Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone.......... got a question for the masses. I recently bought some older style melamine hatchling racks. they have the wide routered space in the back for cable style belly heat. I was told that easy heat cabel would work for these racks. I have no experience with this type of heating tho. I did some reasearch and found a bunch of them on ebay. However I have a couple questions. First, this easy heat cable comes with a thermostat attached. Turns on a 38 degrees and off at 45 degrees. Can I use this type of heating cable for these racks? Second, will there be a conflict between the heat cable thermostat and my ranco thermostat? Do I need to cut out the heat cable thermostat or somehow modify it for higher temps for my rack? Second, if this type of heat cable wont work what can I use to heat the rack? The tubs are far too tight for flexx watt and zoo med style heat cable is too thin to be effective unless I run 2 cables through the routered slot. Thanks in advance for any and all input! Ken

not sure why you think the zoomed wouldnt work. i have it in my adult ball rack and hooked through a herpstat. holds temps great. only differance would be my snake room is heated to 80 and the extra heat is just for hot spot. it may work but may not. contact animal plastics and see if they will sell you the length you need. they quoted me 40 bucks, but it was for one of their racks.
adam
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" a.k.a. farfrumugen "
When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

>>Hey everyone.......... got a question for the masses. I recently bought some older style melamine hatchling racks. they have the wide routered space in the back for cable style belly heat. I was told that easy heat cabel would work for these racks. I have no experience with this type of heating tho. I did some reasearch and found a bunch of them on ebay. However I have a couple questions. First, this easy heat cable comes with a thermostat attached. Turns on a 38 degrees and off at 45 degrees. Can I use this type of heating cable for these racks? Second, will there be a conflict between the heat cable thermostat and my ranco thermostat? Do I need to cut out the heat cable thermostat or somehow modify it for higher temps for my rack? Second, if this type of heat cable wont work what can I use to heat the rack? The tubs are far too tight for flexx watt and zoo med style heat cable is too thin to be effective unless I run 2 cables through the routered slot. Thanks in advance for any and all input! Ken

You have to order the Easy heat without the thermostat. I use their products in a similar melamine rack as well as my AP plastic cages.

You want the HB series comes in predetermined length.

You can get it from ACE online as well as a number of other vendors.

I prefer;

http://www.heatersplus.com/

They have almost everything I ever need...
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

0.0.2 Morelia Viridis
1.0 Morelia Clastolepis

As suggested, the HB series is what you want - no t-stat, no plug. Be sure you know how to safely wire it up, or have someone do it. Very easy, no polarity on it.

It used to be easy to cut the thermostat out back in the day, but now the thermostats are molded on. So go HB.

FYI, I have used the Self-Regulating heat cable. The 5 watts/ft performs nicely. If a spot gets too hot, it throttles back just that spot. Kind of neat, almost impossible to get too hot. That cable does not bend as easily, and it takes some effort to strip the leads. So I would stick with the HB series cable.
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Mark

jeremy.....thanks for the link. I looked around on ebay but cant find any predetermined lengths like you mentioned. I will still check out locally like Home Depot and Valu.

mark....again thanks for the help. I am hoping to avoid having to make my own but if I do I should be ok making a length up.

>>jeremy.....thanks for the link. I looked around on ebay but cant find any predetermined lengths like you mentioned. I will still check out locally like Home Depot and Valu.

I don't believe Home Depot or True Value are authorized vendors.

To this day I still can't figure out why people use eBay as their sole online source...but that is a different subject.

In this link;

http://www.heatersplus.com/hb.htm

You can clearly see the available lengths.

Ace Hardware is an authorized vendor but they only stock the AHB series...

Also depending on your location their maybe no vendors who stock their product.
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

0.0.2 Morelia Viridis
1.0 Morelia Clastolepis

jeremy,......... thanks for the link. In response to "why people use ebay as a sole online link" ... I dont use any one online source. I am a huge fan of comparison shopping. That also includes local shopping if it saves on shipping costs. Thanks

>>jeremy,......... thanks for the link. In response to "why people use ebay as a sole online link" ... I dont use any one online source. I am a huge fan of comparison shopping. That also includes local shopping if it saves on shipping costs. Thanks

I don't use any single online source either I shop around but after fees and flat rate "eBay" shipping, they certainly aren't the cheapest, nor is Amazon for that matter.

Typically if I post a single source and say I've used them they are the cheapest for the product in question.

Putting that all a side any time an item goes over $100 which it frequently does in my purchase habits, its far cheaper online vs local because more comman than not there are no taxes. And considering 3 day Fedex ground for 10 pound box is around that $10 mark, having it shipped only costs another few dollars over the local price (considering tax). To compound that the local guys mark their crap up so much the online guys price is typically a few bucks lower anyways.

When you consider fuel expense (I live 30 miles out of town) to drive to a store that probably doesn't have the product anyways. Calling never works because the twit answering the phone doesn't know what it is anyways, online wins hands down.

I do support buying local, as its best for the economy, but specialized items are usually best aquired online, at least then its a 75% chance they have teh item they sold you. Another downside to eBay, you don't have to have the item to sell on eBay, you can simply dropship, which more comman than not backfires.

Cheers
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

0.0.2 Morelia Viridis
1.0 Morelia Clastolepis

J,
I used to be able to get various heat cables from hardware stores in the local mountain resorts when I would go there. Anymore, they only sell the thermostat-controlled models and do not supply the range of lengths I would typically want, and the prices have about doubled compared to online sources.

That link you provided is a good one for anyone looking for this type of heat cable. IMO it is great for colubrids and rosyboas, which are typically adept at using very small basking areas. Very difficult to overheat an entire shoebox when the heater is only 3/4 inch wide. I have raised many a rosyboa using these heat cables. My favorite.
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Mark

>>That link you provided is a good one for anyone looking for this type of heat cable. IMO it is great for colubrids and rosyboas, which are typically adept at using very small basking areas. Very difficult to overheat an entire shoebox when the heater is only 3/4 inch wide. I have raised many a rosyboa using these heat cables. My favorite.
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>>Mark

Totally agree Mark that's why I used HB series over 3" flexwatt for my 15 qt rack. I had previously used the 3" stuff and found it difficult to get proper gradient even in the open rack setup.

Mor Electric does sell flexwatt as well...LOL

Regardless many of the products we use that seam perfect for herps, were not even considered by the manufacture as a practical use there of. And the simple fact that in today's society people want things simpler and easier and less involved. It's easy to see why a one hit wonder like a thermostat built into the heat cable would sell over one without. At some point society will evolve products beyond the practical use for reptiles...

I also feel that the HB series would be great for other boids as well but may require doubling up, care should be taken to ensure the heat rope doesn't overlap itself.
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Jeremy Payne
JB Reptile

1.0 Snow "Kahl"
0.2 Triple Het Moonglow "Kahl"
0.1 Orange Tail Hypo Het Leopard
1.0 Ghost
0.1 DH Ghost
1.1 "Kahl" Albino
1.0.2 Hypomelenistic
1.3 Pastel Hypo
0.1 Anerthrystic
0.0.2 Normal

0.0.2 Morelia Viridis
1.0 Morelia Clastolepis

mark....jeremy.....thanks for all the help on this project for me. I have def found a product that will be useful in my application ! And jeremy thanks a bunch for another source! Ken