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Laminating FlexWatt?

Jadie.Glitch

Jadie.Glitch

:) colubridstudios.com :)
Hi there,

We recently went to a reptile "pet store" to look around at their things. Well, we have been meaning to make our own FlexWatt heat mats but were hoping to find a similarly priced item in the stores so we don't have to do it ourselves *lazy* (lol)... anyways, we found some SUPER EXPENSIVE ones that were made exactly how we were wanting to make our, except they appeared to be laminated. They felt really heavy duty because of it and when we make ours we are wanting to do the same thing now.

So my question is: Is this safe? Will the heat warp the laminate? Any other thoughts? I don't want to just DO IT and then find out that I ruined a mat with my experiment.

Thanks!!
 
I don't know that I would experiment with laminating FlexWatt. FlexWatt was not manufactured for the use us reptile use it for and I wouldn't want to risk starting a fire or killing an animal. Actual heat mats aren't even made out of FlexWatt. I imagine the laminating you see on the pricey one is something specially made for that purpose, not something you're going to easily be able to reproduce.

The best I have seen actually working for some is making a waterproof glass or acrylic case to put it into if you plan on using it inside an enclosure. FlexWatt needs airflow though, so I'm not too sure how water tight it would be and allow for proper ventilation. :shrugs:
 
TripleMoonsExotic said:
...FlexWatt was not manufactured for the use us reptile use it for and I wouldn't want to risk starting a fire or killing an animal. Actual heat mats aren't even made out of FlexWatt...
Click to expand...

FlexWatt is widely used as a heat source for reptiles and I have very detailed instructions on how to make reptile heating pads out of them as well as the knowledge to do so, so making them isn't the issue.

I WASN'T aware however that FlexWatt needs airflow, is this true? I have never heard that before. If this is true then laminating would be out of the question but I would still like some more opinions...

Thanks! ^_^
 
Jadie.Glitch said:
FlexWatt is widely used as a heat source for reptiles
Click to expand...

You really don't need to tell me of all people that. I'm well aware of that. :rolleyes: It however doesn't change the fact that FlexWatt's intended use is not as a reptile heating element and care should be taken with it.

I would be interested in seeing your detailed instructions on how to make an actual heat pad with FlexWatt (unless of course you're just talking about the standard wiring of FlexWatt).

Jadie.Glitch said:
I WASN'T aware however that FlexWatt needs airflow, is this true? I have never heard that before. If this is true then laminating would be out of the question but I would still like some more opinions...
Click to expand...

Nooooo, I lied... :rolleyes:
If you sandwich FlexWatt between two things without giving it "breathing" room for the heat to dissipate, it can cause problems. That is why when installing FlexWatt (or any heating pad for that matter) beneath a cage it is always recommended that the cage is raised up a bit to allow air flow.
 
I'm confused because FlexWatt already has it's heating elements laminated between pieces of plastic. :shrugs: Oh, well, I've gone through much of life confused.

D80
 
TME has had a bad experience with Flex Watt and is therefore very biased against it's use.

Thousands upon thousands of people use Flex Watt with out any problems and you should not be concerned. It does not require ventilation and can be sandwiched between materials if you feel like that is good for your situation.

The concern may be trapping heat or the sandwich material warping or deforming because of the heat so some care should be used in the selection of that material.

I have several racks that have been in use for 20 years where I have the Flex Watt directly on a wooden shelf with a piece of sheet metal glued on top if it. The metal helps dissipate the heat and protects the Flex Watt from abrasion.

The thermostat is very important however. Weather you use Flex Watt or a Heat Mat, the thermostat will probably be the expensive part of the set up.
 
Drizzt80 said:
I'm confused because FlexWatt already has it's heating elements laminated between pieces of plastic. :shrugs: Oh, well, I've gone through much of life confused.

D80
Click to expand...

Lol, that's kind of what I was thinking too :laugh:.

wade said:
TME has had a bad experience with Flex Watt and is therefore very biased against it's use..
Click to expand...

