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FlexWatt/Rack question

jamay

jamay

"Serpent Science"
I am in the middle of building a rack that will hold 8 32 qt sterilite boxes. All I need to do now is take care of the heat. I want to go with FlexWatt belly heat, but I am not sure whether 4" or 11" is more appropriate. What has everyone else used with the 32 qt? Thanks for suggestions!
 
If you're going with belly heat, 4" along the long side should be adequate. If you're going with back heat, I'd go with 11" which is what I currently use. I would recommend an extra 6 inches or so on the bottom shelf to "under"lap for belly heat. My bottom shelves are a bit cooler than the others, but I've made adjustments for that currently.

D80
 
last ?

Thanks for the reply, D80. I have one other question now and then I think I'm ready to construct. After wiring it, can I plug all 8 cords into 1 or 2 surge protectors, then use 1 or 2 dimmers to control them? I'm not sure what's available to hold 4-8 plugs besides a surge protector.
 
Just a suggestion, but with that many, I'd recomment wiring them in series instead of parallel, or perhaps two 'strands' of 4 each.

Also, I'm not a big fan of the connectors that come with flexwatt. They make the electrical contact by poking through the plastic (vinyl, pvc or whatever it actually is) covering on the two strips. I used those at first but was just not convinced that I got a consistant connection from one to the next, which (not being an electrical engineer and having slept through that class 24 yrs ago), just made me fear that I wasn't getting the same juice flowing through each flexwatt. So I ditched those and used female quick connectors, having melted the covering with a soldering iron.
 
I'm not the best source for wiring information. I think there's a diagram somewhere around here with options on how to wire it up. Using 4" belly heat, I'd personally just serpentine 1 long piece throughout the rack. Using 11" back heat I use 1 strip for each rack.

D80
 
serpentining for more than a couple of panels will result in some cages not getting adequate heat (speaking from experience), go with bruce's suggestion of a series of to or so depending on the size of your rack.
 
Here is some stuff to think about. 3" flexwatt is 10 Watts per foot of length.
4" flexwatt is 8 Watts per foot of length. 11" flexwatt is 20 Watts per foot of length. The wattage can be equated to how much heat your going to be getting. Some people have had problems with the 3" getting too hot. They feel like the 4" is better.

If you use say 2 feet of the 4" per shelf that would use 16 watts of power per shelf or a total of 128 watts for 8 shelves. That is not very much. A little more than a 100 W light bulb. It would draw about 1 amp of current which a single reostat can handle without any trouble.

Merlins Pop made a good suggestion about wiring in series. In series each of the sections would have the same current so they would all be the same temperature. In parallel that would not necessarily be the case.

Merlins pop, what do you mean by female quick connector and how do you hook it to the flex watt?
 
I used 11" flexwatt wired in a series for an 8 shelf rack. I regulate using a dimmer switch. I have very little variation from top to bottom as far as heat goes.

Enjoy!

Tonya
 
I use 11 inch flexwatt for back heat. I also soldered my connections directly to the tape. I then hooked them up to dimmer switch (rheostat). been working fine for years.
 
I wish I had consulted more with all of you before ordering but too late now. I ordered 9' (an extra foot in case I screw up) of 4" flexwatt, thinking that 1 foot for each shelf would be sufficient. I hope this will be all right because I would hate to pay shipping again for more. Anyways, I have posted a picture of the rack in the photography section. I'm planning on placing the strips on one of the sides running from back to front. Thanks again for everyone's input!
 
Ok well I like this topic as I am going to be building a rack of my own soon. I have a 32 qt rack on the way but I have decided to build a larger one as well. I went looking for a bigger tub for my growing BP and found some 74 qt ones that people use under their bed the only problem is even though they latch on both ends the top is made flexible in the center so you can open one end and not the other. This is only going to work if I strap it up in the center and I don't like that idea. So I am building a rack (also great excuse to get more snakes). I have my design figured out and I am going to build it in a manner so that the long side of the box is visible. Here is where I run into questions. I only have one BP right now and I plan on getting 2 or 3 more down the line at some point, I also am planning on getting an MBK and some point along with more corns. Well my BP is at a different temperature than my corns so how is the best way to rig the heating up? I want to have individual control over each shelf or be able to control a group of shelves. Example. say I have 3 BPs, 4 corns (or possibly 4 hatchling shelves), and another misc. snake. Is there a way I can do this? Also, how thick is flexiwatt tape? I plan on belly heat and want to make sure there is space to slide the tub in and out but not so much space they can get out. Is there a site on something like this? I have no experience with flexiwatt. I have great hands but I would rather not waste money or materials trying to figure out what others have done. If anyone has pictures of what they have done please post them as I am an extremely visual learner. Thanks for your help.
 
Kim - there are several different options for you. Some people wire each shelf individually to a dimmer switch for more control. This would be good for having snakes with different temp needs or being in a place where the top or bottom of the rack gets more heat. Or you could wire the top half and bottom half of the rack for only 2 plugs instead of having 8 (say 4 shelves each). Since I'm only dealing with colubrids and will only have one thermostat I will probably just wire it all together.

FlexWatt is pretty much the same thickness as a UTH so I didn't worry about it in measuring shelf heights. I have ~ 1/8" gap between each sterilite and the shelf about it. With this distance I can still use lids for snakes that are small and not use lids for adults.

Wish I could be of more help but I'm still learning about racks myself.
 
Kim - my local Wally World still has Sterilite 90 qt bins (no longer shown on Sterilite's website, so I'm assuming no longer made). They're pretty big and are 12 inches tall.

I built a rack to hold 5 of them. It's under the husbandry forum with a thread name of something like "Rack for Tall Bins" or some such. Of course, when you come to Charles Town this weekend to buy either the yellow rat snake or the yearling corn from the local pet store, I'll be happy to show you the rack in person. :)
 
He was curled up in a translucent blue igloo hide. And I swear I can't remember what the other yearling corn was, other than 'pretty.'

Six hours??!! I made it to the fairgrounds from my house in 1.5 hours. So your round trip drive would be half your estimate. :)
 
Ahhh that zip made the difference.. ok that isn't such a bad drive. LOL good thing you don't have my car then... you would get yourself in to trouble. There has been some mods to my car since this pic... but you get the idea:dgrin:
 

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