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Need some heating advice

B

Boid&GeckoFreak

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I need to heat some 4'x2' Pro-Line cages for Boa Constrictors. Problem is, the room temp is only 75 during the summer, and 70-72 during the winter. Raising the room temp isn't an option.

I managed to find a site that sells the low wattage 21" wide Flexwatt, AKA Boaphile's 2X heat. Boaphile's website says that their 2X heat should be sufficient in a room that's around 72 degrees, but I've been reading mixed experiences with it.

Other option is Pro Products RHP. I've never used RHPs partly to to the price. Again I've been reading mixed experiences with them. Some people say they're good at raising ambient temps. Others say that since they are a radiant heat source they don't raise ambient temps much, especially in a sparsely furnished cage, as there isn't much mass for them to heat up. My cages are pretty much just newspaper, water bowl and a hide. Not sure if a RHP would be much more effective than Flexwatt. Plus I'm not a fan of needing to put the thermostat probe inside the cage, though I guess I could use a dimmer/rheostat instead.

Anyone have any experience using either of these in a colder room?
 
I run 11" flex up the back of my prostacks, I keep my room heated but by heated I mean keeping it at about 75 degrees ambient.
 
I was thinking about trying a 2' strip of 11" or 12" heat tape under the cage, then another strip either 2' or 4' across the back of the cage. Might need a second thermostat or dimmer for the strip on the back to get the temps right though.
 
We use Flex watt on all of our dubia tubs to keep the temps at 95 . We all so sell Flex Watt Tape in the 3", 4" and 11"
 
I have a few pro products RHP's that im using at the moment and I think they work great, especially in larger cages (4 footers and up) but there are cheaper alternatives to heat a cage.
After all, heat is heat.
 
in your situation use a rhp panel (pro products or helix, stay away from RBI panels) for ambient heat. A single piece of 11" x 12" flexwatt on one side for a hot spot. You should buy TWO thermostats and run each heat source separately(although on multiple cages you could use a single thermostat to control the flexwatt for all cages and the other to control all rhp for the stack)
 
suzuki4life said:
in your situation use a rhp panel (pro products or helix, stay away from RBI panels) for ambient heat. A single piece of 11" x 12" flexwatt on one side for a hot spot. You should buy TWO thermostats and run each heat source separately(although on multiple cages you could use a single thermostat to control the flexwatt for all cages and the other to control all rhp for the stack)
Click to expand...

Honestly using a single probed thermostat to control two heat sources in two cages is a very bad Idea. What happens of the heat fails in the cage with the probe and the other heat source goes wide open?
 
I guess the same thing that happens when it does on ars, freedom breeder or most of the racks currently available online. Buy decent thermostats and this doesn't happen. Hence why you aren't reading about melt downs on ars or freedom breeder racks.
 
suzuki4life said:
I guess the same thing that happens when it does on ars, freedom breeder or most of the racks currently available online. Buy decent thermostats and this doesn't happen. Hence why you aren't reading about melt downs on ars or freedom breeder racks.
Click to expand...

There have been two cases of someone losing their whole collection ( or most of it) in the last six months.
 
Here is the most recent one I heard about and the other was a guy that was having renovations done and the renovators supposedly cause a power surge or something or other.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...45625788&set=gm.674124475933687&refid=18&_ft_

Neither of these are related to what I initially said though. I asked you what would happen if the HEAT source over the probe failed. Heat mats and heat tape can fail and stop producing heat. If that happens the thermostat either doesn't turn off or up the power flow to all heat sources which would cause the other sources to get way to hot.
 
first off, If i'm using flexwatt, I put it on a dimmer switch to make sure it can't get above 92 degrees because the manufacturers state that operation of flexwatt over 95 degrees can lead to failure. In theory you could run it like this indefinitely and a thermostat is purely a fail safe.

A radiant heat panel is basically a heat source without a light. You select these just like you would if you were using a light bulb in a cage. A thermostat becomes a fail safe once again. In theory, if set up and proper wattage is selected for cage size, the thermostat should never/rarely be used.

A thermostat on a RHP would be at best for extreme fluctuations of ambient temps of a house. I mean what will an owner do if the house temp just spikes over 100 degrees long term? It does happen. What will they do if they lose power? The simple fact is that most simple setups are not meant to cover all "what if's". They are designed to handle most of what occurs on a daily basis.
 
Your last post is irrelevant and full of backwards thinking.

First off your heating choice is not relevant to this discussion nor is how you use a rheostat.

Secondly you don't buy a heat source that is going to heat your cage while running at max power. You choose a heat source that will adequately heat your enclosure and then use a thermostat to keep your temps from getting too hot or too cold.

Anyway like I said this is not even related to what we originally were discussing. Multiple heat sources plugged into a single thermostat is a recipe for disaster and should never be suggested or advocated.
 
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