Ok i've gotten all my melamine cut and ready to go BUT since the shelves are only 6inches apart i have to cut all the grooves for my heat cable before construction other wise the router won't fit between the shelves. I'm just stumped on how many passes i need to make with the cable!! I can't really find to much info on heat cable to begin w/ let alone a description of how far to space it apart/ how much area to cover. I'd prefer to use belly heat but i'm getting so frustrated trying to figure out the layout i'm bout to just say the hell with it and go back heat and enclose the back. The shelves are 4ft ea. And will go up 9 levels. And hold both 41 qt and 32qt sterilite containers. First i bout 2 of the zoo med 11 foot cables to find out there was only about 9 feet of usable heated chord between the 2 of them. Returned that and got 2 of the 23 foot 50watt heat cables and i still don't think that'd be enough length to heat 1/3 of ea tub. But then again i don't even know how far to space it so really i have no idea how much to use. Pretty much just giving up for the night at this point and hopefully somebody will respond to this post by morning with more ideas. I just didn't want to go the flexwatt route because i've read several reports of stuff burning and what not and although plenty of ppl swear by it i just moved in with my sister and well she's tolerant enough of all the balls, leopard geckos, and chameleons, on top of fresh water and saltwater fish tanks i brought with me w/out me starting a fire. That'd prob be it for me and my animals. Realy reconsidering the heat cable though since i just can't find any info on it. ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! I spent $500 at lowes today and i'm ready to build something!!!
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FIRST TIME RACK, HELP!! belly heat ques.
Replies (4)
I would run 2 passes per level, 1 3" from the back edge of each shelf and another 2" from that. Put your rack together, then lay down the cable in just one groove to begin with and get a reading of temps, if it isn't providing a large enough hot spot for you reroute the cable to go in both grooves. If you are fairly capable with routers you could also go with the snake s groove all along the back edge probably in a 3" width but this takes alot more time.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
Would one run really spread out enough heat? I just haven't even been able to find any pictures of how an exhisting rack is set up with heat cable. Just curious if you are using heat cable now and if so how yours is set up and does it consistently keep the heat fairly even. Thanks and i appreciate any comments, i'd LOvE to get this right on the first try.
I do use heat cable in one of my racks (it is a neonate/grow up rack) and I only have it going in a single run, it provides an area that is heated approximately 3" wide across the back of the tub. The snaked s curve method is the best way to provide a larger hot spot for larger tubs (like the 41 qts). I have been planning to run heat cable in my 41 qt racks at a later time but have stuck with back heat for now until I replace my router. When I do run the cable I will go with 2 straight runs per shelf rather then the snaking s cut.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
Alot depends on the ambient conditions.
I would router about 3 grooves each shelf, each about 2 1/2 to 3 inches apart. You may find you only need two runs of heat cable, but having an extra groove won't hurt just in case.
You could run a separate heat cable in the 3rd groove so you can turn off cables as needed. With a 25ft cable, you can cover two grooves in 2 shelves (assuming 4ft shelf length) easily, and perhaps a single run on a 3rd shelf. So that is a total of 4 cables to do 2 runs on each shelf for 9 shelves. In fact, you may only need one pass in the top two shelves due to the air being warmer usually up there.
I've used heat cable for baby colubrid boxes only. Love it. Economical and won't overheat the box - not enough surface area on the cable for that.
I think there is another brand of heat cable that has 50ft lengths. You could probably do 2 runs per shelf with only two 50 ft cables.
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Mark
