heaters and homemade cages

I'm working on plans for a new cage/home for my corn. It will be a tank built on (but detachable) a shelving/storage bottom.

Does anyone have info/opinions about using an under-tank-heater with a wood and/or plexiglass bottom? How would I get around that? Can I get around that? What do you think - all comments welcome!

Patty

Several solutions...

Of the two plywood-bottom tanks my bro and I (mostly my bro) custom built for our corns, we came up with two solutions.

One was pretty intricate... we made a wooden box about 2 inches high. All but the top and one side (toward the center) fit against the sides/end of the cage. The one open side was screened to allow for air circulation. Also, this side radiates some warm air, and they tend to like this as a hide spot since it's kinda like a natural outcropping.

The top, which the snake lays on top of to "bask," is a piece of glass (ceramic tile also works) custom fit to the shape of the top. The wood was deigned to be indented so the glass fits perfectly in it.

Then we put dowel rods across the center of the inside of the "heat box" so that the heat pad was neither on the floor or against the glass.

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The second design is much more simple:

Wire a heat pad with a rheostat, then put the pad on the bottom of the tank. Take an appropriate-sized tupperware lid and screw down the edges of it to the bottom of the tank, thus sealing in the heater so the snake can't lay directly on it or play with the cord. Control the temp with the rheostat.

Heres what i did. I attached Flex Watt heat tape to the bottom of a piece of glass that was cut to fit exactly on the bottom of my viv. I used small rubber bumpers that are used to keep cabinet doors from slamming shut to keep the glass from sandwiching the heat tape against the wood and allow the heat to dissipate. I drilled a hole in the bottom corner and ran the cord through there. then assembled it to the heat tape in the viv. Hope this helps.

I think to help her the proper speed is 88mph and you need like 1.21 gigawatts of power, I'm not sure on the rest, saw it on TV.

alan said:

I think to help her the proper speed is 88mph and you need like 1.21 gigawatts of power, I'm not sure on the rest, saw it on TV.

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You need to slip and hit your head on the toilet to get the idea for a circuit box with 3 light up spark plug wires in it.

Thread's over 6 years old...

But for poops and giggles...

I will never use FlexWatt on wood ever again. I have wooden cages that had FlexWatt in them for, I dunno, 2-4 years and just this past year the stuff shorted and singed everything in 2 of the 3 cages. I'm talking I'm lucky my house didn't catch on fire let alone hurt the animals in the cages.

TripleMoonsExotic said:

Thread's over 6 years old...

But for poops and giggles...

I will never use FlexWatt on wood ever again. I have wooden cages that had FlexWatt in them for, I dunno, 2-4 years and just this past year the stuff shorted and singed everything in 2 of the 3 cages. I'm talking I'm lucky my house didn't catch on fire let alone hurt the animals in the cages.

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Seems to me that should be blamed on the person that did the wiring, not the wood or the Flex Watt. If wired properly, Flex Watt should be perfectly safe to use on wood or plastic.

Their was nothing wrong with my wiring.
If their was, it wouldn't have shorted (or whatever it did) 2-4 years after it was originally wired.

You say yourself, "should be perfectly safe." That certainly isn't a definite, is it?

I haven't repaired the cages yet. When my mum gives me back my camera I'll take pictures of it. It's pretty scary looking.

So if there was nothing wrong with your wiring, was it the woods fault or the flex watts fault? Or was it because the flex watt was on the wood?

I did say:

I will never use FlexWatt on wood ever again.

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That says to me, the FlexWatt being on the wood was the problem. I have several plastic racks running FlexWatt that I've never had a problem (knock on wood...Err, plastic ). My problem obviously isn't with FlexWatt (otherwise I wouldn't use it with plastic), it's with FlexWatt on wood. I won't take that risk ever again.

TME, I'm not going to argue with you. I would like to point out that wood is an inanimate object much like plastic. Neither can make connections come loose. Also, many plastics are much more flammable than wood.

wade said:

TME, I'm not going to argue with you. I would like to point out that wood is an inanimate object much like plastic. Neither can make connections come loose. Also, many plastics are much more flammable than wood.

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The connections weren't loose, I never said they were. The FlexWatt burned from the middle out and I caught it before it reached the edges. The FlexWatt became brittle after it cooled in the center and sort of crumbled? It's hard to describe, you really have to see it to get the full effect.

I also highly doubt AP uses highly flammable plastics for their racks.

Animal plastics uses PVC for all of their racks. PVC is flammable but does not burn well. It's melting point is 176*. Depending on the type, wood burn between 400 and 500 degrees.

From your description it sounds like the Flex Watt itself shorted. Possibly caused by abrasion of the tubs on the plastic of the Flex Watt?

No tubs were involved (we are talking cages, not racks here). The wood is cabinet grade plywood (I'd have to ask hubby what the exact wood type is) that had FlexWatt sandwiched between (not tight, had a 1/4" of space for airflow out the back) on the bottom.

The stuff literally burnt through the top layer of plywood and tile board. What remains of the wood where the FlexWatt sat is blackened and sort of cracked up...Like what you'd see of wood that was in a fire.

I still maintain an actual fire would have never happened if they were plastic over wood...and I no longer trust FlexWatt and wood. I use FlexWatt under my PVC JP cages and incubator even and this has never happened. I'm actually really surprised you've never heard of this happening before. I know I've read cases over the years where wooden racks/cages have caught fire due to shorting FlexWatt.

Wooden houses have burned down due to faulty Chrismas tree lights. We still have Christmas and Houses.

wade said:

Wooden houses have burned down due to faulty Chrismas tree lights. We still have Christmas and Houses.

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That has what to do with FlexWatt's use in cages?
FlexWatt was never intended for what we use it for.

You aren't going to convince me to continue using FlexWatt with wooden cages. I won't risk it after what happened. Keep in mind that these cages were fine with the FlexWatt for 2-4 years (I'd have to look up what year they were actually built, I can't remember back that far ) and then all of a sudden, with no outside rubbing or breaking, this happened. :shrugs:

Luckily these cages are salvageable...They just won't have FlexWatt in them any longer!

Cause of the Short

I would have to agree with Wade that the cause affect relationship does not exist between the wood and the flexwatt. The cause of the problem was with that particular piece of flexwatt. Perhaps it was crimped or abraded in some fashion. It can happen with PVC as well and PVC is not a good thing to be around when it is melting. I've seen 14g house wiring short from a wire staple being driven in too tightly and although there is now external indication of a problem the wire is shorted internally.

I happened upon Clay's pre-cautions page and this looks very similar to what happened to mine (though my burnt part of the FlexWatt was much bigger and mine was hooked up to a thermostat).

TME, you make it very hard for me to say OK and walk away. But watch,

OK....:sidestep: