heat tape/mats

[purplefunkything]

stupid question No1: heat mats and heat tape, theyre the same things.... yes? i saw a pic on herptrader where the guy glued tiles on top of his heat tape...can you do the same thing with an exoterra heat mat?

 

[Magpie]

Heat mats are pre-wired, heat tape is not and comes in continuous lengths.

 

[herptrader]

Hey that some guy was me. All our enclosures have heat tape under the tiles to set the over night low temperature.

The one on the web page has since been sold. I now use probe thermostats with the probes routed into a slot in the floor of the enclosure.

And yes.. magpie is right. What we call heat mats are essentially pre wired sections of heat tape with a cord and plug etc. attahced.

 

[MrBredli]

Whilst on the subject of heat tape, does anyne know where i can buy some that is about 8-10cm wide?

 

[purplefunkything]

cool, thanks guys

 

[Scale_Addiction]

MrB,

i can get 100ft rolls of 3 inch for around $300. 4 inch rolls for around $400 (very sketchy prices - but you get the idea)

 

[Scale_Addiction]

if your after small lengths, i recommend buying from the herpshop.

and $35 per meter i think. + connectors and so on.

 

[MrBredli]

Thanks Azztech, any idea the wattage of the 3 inch type, or the temps it reaches? Is it the same to setup as the type from the Herp Shop. I might be interested in a roll if i can find someone to go halves or thirds with me. The smallest the Herp Shop has, i believe, is 140mm which is a little bigger than i may require.

 

[herptrader]

I had one thought on getting the heat tape down to 3".

I don't know how long you need it but you could use the wider stuff cut side ways (into 3" strips) if you know what I mean. With a bit of careful planning a 3 in wide strip double the width of the wider heat tape in length would be fairly easy to achieve.

Would you like to explain your application and we can see what we can come up with option wise?

 

[Scale_Addiction]

I'm waiting on more info MrB, will let you know.

i really don't want to compete with Herptrader, if they can help you, i'd prefer you go that way.

contact me only if you need a huge roll.

 

[MrBredli]

It will be just a basic rack system, holding approx. 50-100 tubs, constructed with melamine. Still in planning phase, but i'll probably be requiring at least 12m of tape. Just looking around to see what's out there at the moment, so i'm definately interested Azztech, let me know when you get some more info. Cheers.

 

[herptrader]

rodents or herps?

 

[MrBredli]

Herps - hatchies

 

[herptrader]

What I have done for these is use lengths of 600mm wide chipboard with the narrow heat tape running down the middle. I have tiled oer this which helps difuse the heat etc. Along it I run pairs of tubs with hatchies in them. Only one of them has a thermostat and the others I run are slaves off the first on. (There is only one other at this stage.) I have used this setup for a couple of years now and like it a lot.

Running the tubs in pairs means you only need half as much heat tape.

Melamine edging around the outside makes them look nice and neat.

Here are a couple of pics of the hatchie containers on the panels. The upper panel is 900mm long and the lower one 1200mm. Only the upper panel has the thermostat which you can see in the back corner of the top panel.

p.s. the childreni in the pictures are for sale in Herp Trader ad 667-601

 

[AntaresiaLady]

I've been looking for some heat tape. Excellent now I know where to get it!

 

[MrBredli]

That's very interesting, i'll have to have a long think about this, maybe i should build 2 racks, one using the method as seen above with heat tape in the middle of the shelf, with the rack being accessible from both sides, and another with larger tubs and heat tape at the back. Lots of thinking to do.. thanks for the idea herptrader.

 

[purplefunkything]

nice tidy set up HT but wouldnt you loose a lot of heat through the chipboard...im assuming you'd have to have a reasonably high temp (minus thermo) to get the tiles heated up to any reasonable temp?

 

[herptrader]

Chip board is actually quite a reasonable insulator. Most of the heat would be lost through the tiles around the hatchie tubs.

The room it is kept in is pretty warm so the heat tape only has to raise the temperature down the middle of the board by about 8 degrees on most days.

 

[Scale_Addiction]

$450 inc freight for a 100ft roll. (4 inch/100mm)

it does temps 20 degrees over ambient.

 

[MrBredli]

What about the 3 inch?