Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought the 25in, 17watt flexwatt to heat my 3 vision cages(400)
well I spent over 50.00 and its just not heating the cage very much. The Temps are 88 directly on the cage bottom and the rest is 75 degrees throughout...This is just not hot enough..And if I put any substrate in its going to lower the temps even more...
I didnt even bother wiring in the dimmers because it doesnt seem
I need to worry about overheating thats for sure...What do I do now? Did I buy the wrong flexwatt? Its what I was told to get, and that the 11inch (20watt) would get too hot.
Any help here would be great..Thanks
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How long did you leave it plugged in, and how cold is the room you have it in? My 6watt 3"x 12" heats the substrate to 90' without the tstat be maxxed out. I'm not sure how the your cages are, but my 3/4" melamine took over night to get to 100'. Derek

been on for about 3 hours..
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You might try letting sit overnight with the tstat for safety reasons, and you can see if the temps change, but I think the tape should be getting hotter. Try turning the tstat all the way up overnight. Maybe that will work. Derek

Correct me if I misunderstood. Did you say that you have not wired in a thermostat or a reostat? If you haven't, I would recommend you do, that way you can control the temperature.
Chris

but my snakes are not in the cages yet either.Ive had the flexwatt under the cages now for about 3 hours and the air temps are still too low. The bottom of the cage is now about 89 degrees and holding which is fine but if I put down cypress or even newspaper its going to bring the temps down lower...
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>>I bought the 25in, 17watt flexwatt to heat my 3 vision cages(400) ...I spent over 50.00 and its just not heating the cage very much. The Temps are 88 directly on the cage bottom and the rest is 75 degrees throughout

Flexwatt by itself is not very effective at heating the air. Once the animals, water bowls etc. are in the cage the thermal mass will be increased and the air will be somewhat heated.

>>And if I put any substrate in its going to lower the temps even more...

Not necessarily true. In fact some substrates can increase air temperatures, again because of thermal mass. However, some substrates can have an insulative effect, so you'll need to choose carefully.

In a nutshell, flexwatt under Visions with a sterile interior is not a good combination, especially in a cool room.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)

I was playing around with my friends vision cage and put a clay pot for a hide over his UTH. The temp in the enclosure raised about 8 degrees on the cool end. I got this idea when chris mentioned about putting a large stone under or on a heat source. I don't put stones in my snake cages, but i do put cermaic pots in them. I'm sure humidity will play an important role in your temps as well...

Keep playing around with them...When my room wasn't heated I used to place a blanket on my boaphile enclosures and it would really help my ambient temps.

I hope I helped
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Symatic

"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon."

Well since I am the only that sells this size as far as I know I think you go it from me. The 25" @ 17 watts is more than enough to heat a cage. The element itself will get extreamly hot (around 115 within 10 min or so) There has to be a "burn in" time for everything to adjust to the new heat coming in the cage. You say there is no control on it? That is really dangerous, any heating element should have some type of control. Now I dont beleive I ever said that it will get to hot with 11".... It will get just as hot with the 25.... If you dont get everything strightned out give me a call and we will fix it... Hope this helps,
-MG
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www.mgreptiles.com
CBB Herps and Heating Supplies

Should be a good source of thermal mass.
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Current snakes:

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Silver/Yellow)

3.3 Gonyosoma oxycephala - (Green)

2.1 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black)

3.3 Gonyosoma janseni - (Black & Tan)