Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Going to build another rack.

I wanted to know every ons thoughts and why??

Back heat is the silliest bit of engineering the herp industry has ever witnessed.

Heat rises.

Bak heat probably uses twice as much electricity as belly heat and doesn't give the animal an efficient way to soak up the heat.

Back heat was invented by rack builders who don't know how to engineer their product correctly.

at the very least back heat is not a responsible use of energy.if you have to use more flexwatt to achieve less results,where's the payoff ? for a sizeable collection back heat could cost $?$?$?$ in a years time,you could buy more racks/caging or animals with the savings acheived with belly heat.

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"The cure for bad speech is not less speech, but more."

that's not an easy question to answer,what are your needs?
what are you housing?
what's your budget?
does your rack area get cold in the winter?
do you have high humditity?
there's so many variables involved.i designed my last two racks and had a cabinet shop cut the pieces and i wired and assembled the unit.that has worked out nicely.read this forum back and you will find the answers that you seek.when i searched for mfg.'s i'd ask them for address's of recent customers,if they didn't respond in a timely fashion i would check them off my list.asking buyers what they liked and disliked was helpful and informative.in short do a lot of homework and you should end up with product that works for you and your needs.

` Overhead heating from lights and emitters is just a way to hambone a set up to get going cheap and easy. It goes along with open top / screen top cages as two ways to make the husbandry of tropical, humidity loving snakes difficult, and dangerous for the animals.
` Floor heating allows you to have lower air temperatures, and not chill the animals.
` Floor heating, done right with thermostats AND rheostats, and heat tape of differing wattage beneath the cage is best. You can have warmer and cooler spots, and a hot spot to put your water over. If the cage is vented correctly [ only at the bottom ] the warm water will create much humidity which the cage will trap. Just remember, warm water must be cleaned very often, it's a bacterium's paradise.
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I generally prefer belly heat but one does have to be careful with it.

So first I would encourage you to determine if belly heat will be sufficient for your application. Basically you want to avoid a situation where the floor of your box will have to be dangerously hot in order to satsify your thermostat.

This is determined by the species you keep, the amount of ventilation in the tub (including the gap between the box and the shelf), the substrate you will use, and the size and placement of your water bowl. The design and material used for the rack will also matter as well as the ambient temperature of area it will sit.

Once that is done be very careful with how you mount your thermostat probe and where you place it. I also recommend a dimmer on line with your thermostat. If there is an accident that caused your probe to shift it's nice to know that the dimmer is there to limit the energy supplied to the tape or UTH.

Because belly heat is so efficient it is also potentially dangerous. Animals can get so close to it (as compared to back heat) that our probes typically have to be very close to it. So if something happened and the probe was even 1/8" farther away the tape suddenly has to receive that much more power to satisfy the thermostat. This is where belly heat can be dangerous.

In this regard back heat is actually a bit safer in a well insulated rack. Much more forgiving to slight shifts in the placement of your thermostat probe.

Basically this was a lengthy post to recommend belly heat but to clarify the conditions when it is most useful and to remind people to be careful.