Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I tried to wire up my flexwatt 3 in heat tape today. I am hooking it up to a 600 watt incandesent dimmer like the one that the instructions recommend. I have three 1 foot pieces on three levels of shelves wired up to the dimmer. Its all in a parallel circuit and I know that its passing the electricity because the pilot light on the dimmer comes on. How long does the heat tape take to warm up? Just a few seconds, mintutes... ? What could be the reason for the heat tape not heating up??

Earlier today I posted a question about whether I was supposed to cut THROUGH the BLACK stripes, or THROUGH the CLEAR stripes of the tape. Although it was counterintuitive, I cut the black stripes in half. Did I do that wrong? Also, am I supposed to just attach the green ground wire to a screw on the metal conduit box? Wouldnt that shock you if you touched it or something? Can anyone help???

IM trying to get this done tonight since I wont have much time to work on in during the week. ANY help would be appreciated! Thanks

Joe

Hey,

Well this wont help you tonight.. *sorry*
But I've heard these people at www.beanfarm.com sell the same kind of tape etc..etc.. and they are very helping, give them a call 425-861-7964

On Rob Jenkin's awesome post,
(http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=8724,8724)
I noticed on his picture of the wiring that on his top piece of heat tape, there is only one wire going on to one side of the tape and the other side is just electrical taped off. Dont you need wired connecting to each side of the tape??

I have my wire from the plug split into two. One half goes to the dimmer, which in turn goes to one side of the heat tape on my top shelf. The other half of my plug cord connects to one side of the bottom shelf's heat tape. Other than that, all the other connections on the heat tapes are used up connecting them to each other. The end result leaves all ends of my heat tape with wires going to them, not at all like the pictures on Rob's post. Does anyone know what I did wrong? Like I said, the circuit is passing current since the pilot light on the dimmer switch comes on... the heat tape just isnt heating up. Any help would be great. Sorry, this is my first time obviously.. but once I get it I can build as many as I need. Thanks

Joe

Because the black stripes are conducting electricity, you don't need to connect the heat tape end to end. Check out this diagram; it's how I did mine and got it to work. I can't really help you other than this, except to say that I blew one or two dimmer switches by wiring mine incorrectly before I figured this out.

Make sure that you're making good contact with the bus bars and clips. I had one that wouldn't heat up and it was because the clip wasn't puncturing the plastic well enough to send current to the tape.

Good luck

-----
Rob Jenkins
Have you seen the GeckoCam?
Buy Geckos Here
Email Me

Well was just looking around, and came across this guide on how you could hook up your flexwatt.. hope it helps.

Hey thanks a lot. That got it going really cookin! I cant put the geckos on it until tomorrow because It'll take me a while to get it calibrated to the temperature I need it at. In your experience does the dimmer need to be more on the low end or the high end? Im only running 3 feet of tape right now so thats not many watts.

My only other question was about the green ground wire. It said in the instructions to the dimmer to screw it onto the conduit box somewhere. This wont create a live current all over the metal conduit box I have? Should I make sure not to touch the box? What is the ground wire for anyways, since its not really connected to the ground the way I have this setup. Thanks alot for all your help. At least all the hard work is done now.

joe

Ground is just that, ground. What this does is shorts the circuit to ground if there is a problem and either protects you by opening the circuit breaker or bypassing the current to ground. Under normal circumstances, if connected correctly, it poses no problems what so ever.
-----
Steven
Royal Gold Reptiles
Offspring available now from LV Patternless Albino stock for '03 and '04.
Working towards Bell Patternless Albinos for '05.