Reptile & Amphibian Forums

has anybody's heat tape set there melamine wood rack on fire or become extremly hot and i'm talking with a thermostat does anybody has pics of the way they did there heat tape like across the bottom of the tubs Thanks

Go to the cage and habitat forum. They have tons of information on this exact topic (how to install). I just built a rack this weekend using melamine. My heat tape is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

If you wire it properly and use a quality thermostat, the temps should never get hot enough to burn wood.

The big problem with heat tape is that too many people use things that insulate it and that causes fires. If you cover it with about an inch of sand, you wouldn't beleive how hot it and the sand gets.--try it as an experiment with different depths of sand, but don't leave home until you unplug it and let it cool! Deeper sand than that and it gets hotter still. If you are just using a plastic sweater box type cage with a couple layers of newspaper, it runs much cooler, often not even needing a thermostat. I recommend getting a thermostat anyway (just to be safe), or at least a dimmer switch so you can control it--- and you should have no problems. Just don't place the heat tape in any place that is insulated so the heat can't dissipate properly! If you know anything about electronics, these things work with resistance. The resistance to the electricity flowing through them produces the heat. The hotter they get, the more resistance they have, and then the hotter they get, the more resistance they have, and so on and so on until you get a fire!

Rodney