Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anybody still use heat tape for racks anymore? Not Flexwatt and not heat cable but the old heat tape that's like 1 inch wide and about 3/16" to 1/4" thick? Is there a company that still makes it?
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I miss that stuff in racks, as it was great for baby racks and for small colubrids.

Most types sold have a thermostat inline that turns the heater off at like 40 deg F. In the old days, it was not difficult to remove the thermostat. Now, it is molded in, and so it is much harder to remove (probably not impossible).

There is a current company that sells thermostat-less heat tape like the old Cox heat tapes, but I cannot think of their name - they are on the web, so do a search for de-ice heat cable.

I have a bunch of 9ft and 12ft lengths..

Alot of the current heat tapes used for de-ice, such as EasyHeat, are self-regulating. What that means is that the power-per-foot of the cable at say 50 deg F is about 5 or 6 watts per foot, but as the cable or roof warms to say 90 deg, the power out is alot lower, like 2 watts per foot. This type of cable is nice for de-icing because a thermostat is not really needed, and it will never overheat, especially if the ice melts and the sun is out.

For herps, you want the ability to heat up to 90 deg continuously. The new cables may or may not do that. The specs of EasyHeat shows 2 watts per foot above 90 deg (as in the roof temp is 90 deg), but it does not indicate if the cable will effectively heat a surface to 90 deg.

Omega sells silicon heat tapes that are awesome and meant to heat objects. These have the opposite problem - you have to connect 2 in series to keep the watts/foot down to a reasonable level. They sell them with long lead wires so no problem doing that. For example, I think they are 20 watts/ft. Connecting 2 in series results in about 5 watts/ft. 5 watts/ft is ideal for most racks. Silicon tapes are too expensive though to do alot of racks.

Thanks for the info.
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I use Raychem pipe freeze protection for the racks. I had some left over from a construction job and its been in use for seven years now. It comes in 100 foot rolls and can be picked up at an electrical supply house. I use 6watt per foot but it comes in almost any wattage you would like. I have a friend that uses a coil of it for his incubator. I did see that home depot sells a different brand that comes in 15, 20, or 30 foot pieces and already has the cord cap on it with no stat. they sell from $15 to $30 each. hope this helps -Scott

So you are probably using the self-regulating cable. It does not need a thermostat by electrical standards, so they sell it without. Good to know that works. I have seen the ready-made Raychem cables (heat cable with molded AC plug attached) in various lengths online. Going to try some.

Thanks for the info! Do you use a thermostat with it? If so what type/brand? I have some old Microclimates and Herpstats that I still use, plus some newer cheap ones(around $30) from Zilla. Do you know if any of those thermostats would work with the Raychem and/or Home Depot heat tape?
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im using a helix stat now but any of them will work.

Just check the max wattage listed on the stat and make sure you don't exceed that with the watts per foot you are using.

Thanks!
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www.hcu-tx.org/