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Heat Tape? (For Racks or Plastic Snake Cages?)

Spitfire

Spitfire

Snakeless
I've seen it all over the place but I still don't unederstand the concept. What is heat tape and how does it work? Is it just a regular strip of tape that provides heat just as does a UTH? Where would you get it and how much does it cost? I plan on buying more and more snakes but mainly hatchlings so I'm gonna keep 'm in the Sterilite containers for a while and I need a cheaper alternative for UTHs. Is that the purpose of heat tape?
 
Heat tape is like an UTH. It has to be cut to size and then wired for heat. Here are a couple of pictures:
MVC-557F.JPG

MVC-556F.JPG


It can be found on several on-line stores. I personally think if you have the money to invest in a whole roll, then it is cheaper to buy directly from the company that produces it. Her is a link to Calorique. If I remember correctly, you have to call in your order. Calorique also has the connector clips and clip insulators that some people use when wiring the heat tape.

I almost forgot to tell you that heat tape gets pretty hot and should always be used in conjunction with a thermostat.
 
A thermostat controls the temperature. There are some thermostats that you can simply plug the heat ape electrical cord into. I am not a good person to ask about wiring the heat tape or thermostat. Maybe someone else can help you with it...
 
I don't remember exactly. I think a roll of 100 feet of 4 inch heat tape was around $200.00. The clips and insulators are somewhere around 40 cents each.
 
One more thing about the thermostats. How do they work? Do they just have a dial that says what temperature you want?
 
Oh yeah - I forgot about the thermostats...

A good inexpensive one is an ESU electronic temperature controller. It runs around $35.00 or so. It has actual temperature you can set, and if it gets too hot it cuts off.

There are also rheostats. They just have high, medium, and low settings. Not as accurate, but only around $15.00.
 
The ESU one only has one outlet. I actually plug an electrical cord into it and use it for 3-4 shelves (depending on the electrical cord). I place the probe sensor on the middle shelf (directly on the heat tape). This gets the temps of all of the shelves fairly close. It take 2-3 of these units to heat an average sized rack.

The rheostats have two outlets on them.

Some people wire all of the heat tape for a rack to one electrical cord. For those racks, one thermostat can be used.
 
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No, you have to use a regular extension cord. The outlets on the rheostats don't accept 3-prong cords.
 
Thanks for the pic. I see how it works now. You said like that you could plug in extension cords into those outlets so you could plug in more heat tape plug, right? When you said like the ESU had a temperature control, do you think it's worth the extra 20 bucks to be able to ahve the option of temperature control? And will you still be able to have multiple outlets on the ESU?
 
I MUCH prefer the ESU thermostats. I have found it is really hard to regulate the temps with the rheostats. I typically have them turned VERY low or else they get SUPER hot. I definitely think it is worth the extra money for the ESU thermostat. I do plug an extension cord into the ESU outlet. The most I've ever plugged into it was one extension cord with enough outlets for four heaters/strips of heat tape.
 
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