Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are there other ways to attach flexwatt then the clips sold through bean farm? i have 3 racks i need to wire here and want a cheaper solution. Any ideas? I looked around and couldn't find a definitive answer.
-----
1.0.0 Sandfire x red/gold Beardie (Whitey Ford)
1.0.0 Red/Gold Beardie (Foster)
0.1.0 Red Flame/Hypo Red Beardie (Rosie)
0.1.0 Yellow/German Giant Beardie (Helga)
1.2.0 Pastel beardeis (Tarantino, Mia, Alabama)
1.1.0 Senegal Chameleons (Francois & Fifi)
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleons (Eros)
1.2.0 15 year old Eastern Box Turtles (Radar)
0.1.0 Brown Basilisk (Leroy, I know shes a girl!)
0.0.1 Marbled Gecko (Chalmers)
0.1.0 Adopted Beardie (Sissy)
0.1.0 Rescued Beardie missing limb (Lefty)
0.0.1 Rescued Ball Python (Murray)

Some people have had great success by soldering right to the conductors in the flexwatt by melting through the mylar coating. I have heard these folks swear by this method. I'd try it myself but have pretty much given up on Flexwatt at the present time.

When done correctly, the crimp-on connectors that you have make for reliable connections. Plus, the manufacturers of the mylar heaters do not recommend soldering.

Those are pretty much the choices you have: solder or crimp.
-----
Mark

I just wired my first flexwatt yesterday. I used the metal crimp connectors and plastic shields (which I won't use again, I'll just use electrical tape, I think, less bulky). I don't know what to do about the other cut end of the tape though. Should I just leave the sliver of conductor at the ends alone? I was thinking of electrical taping it. I couldn't actually find instructions on beanfarm.

Any ideas?
-----
1.1 BPs (Syd and Nancy)
0.2 French Lops (Lapine and Jacquotte)
0.0.2 Firebellied Toads (Stanley and Stuart)

by all means cover the cut end of the flexwatt opposite of the clip ends,and between the clips also because there hot,if you cover with metal tape it could become hot also.

I've been using Flex-watt for 11 years now and I realized, the first time I used it, that the crimps and plastic covers are a complete joke (not to mention very dangerous). I take a 6' or 9' extension cord (use the cheap, 2-prong ones that you can get anywhere for $1.99) and cut off the female end, and solder one wire to each side of the flexwatt (I use an exacto knife to carefully slit the mylar and peel it back about an inch, exposing the silver contacts that run the length on either side of the flexwatt, then flatten the wire and solder it). I then cover the connection with electrical tape and plug it in! The whole process takes me about 5 minutes and I have done it countless times and NEVER had any problems.

I've asked many times on this forum about flexwatt and am almost ready to install. You say you've used it for 11 years. Could you give me your take (every step) on how to connect it.

Here's how I'm about to do it:

I know black is hot and white is common but for this models purposes I'll use red for hot and black for common.

DZ