Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was reading down about heat pads and those sizzing cooking stones and boy did it bring back a bad memory. This was suppose to be my big breeding year and wouldn't you know it my heat pad (tape) malfuntioned. It didn't actually catch fire but it was black and cubed like a partially burnt log. When i got home and found this mess it was smokey as hell. The bad part was my vet was out of town and the other vets there didn't know squat about reptiles. I tried the emergency 24 hr vet idiots and i get a we don't know much about reptile heres a number to a reptile vet , Duh he's out of town idiots thats why i called you. Ok now i'm venting sorry guys and gals. Now the heat from the smuldering didn't kill or even burn the snake in the cage but the smoke was a leathal killer and it wasn't sudden. From this one incident i loss my favourite Boa a normal plain jane boa that i took to daycares and schools for shows , 1.1 hey albino 66% het snow boas , 0.1 Annaconda whitch was a favorite at schools also, 1 mean a$$ guyana and a pair of normal boas. and 3 baby kingsnakes. And to top it off in the chaos in moveing cages and snakes out of the smokey room i had 4 kings escape but i have recovered 2 the other 2 are still roaming. What i'm getting at here is keep a CLOSE eye on your heating elements cause they can and will go bad. Sorry for the long post but my wife is sick of hearing about what can i have done to prevent this. Thanks for listening. Paul

I am also worried about my own animals. I have a few questions if you don't mind.

What type of controller were you using to regulate the heat?

How was the heat tape installed in the cage?

How was the cord connected to the tape?

Was the tape kinked anywhere?

Did you have a smoke alarm in the room?

Were you present when it happened? If not how long had it been since you were last in your room?

Did you notice any smell prior that could have warned you?

Again, I am very sorry for your loss. I think anyone who uses heat tape can learn from your experience and look forward to hearing from you.
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Jaremy Douglas

I am also worried about my own animals. I have a few questions if you don't mind.

What type of controller were you using to regulate the heat?

Don't know the exact brand , from home depot.

How was the heat tape installed in the cage?

foil taped to the bottom

How was the cord connected to the tape?

it was soldered then taped over with electrical tape

Was the tape kinked anywhere?

no

Did you have a smoke alarm in the room?

yes

Were you present when it happened? If not how long had it been since you were last in your room?

no i was working and was in the room that morning at about 6 am and got home to the mess at about 6 pm

Did you notice any smell prior that could have warned you?

no

Again, I am very sorry for your loss. I think anyone who uses heat tape can learn from your experience and look forward to hearing from you.

VERY sorry to hear about your misfortune...i had something along those lines happen with a litter of normal baby boas i had on consignment at a local reptile store in ft lauderdale, "apparently" the owners thermostat broke over a weekend and as it was still quite warm out in that area at the time, he ended up with just about every single thing in his store dead, including my 12 or 13 baby boas, although not a monumental loss, still kinda stings when ya think how they must have suffered at the end
anyways, misery loves company as they say, hope the rest of your year turns out better,
Brad
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Brad Hamlin
"...when im a good snake, they sometimes throw me a rat..."
B&P Constrictors

It can't get any worse knock on wood. I was able to save 1 breedable female but i'll have to find a male and work with her for next year cause she was touch and go for a while. I actually found her upside down and flipeed her right side up and got luck cause she pulled through and is eating good and holding everything down thanks god. So she is a turn for the better. thanks Paul

Sorry to hear that......I was really worried about using heat tape after hearing other stories but I have it installed on my boas cage and human heat pads on all my other containers housing my balls. I look at your case and the others and wonder because I can put my heat tape on full blast(without stat) and it wont get hot enough to burn I guess its because the temps in the basement are cool now. Im now worried about the upcoming summer wheater and my change over to that heat rope I guess i will have to figure how to install it in a rack. My worry is great because my snakes are kept im the basement at my moms house and I dont stay there so im only checking on them like every other day once a day.

What i had malfunction was calorique heat tape the 10 inch tape. I still use it i just look at them everyday and if it looks a little different its gone. Thanks Paul

What kind of thermostat or heat control did you use?

It was one that you turn the dial to adjust the heat. I also had it pluged intom a surge protector thinking it would trip if something went wrong but i was wrong on that aspect. The actual brand i don't recall , i tossed them all in the garbage cause i lost trust in them. Paul

It is important to note whether you had a thermostat or not. Many people on here use the word “controller” very loosely. A simple dimmer switch adjust its outputs based only on your input (twisting the switch). If there is any electric malfunction and subsequent temperature rise, obviously the switch does not sense that. Hence, the dimmer switches give you no insurance in these situations of sources gone bad, etc. The more snakes you keep and the longer you keep them, the closer you are to something like this happening again if you do not have a thermostat and/or some other protection device on your heat sources.

You will want something like a helix that will sense the temperature and adjust itself accordingly. This is a true controller with feedback.

You can run several identical devices off of these controllers and if you run them in identical cages, you can get very similar temperatures and gradients if so desired.

However, the helix thermostats I use only have a sensor that goes in one of the several cages I run on the said controller, so if one of the heat sources OTHER THAN the one that is being monitored by this probe craps out, I do not know how thermostats sense that and how/if they adjust. I think many of them have a disconnect or shutdown response to overcurrent situations, etc, but I am not very electrically inclined.

Maybe someone else here can elaborate?

Thats what it was was a controller. This is the first time i had any heat tape die on me. I just read lastnight on the boaphile webpage he has never had any go bad on him. He uses some kind of crimper i used soder and electrical tape to cover it up. Thats not where it went bad either it was the center to the top of it way away from the connections. Where the connections were i could pick it up but the mid to top it was melted and very freaking hot way above the 20 watts it claims. I'm thinking about e-mailing jeff about his brand of heat tape and where he gets the crimper. Something i noticed lastnight while checking my heat tape was i had one starting to seperate on me. I wonder if this is how my problem begain in the first place. i will hpefully get to the bottom of this thanks for your concerns and questions cause now i'm rethinking my whole set up that i thought was safe and figureing a way to make safer and hopefully fullproof. Paul