Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Everyone,

I have just finished building a rack for my leopard geckos, I just fired up the heating and I am smelling a light smell, possible from the melamine. It is heated by a radiant heat panel (Pro Products). I used this instead of flex watt because I had it laying around and didn't want to wait for felx watt to be shipped.

Any thoughts? I'm not going to put anything in tonight, especially with the smell? Is that normal?

Thanks

Especially if you smell something burning, I would not leave it turned on overnight. You need to identify what/if anything is burning, so you don’t burn down your house.

I have a melamine rack, that I installed heat tape in, and I have never noticed any strange smells. I’m unfamiliar with the heat panel, has it been sitting around for a while gathering dust or something? I’d imagine the melamine would have to get dangerously hot before giving off any gases or fumes.

I just want you to be extra cautious, electricity isn’t something to be played with. If you can give us some more details, it might help track down the problem. Good luck,

DaveCable

It seems the heat panel runs too hot even at the lowest setting of the rheostat! I may try setting in back a little further!

Otherwise I will have to order and wait for the flex watt!

Thanks!
Brandon

The thought of a fire is just horrible. I want to build my own rack but the whole wiring thing has me nervous

Red
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Crested Gecko Zeek:1.0, Ziggy and Zeus
LEOS: Boo: 1.0 normal , Bronx & Nala: 1.1 blizzard,
Lily: 0.1 patternless, Abby: 0.1 albino, Zoe: 0.1 reduced pattern, Dot: 0.1 hypo
New Girls: Flame, Karma, Bubbles and Bell pics coming soon
Chip: 1.0 papillion (small dog)

The heat panel was overheating, even with a Rheostat!

It was defective! It was old and hasn't been used in ages!

The tubs were heated up to about 101F - 102F! Yikes!

It's been fixed!

Thanks
Brandon

I just got finished building a modular leopard gecko enclosure out of melamine. I use flexwatt heat tape with a thermostat to control the temperature, and there are red lights that are for heat and night viewing. When I tested it all out there was a slight wood smell present - like you would smell after sawing. I shut everything down and got rid of most of the dust left over from building it and everything is fine.

I'd agree with using caution combining electrical work with woodworking if you have no experience in it. There are lots of helpful websites on constructing reptile enclosures out there. I consulted a number of them before building my enclosure.

Here is a picture of my new enclosure:

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Terry Brashear
1.0.0 High Yellow
0.1.0 Lavender
0.1.0 Hypo Carrot-tail
2.5.0 "Tigers" Designer
1.1.0 Tangerine
12 eggs incubating
http://www.naturepixels.com

The Heat Panel was defective, it's old so! I used another one I had lying around which works fine! Even on the lowest rheostat setting I still had to make a 1 inch spacer between the heat panel and the rack, so it seets back about an inch rather then being flush with the rack.

This works much better and gives me about 90F degrees at the back and about 80F degrees in the front! I might drop the temps just a smidge! Maybe 87F-88F in the back and 78F-79F at the front!

I was thinking that if I reomve some of the backing (tile board) it may help get some better air circulation and maybe lower the temps just enough!

Any thoughts!
Thanks!

Brandon