Heat tape help

I am going to be building a rack and am wondering what the best way to put the heat tape is. The rack will have at least 10 shelves and will be around 6 ft. long. each shelf will be 6 inches tall. The three bottom shelves will hold hatchlings and will be two hatchlings deep. The adult shelves will hold 4 snakes each, the yearling shelves will hold 5 snakes each and the hatchling shelves will hold 20 each. I have the measurements set from the tubs I will be using. I want to purchase a Helix thermo. and stop using the homemade dimmers. What would be the best way to wire the heat tape for this setup. I am including some diagrams that I made in microsoft Paint so they look like crap but will give you an idea of what I am talking about. Thanks!

First off, I'd honestly suggest heat rope over heat tape. When I make another rack, it'll be with heat rope. Unless you're willing to pony up some big bucks for heat tape that you can run as belly heat---it's better to go with the heat rope.

And secondly, I'd suggest a Herpstat over a Helix.

I wanted it to be belly heat. Is heat rope better for belly heat than heat tape? I will check out the herpstat, thanks.

Originally Posted by mullinsn2000

I wanted it to be belly heat. Is heat rope better for belly heat than heat tape? I will check out the herpstat, thanks.

It's not that, it's just that running heat tape for belly heat is complicated and expensive. I had to use back heat because of the cost of running belly heat in a big rack. You're talking a different strip of heat tape for each shelf. Since my main adult breeder rack is 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide, you're talking 10 pieces of tape at 60" long.

With flexwatt you're looking at $2 per foot, so add that up. You're looking at 600 inches of wired flexwatt, so that's $100 just for the flexwatt. If you're getting it pre-wired you're looking at $8 for each ready to go connection, that's another $80 in connection costs. That's $180 for the heat tape with connection plus another $100+ for the thermostat.

I personally didn't have $280 to spend on each rack, so I went with backheat (two strips of 11" flexwatt) for 1/4 of the price.

That rack is using 50 feet of flexwatt. You can get 23 feet of heat rope from ZooMed for $20 or so.

All I know is that my next rack will definitely be using heat rope.

I'd agree, I got heatrope for my rack, it's on a thermostat and is working brilliantly, I wasn't sure if it'd do the job but no complaints so far

Can you guys tell me how I would place the heat rope on the rack I am planning? Thanks alot for the help!

Well my rack is a bit ghetto, but how it ended up is with a small gap between the back of each shelf and the backing board. I've fixed the heatrope about an inch in on each shelf and down to the next shelf, back along to the other side, etc, in a sort of side-to-side squared zig-zag. Each tub has little feet that keep it slightly off the heatrope, ther's enough clearance to slide them out without moving the heatrope. When I get around to re-making the rack, I'll rout a channel for the rope to sit in.

Router out a channel for the heat rope to rest in on each shelf.

wheres a good heat rope distributer? do u regulate the temperature the same as you would regulate heat tape? if so, what do you feel is the best thermostat option?

Just use it like you would heat tape as far as a thermostat goes. I got mine from www.reptiledirect.com. They seemed to have the best prices and were great to order from.