Reptile & Amphibian Forums

my animal plastics rack which i keep at my job the heat cable failed again and the heat burned a 4 inch wide hole through the tub thank god my snake wasnt harmed. even worse it may have happened a day ago and i wasnt at work so i came in today and seen my helix reading 65 my snakes were coldddddd. the tub was 65 degrees. i happened to order a replacement cable 3 weeks ago and should have had it but they didnt have any on hand im praying i get it tommorow. i bought 10 hour heat packs all i could find and put the packs under unprinted paper also put a portable heater and a fan blowing toward the rack the room is around 80 degrees plus. what a nightmare but its better than the temps being over 100 which im sure has happened to people before. cant wait to get the new cable anyone have any stories that are similar or any suggestions?

>>my animal plastics rack which i keep at my job the heat cable failed again and the heat burned a 4 inch wide hole through the tub thank god my snake wasnt harmed. even worse it may have happened a day ago and i wasnt at work so i came in today and seen my helix reading 65 my snakes were coldddddd. the tub was 65 degrees. i happened to order a replacement cable 3 weeks ago and should have had it but they didnt have any on hand im praying i get it tommorow. i bought 10 hour heat packs all i could find and put the packs under unprinted paper also put a portable heater and a fan blowing toward the rack the room is around 80 degrees plus. what a nightmare but its better than the temps being over 100 which im sure has happened to people before. cant wait to get the new cable anyone have any stories that are similar or any suggestions?

I have had heat cables fail but never over heat. I always thought that the heat cables couldn't over heat when using a thermostat. I would check the placement of your temperature probe as well as any possible malfunctions with your thermostat.

Heat cables are very dangerous when a thermostat probe isn't securely placed!
-----
Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles

the probe has been in the same place for years i dont know what happened im really glad that a fire didnt start. right now i have no choice but to replace the cable and hope everything works out.

I've not had heat cable fail or melt before, but I have encountered a variety of other related electrical problems since I've never lived in a "new" home.

Unless you discover the source of your problem, replacing the cable might just set you up for the same tub-melting experience. I'd recommend doing a double-check on all of your electrical implements. Add another thermostat just in case.

In the long term, I would personally switch away from cable if you get the chance. Of the over-heating horror stories I've read on several forums, I'd estimate 80-90% have been associated with heating cable (versus Flexwatt or room heating). Having said that, I cannot say for sure if the product itself is faulty, or if perhaps many people do not know how to properly install and maintain it. *shrugs*
-----
Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.1 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

That's why you don't use heat cable. Flexwatt is 100% better...

Sorry to hear about that. I know what that feels like. I had a similar situation happen to one of my AP racks. Instead of the heat cable failing, the probe was dislodged which caused the temps to read cold and the heat to get turned way up. Thank god my snakes didn't seem to have any major burns but the bottom tub had a pie plate sized hole melted into it. I would double check your prob and thermostat and ensure that either one didn't fail. Is your rack salvageable? I don't think mine is, since the melted plastic now covers the heat cable. I've been thinking about switching to flex watt. I don't know much about it yet (still researching) but I don't think it can achieve temps as great as a heat cable.

W. Smith

That is why I converted ALL my AP racks from heat cable to Flexwatt.
I ripped all the heat cable out, then took all shelves out and used a Rotozip to make a 12" notch in every shelf, slid the shelves back into the rack and then ran 11" Flexwatt in both sides of each rack.
Basically I just converted all my conventional heat cable racks to be just like the Animal Plastics 'Dual Side Radiant Heat' racks.
The dual 11" Flexwatt is 1,000 times better than the heat cable for heating and I feel much safer too.