I am in the middle of building a rack :crazy02: , and I have not yet decided on how many strips of heat tape to use. I plan on using the 4 inch heat tap, unless otherwise advised, on the back of the rack. The rack is 36 inches wide and 42 inches high. It will have two 28 quart tubs on each shelf and 6 shelves high. I am leaning towards three strips, but wonder if I should use four. Does any one have a similar setup? Thanks for the imput.
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how much heat tape?
- Thread starter JasonS
- Start date
Jay@PJCReptiles
"Quality Before Quantity"
Hi,
A good rule of thumb to go by is the heat tape should take up about 1/3 of the bin if you are using "BELLY" heat. I know of people using 11" wide FlexWatt heat tape for running up the back wall of the rack behind the bins if you plan on using "BACK" heat. I have heard that it is easier to maintain temps with "BELLY" heat. Make sure you use a reliable rheostat to manage your heat. I have built 2 racks that are 3' x 3' and holds 24 SterLite shoe box bins in each rack and I used 3" FlexWatt heat tape and it works great for us. Hope this helped.
Jay & PJ
A good rule of thumb to go by is the heat tape should take up about 1/3 of the bin if you are using "BELLY" heat. I know of people using 11" wide FlexWatt heat tape for running up the back wall of the rack behind the bins if you plan on using "BACK" heat. I have heard that it is easier to maintain temps with "BELLY" heat. Make sure you use a reliable rheostat to manage your heat. I have built 2 racks that are 3' x 3' and holds 24 SterLite shoe box bins in each rack and I used 3" FlexWatt heat tape and it works great for us. Hope this helped.
Jay & PJ
Last edited:
Thanks Jay and PJ, by the way, I modeled my rack after yours. I finished putting the rack together last night, and other then the trim it looks pretty good. I have decided to run four strips vertically on the back. I am sure that three would work and four should work even better. As the rheostat goes, I built one of the do-it-yourself jobs on the Cav rack thread. Stay tuned for pics.