. or if that would matter. Electronics for dummies says you should get a reading other than zero ohms, zero or very few ohms shows a short circuit.

my flexwatt tape came preinstalled on my boaphile cages. Something could have happened while moving my cages, since I've moved them more than once.

But i'm more inclined to think that my power protection was broken or even one of the thermostats had blown a fuse? and I didn't know it, and when I plugged it in it tripped the circuit breaker.

If you had been there ... you would have had a look of shock on your face. I plugged it in and a spark flew, and a pop sounded Darn. I knew something was fried!

Donna

Checking shorts with power.......

DO NOT plug possibly shorted heating elements directly into a wall outlet. You risk damaging the wall outlet with a spark. Plus a electrical surge like that and you're holding onto the plug, IMO not a good idea. Probably 99.9999% safe but?????

IMO the safest way to ceck w/out a meter is to use a power strip that has a switch and an internal breaker. Turn the switch off, plug in one or even all your possibly bad elements into the strip, plug the strip into the wall and flick the switch on the strip. Anoter option would be to use a wall outlet that is turned on and off by a wall switch.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count (05/26/2009):
36.51 BRB
29.42 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats