Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey I was going to buy the 48"L x 18"W x 17"H acrylic cage that big apple herp is selling. They look nice but the only thing is I wanted to know if the whole thing would warp or something like everyone says acrylic does? I want to provide a basking area of about 105 and dont want the cage to get messed up. It's either that or the 75gl aqaurium for 20 dollars more. What do you think?

Temperature differentials are what cause acrylic to really warp. And if you need a basking spot of 105 the area around that heat source will obviously be hotter than that temperature. I think that is a poor choice for acrylic cages, even the highest end ones on the market.

But I am not familiar with the design of the BA product you mentioned so I hate to say for sure.

...because I've seen too many things made out of acrylic warp when exposed to temperature and humidity differentials. Usually, the thicker the acrylic is the worse the warping is. The 1/8 inch stuff is the most resistant that I've seen because the heat passes through much quicker and it's thus less susceptible to the warping but the 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch stuff is horrendous. In my experience having a Neodesha cage with a single 1/4 acrylic panel/door on a cage at work it suffered major warpage from only having a high 80s F temp inside the cage and a low to mid 80s temp outside the cage. The door would steadily warp farther inwards until you couldn't get it to close because the panel would flex too far into the cage if you tried to open it. We'd take the panel out and lay it down on a table for a couple weeks and it'd slowly flatten out so it could be used again, but within a couple weeks it would bow inwards again because of the differential. I think with the hotspot you want to shoot for you're going to see warping for sure.
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The Neodesha acrylic panel warping.. the same is true with a piece of plywood. Yet, a cage can be made of plywood and not warp from 80s inside and 60s outside. Same with an acrylic cage. If constructed with all joints glued, there isn't much of a problem. I've seen lots of acrylic green tree python cages heated with heat panels that didn't warp. I've used an acrylic cage for years w/o issue.

But, I don't think the Big Apple cages are glued. So that will be interesting to see what happens.

>> I've seen lots of acrylic green tree python cages heated with heat panels that didn't warp.

Radiant heat panels are a good choice with acrylic cages since they don't get much hotter than the desired/required basking temperature directly below them. And as I'm sure you know, the backside of RHP's are basically room temperature due to the strong radiant barriers used.

The original poster mentioned some sort of heat lamp combo which won't work this way - the temperature surrounding the lamp could be 100* greater or more than the desired basking temp. of 105*.

The original poster might look into a RHP for this cage although I don't think they are the best choice when a 105* temp. is needed. A call to Bob at Pro Products might be in order.

Whos bob at pro product? bigapplecage are not glued, you put them together yourself, kinda like a snap position thing where you snap one part in place then another and another till you have the cage set up.

If the top panel is acrylic and you plan to hang a heat lamp inside the cage you'll likely have problems. If the top panel is screen it might not be as bad.

A more thorough description of your planned setup and a link to the cage will be helpful.

You can track Bob down at: http://pro-products.com/proheat.html

Acrylic warps usually when using undertank heating, because like Chris said, you'll have a large localized temperature differential over the heat pad vs just off the heat pad.

In a heated room, or when heated from above, you should have no problem. Just keep the overhead heater away from the sides. I assume a screen top is on those tanks.

Acrylic does scratch, but I like its insulative properties better than glass, plus it doesn't shatter.

Thanks guys, Im serriously thinking of trying it out, I won't be using an undertank heater by the way. Just a spot lamp and a flourescent fixture. Just gotta get one with a lot of width and I think I'll be good to go from what you guys say. If it does warp I'll be pissed. Thanks for reading.