Yes, it seems that way. :D

wade said:
Thousands upon thousands of people use Flex Watt with out any problems and you should not be concerned. It does not require ventilation and can be sandwiched between materials if you feel like that is good for your situation.

The concern may be trapping heat or the sandwich material warping or deforming because of the heat so some care should be used in the selection of that material.

I have several racks that have been in use for 20 years where I have the Flex Watt directly on a wooden shelf with a piece of sheet metal glued on top if it. The metal helps dissipate the heat and protects the Flex Watt from abrasion.

The thermostat is very important however. Weather you use Flex Watt or a Heat Mat, the thermostat will probably be the expensive part of the set up.
Click to expand...

I appreciate this information, thanks! Also, I was referred to http://www.beanfarm.com to buy FlexWatt in bulk (and it can also be found on http://www.bigappleherp.com) but I can't seem to find it anywhere else for sale. It's a bit expensive (especially if I require quite a bit). Does anyone know of a cheaper place to purchase it? I've looked all over 4 of the cities in my area as well, and none of the hardware stores carry it...
 
I think you have named the two best sources. I have always bought from the Bean Farm. Partly because they are closer to my home and partly because they are real nice people.
 
I love the flex watt. It isn't a toy surely, lol, but if you wire it well, cover some points with electrical tape, and use a quality thermostat, you should be fine.

One thing I would add, if you plan to use multiple setups on one thermostat (which I do very successfully) make sure you have peices of the same wattage, size (4 inch, 3 inch 12 inch etc) and length (how big a 'cut' piece it is). These things are very important because if they are different, only the piece with the thermostat 'temp reader' taped to it will be accurate.
PM me if I didn't make that clear, lol. I bought a piece of 12" flexwatt from beanfarm, and one from another place (don't remember to be honest) and even though both were cut to the same length and were the same size, they looked different (one had thinner heating elements inside, placed diagonally, another had horizontally place thicker heating elements) but more importantly they used different ammounts of power. I don't remember what that related to in temps before I figured it out, but it was different enough to change out.

Buy from the same place every time, and they should 'match'..
 
wade said:
TME has had a bad experience with Flex Watt and is therefore very biased against it's use.
Click to expand...

WRONG. I use FlexWatt on EVERYTHING that is plastic (not wooden due to my experience with it catching fire). Maybe you shouldn't speak for me? :shrugs:

wade said:
Thousands upon thousands of people use Flex Watt with out any problems and you should not be concerned.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I have a problem with.

You should take care when using FlexWatt because things can happen (mine and Clay's problems for example)...Don't just do something and put your home/animals at risk...and don't cover your eyes and ears and think it can't happen to you. If I hadn't been home when mine shorted, who knows what would have happened. :duck:

Drizzt80 said:
I'm confused because FlexWatt already has it's heating elements laminated between pieces of plastic.
Click to expand...

I know what he's talking about. Their is a type of heat mat (forget the brand) that looks sort of like FlexWatt but is encased in a thicker plastic coating then what FlexWatt is.
 
I haven't tried Flexwatt yet but you would think it would come with a MSDS (material safely data sheets) or at least instructions with warnings. I was thinking of using a heat reflective material below such as refractory board covered with aluminium foil tape to conserve heat loss and maybe a slate roofing tile over top of that which should conduct the heat upward, keeping the t-stat on a low setting and increasing the temp in tiny increments until it reaches the desired temperature. Of course this might best be tested outside the viv. in a safe place first.
 
Stevieray said:
I haven't tried Flexwatt yet but you would think it would come with a MSDS (material safely data sheets) or at least instructions with warnings.
Click to expand...

The problem is, FlexWatt's intended use was for wrapping pipes to stop water from freezing over winter. So any manufacturers MSDS would only be related to that, not for what we use it for.

It would be nice for the sellers to include their own MSDS in relation to reptile use, but I understand why they don't. They don't want to hold any liability if something were to go wrong.
 
