Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am considering buying racks for my growing collection. Any suggestions?

Do Jason's Jungle racks have under belly heating? How do you like them?

Are they the most cost-effective? I want something good, but can't be shelling out the big bucks.

Also--any ideas on cheaper ways to raise the ambient temp. for balls kept in a house that may get too cold in the winter?
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1.1 BPs (Syd and Nancy)
0.2 French Lops (Lapine and Jacquotte)
0.0.2 Firebellied Toads (Stanley and Stuart)

A rack won't raise ambient in the room - the flexwatt can't produce that much heat. If you need to raise ambient get a room-sized oil-filled heater for the snake room.

Link attached with an example.
http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?vertical=APPL&pid=03276515000&cat=Heaters

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Lets try again...
Oil filled heater

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

I love my rack (and my snakes) from Jason! They provide back heat.

Here's a link to a recent thread discussing his and other racks.
forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=580124,580124

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Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa "Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa "Arwen"
1.0 San Felipe Rosy Boa "Legalos"
0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"
0.0.1 Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Irian Jaya BlueTongued Skink
0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer "Kira"

From what I read, I thought these may have back heat. I have heard that it is not very efficient compared to belly heat. Does everyone who uses Jason's Jungle racks find that the back heat is sufficient and gets the animals warm enough?
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1.1 BPs (Syd and Nancy)
0.2 French Lops (Lapine and Jacquotte)
0.0.2 Firebellied Toads (Stanley and Stuart)

I do...the heat radiates into the tub enough to actually supply heat on a portion of the bottom of the tub - so in effect you still get belly heat (the heat source just isn't located directly under the tub) and you still have a gradient.

I was a bit questionable about this as well before buying. So I understand your concern. But trust me - it works well. Besides, most of your racks have the back heat and have for some time...so it must work!
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Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python "Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa "Gimli"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa "Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa "Arwen"
1.0 San Felipe Rosy Boa "Legalos"
0.1 California Kingsnake "Gentoo"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Indigo"
1.0 Snow Corn snake "Chile"
0.0.1 Crested Gecko
0.0.1 Irian Jaya BlueTongued Skink
0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer "Kira"

I have Boaphile racks some with back heat (original) & some with belly heat (RhinoRaxx), and the belly heat is much more effective. Any heating in a closed rack system will heat the entire tub up some, so whatever you choose, make sure to put plenty of air holes in the tubs to allow built-up heat to escape. The nice thing with plastic enclosed rack systems is, you don't have to heat your entire room, (the rack will hold the heat) and they keep the ambient humidity up. I think I am going to go with Freedom Breeder racks from now on, as I heat the entire room, and would like a better heat gradient for my animals, I'll just have to deal with the low humidity issue for the entire room.
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Chad Bachman

If your room is anything less than the lowest temp you want on the cool side of the tubs, flexwatt heat probably isn't for you, perdiod. You'd have to drive the flexwatt too hard, and it may not be able to do what you're asking of it.

As far as back vs. belly heat, I've tried both; right now all my racks are using belly heat again, if that tells you anything. Back heat is MUCH easier to install (perhaps that's one of the reasons it's so popular from commercial rack builders), but belly heat is more power efficient I think, and gives the snake a better warm spot.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Actually with my Boaphile racks, the cages get very warm compared to the ambient room temp, and thats with only prividing a 92F hot spot (on a thermostat ofcoarse).
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Chad Bachman

I find that strange your flexiwatt in the rhino racks heats up your cages so much. I have my ambient temp set at 83F and my tape set at 90 and my temps inside my rack are only ~84F.

A warning to those who have boaphile rhinoracks, unless you either blow a fan on the rack or drill holes into the tubs, I found that the humidity (with the ball and a small water dish inside) gets up in the mid 80% or higher (with ambient humidity around 40%).

Matt

I always put plenty of air hole in the tubs, not to would be bad husbandry practice. My ambient room temp is 80F & with the heat tape set at 92F, it makes the ambient temp of the tub around 85-86F, so I have to turn heat off at night to allow them some cool down time if I want to breed successfully.
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Chad Bachman