heat "ropes"

Anyone use any of those new "heat ropes"? Or are they not new & I'm just totally out of the loop? If you've used them, what do you think?

Thanks

I'm not sure what you mean about heat ropes, but I have some heat cable. Its a long (25') loop of flexible cord about 1/8" diamter with a plug attached. I know they are used in horticulture to heat the substrate, and they are popular with heating the gravel in freshwater planted aquariums but I haven't been able to find a decent use for them for herps. I did coil one up and place it under a large piece of flagstone and used it for a while (seemed to work OK) but I was not convinced that it was that safe so I stopped. Any other details would be appreciated, Where did you see it? did it have a brand name? etc.

Steve Schindler

It's a Big Apple product...."Big Apple's Flexible Heat Rope".

I had to go back and find where I had seen because I couldn't remember, but found it again easily.

Anybody use it? Seems a bit expensive to me, especially when owning a lot of reptiles, but may be an excellent heat source...who knows??? Anyone???

Thanks for any input.

I don't know if thats what I have or not. I bought a used breeder rack several months ago. Naturally the tubs that belong in it are discontinued so i had to take the rack apart and put it together a little taller than it was. So I got a good look at the "Rope" or "Cord" and how it is used in it. It's got trenches routed in the bottom of each shelf that a black cord is laid down inside (the sides are also routed so the one cord runs from the bottom of the rack up the side, and across the bottom of all three shelves to the top.) The rack has alunimum runners placed on top of the heated cord into the routed trench (creating a flat surface for the tubs to slide on). When the cord is plugged in it gets hot, and the alunimum bar evenly transmits the heat all the way across.

It seems to be doing fine keeping those at 75-80F, but I don't think it could do the 90F plus needed for the pythons. Also, I live in Southern California, so it is doing fine keeping 75 - 80F when the outside temps are also 75 -80F!!

You can get close to the same thing at Lowes or Home Depot or any other hardware store. What they are used for is wraping around your pipes in your house in the winter so that you pipes don't freeze. But that's the skinny on that.

Hope that helps!



Christa Rucker