Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone. its been a while since ive been on here.
I came home one day and i had thousands of ants in my rooms in my snakes cages (they were going after a regurgitated mouse but once in one cage they are in all) so i had to clean them all.

My last cage i came apon charred pine shavings! I was quite shocked to find that the heater i had recently bought malfunctioned almost burning my house down not to mention my favorite kingsnake.

I turned it off and looked a few minutes later and the bottom of the cage had shattered. I moved the cage and looked and the dresser i had it on had been cracked and charred as well...

I was lucky i caught it in time but i can say that is the last time im using these peoples products.

What kind of heat pad was it?
Was it on any kind of controler? Dimmer,T-Stat

With out a controler and in the way it looks you had it set up. I would say it could very well be user error as much as it could have been a faulty pad. It looks like you just placed the mat on the dresser and the tank directly on the mat. There needs to be some airflow, which can be accomplished by simply raising the tank off the mat a bit.Little rubber feet for the tank work very well for this.It looks like the mat was sandwiched between the dresser and tank with substrate causing the pad to overheat and melt. There was know where for the heat to disappate thus causing a meltdown.

Thanks
Anthony

the dresser is skinnier than the tank so its hanging off enough to let air flow through there. ive never had this problem before. I do have all my other snakes set up on a controller and in racks.

>>What kind of heat pad was it?
>>Was it on any kind of controler? Dimmer,T-Stat
>>
>>With out a controler and in the way it looks you had it set up. I would say it could very well be user error as much as it could have been a faulty pad. It looks like you just placed the mat on the dresser and the tank directly on the mat. There needs to be some airflow, which can be accomplished by simply raising the tank off the mat a bit.Little rubber feet for the tank work very well for this.It looks like the mat was sandwiched between the dresser and tank with substrate causing the pad to overheat and melt. There was know where for the heat to disappate thus causing a meltdown.
>>
>>Thanks
>>Anthony

I agree, not enough air flow, need the rubber feet for air gap.
Although I have seen other tanks with cracked glass, where the Under the tank heaters were attached. People really need to check their heaters once in awhile. The older they get, the more of a chance of a melt down.
-Bob

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R.Bichlers Colubrids
http://www.webspawner.com/users/rbichler/index.html

has anyone had a problem like this with heat tape in a rack system?