Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i currently have two 1/4 inch plastic cages with heat mats. Seems like many cages are being made of 1/2 inch would flexwat or heat mat still work to heat these or would heat not travel through the 1/2 inch?
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Tom
0.0.1 California King Snake (booboo)
0.2.1 Sulcata Tortoise (tank, sahara and skittles)
0.0.2 Russian Tortoise (tito and lulu)
0.0.4 Red Ear Sliders (moe, uncle sam, bernie and ernie)
0.0.1 Western Soft shell (Squirt)
1.1.0 Bearded Dragon (marshmellow and Sparkles )
0.0.1 Sumatran Water Monitor (Tiny)
1.0.0 Peachfront Conure (kermit)
0.1.0 Love Bird ( KIKI )
1.2.0 Dog (layla, Roxy and Rosco)
2.2.0 Crazy Cats (babe, sabastian, tinkerbell and sadie)
0.1.0 Lion Head Rabbit (daisy)
0.0.1 Spectacled caiman (wilbert)
0.0.1 Aligator Snapping turtle
0.0.1 Mexican Red Knee Tarantula
1.0.0 Veiled Chameleon
0.0.1 Argentina Black and White Tegu
2.1.0 Columbian Red Tail Boas
1.2.0 Kenya Sand Boas
0.1.0 Green Iguana
1.0.0 Ball Python
1.0.0 Western Hognose Snake
1.0.0 Chocolate Skunk

Heat will travel through the 1/2 and eventually reach the other side. Takes more time to heat up however compared to 1/4 inch thick material. On the flip side, it holds heat a bit longer. More mass.

If the air is cool, the heater needs to have some wattage behind it.

For example, I have some awesome heat mats from Amazon dot com - they look very much like Big Apple's "Intelli-Temp" mats though I do not know if they are the exact same device (yet - I just ordered some Intelli-Temps as well). They are perfect for glass tanks and storage box cages in that they do not get overbearingly hot. But for a 1/2 inch thick PVC cage, these heat mats will not do the trick unless the ambient air temp is in the mid 70s at least. Not enough watt-density.

My guess is the 20 watts/ft Flexwatt will have no problem on 1/2 inch material. That stuff will heat through 3/4 inch melamine.
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Mark