I just goggled Flex Watt. I got 1,600,00 hits. On the sixth page I found one hit that was not related to heating reptile cages. It was from the Flex Watt Company itself. They are using it as a heating element inside blankets to warm drums and barrels of liquids. Other than that one hit, I didn’t find anything that was not talking about how to use it with reptiles.

TME, you had a bad experience. You have jumped to conclusions based on no facts and little information. You are beating your drum loudly but your argument lacks merit. You are stating bad information as facts.

Please, I have made up my mind, don’t confuse me with facts and information.

The thing I don't understand is that your flex watt shorted so you blamed the wood. "It's ok to use it on plastic but the wood will make it short out." How does that work?? You can't condem the entire industry because you had one problem. You are not being rational on this point.
 
Wade, do you understand how internet search engines work? Do you understand how and why certain web sites appear in certain order on a search engine? If you did, you wouldn't be even mentioning reptile web sites appearing at the top of the engines when using "FlexWatt" as a search keyword...Because that's a big duuuuuuuuuuuuh. :laugh:

wade said:
TME, you had a bad experience. You have jumped to conclusions based on no facts and little information.
Click to expand...

So, were you here when it happened? Please, describe to me in detail what happened here, in my home, so I know what I saw and had to deal with. Or, maybe you could describe, in detail, what happened with Clay's instance of essentially the same thing. :shrugs:

wade said:
The thing I don't understand is that your flex watt shorted so you blamed the wood. "It's ok to use it on plastic but the wood will make it short out." How does that work?? You can't condem the entire industry because you had one problem.
Click to expand...

I never said any of this.
Again, perhaps you shouldn't speak for me?

I said I won't (me, not anyone else) trust FlexWatt on wood because of the shorting and fire. Is it that hard for you to understand? I'm not condemning anyone for anything, I'm warning to be careful and don't think that nothing can go wrong...Because that is full-hardy and bad advice.
 
*hugs everyone* :spinner:

Soo... would laminating it be a GOOD idea, or a BAD idea then??

TME so you say that the combination of Flexwatt and wood is bad? I have a custom cage made out of wood that I was going to use the Flexwatt on so can you give me some more information on this? I work all day and I really don't want my babies to get burned (let along my whole house :sidestep:).

Also, the instructions that I got told me that after I make the heating pad it will be placed at the bottom of the cage directly under the substrate. What do you think about this? I am pretty sure that it was Mark Chappel's instructions for the heating mats. We purchased his "Reptile Cage Plans" off the internet and these instructions came with it.

We were just going to do it because the plans say it's perfectly safe, but now I'm not so sure...
 
It seems I missed an earlier discussion on flex-watt and wood? I can't imagine how that combination could be any more dangerous than flex-watt on plastic.. If your thermostat failed or it became a fire hazard in any other way, plastic is also inflammable. I have a feeling I'm missing some part of the equation though..:shrugs:

I have had a bad experience with flex-watt, but I still use it, on wood (coated with melamine, but I wouldn't have qualms about using it other wise either.. I would not use bare wood in a viv, but for other reasons) and on plastic.. My bad experience was once when a cheaper thermostat failed on me, it got really hot and even warped. I don't know how hot it got, but when I checked the temp (after it was off) it was at somewhere around 160.. Luckily it was a trial setup without the snake. I always do that now with new viv setups, just to be sure..

I also save money with flex-watt, and spend more than I saved on quality thermostats...

Back on topic, I don't laminate any of mine and can't think of any reason to do so. One of my vivs (well 2, it's a double viv) uses flex watt inside. I've taped up the ends REALLY well and I keep his water bowl (very heavy ceramic dog bowl that he can't possibly tip) on the other side. There's also lots of absorbent aspen in there as well, just in case.

Sorry for the book, lol.
 
Thanks for the advice Tom-E. I'll definitely do a trial run before I add my snakies (great idea!). And it's really not necessary that I laminate, I just thought it might make it safer/more durable...
 
I put sheet metal over mine because it is a rack system where rubbermaid tubs are sliding over the Flex Watt. I wanted to protect it from abrasion.

If you are putting in in a viv were abrasion is not a concern, I see no reason to laminate it.
 
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