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safest heat mats?

L

LowNFToy

New member
Its about to be colder, even though im in florida.. and its kinda hard to sleep with all the light coming from the snakes housings lol.. i am looking to buy heat mats, but here are my questions..

1. im afraid of my snakes burrowing and possibly getting burnt, since i read how high the temp can get right on the glass.. so.. would it be smart, whether i make my own mat or buy one, to make a rheostat?

2. which would be the best route, buying a heatmat from a petstore, then using a rheostat to control it a little just in case, or just do the flex wat stuff with the rheostat?

ones for a 20L and the other 2 would be for 10gallon. I use the dark red/brown bark substrate.

thanks!!
 
I am a newbie but what has worked great for me so far is that I bought a heat mat from the pet store and I made a rheostat. The rheostat works great, I can keep the temp at a pretty much constant temp with a little adjusting here and there. I have a hatchling that loves to burrow and I have not yet had any problems with the heat being too high. I live in Colorado and its starting to cool down here as well but I dont foresee any problems. I dont use a heat light source, the heat mat works perfectly well in my 10g. Hope that helped.
 
yea, really the safest thing to do, and would be pretty cheap would be to buy some heat tape and then make a rheostat.
 
What I did was tape down a double layer of papertowel over the heat pad with shipping tape. This protects my corn from coming in direct contact with the glass and gives her a little padded bed to sleep on. I do change the paper towel about every 2 weeks as well as check it regularly for poop. She never poops on that though. :crazy02:
 
It seems everybody is bent on building a rheostat! Go to Wal-Mart/Lowes/Home Depot or virtually any hardware store and get a lamp dimmer. I found them cheapest at Wal-Mart for 8.95 and the highest was Home Depot where they were 13 and some change. Either way it is much safer than building your own, its total size is significantly less than a single gang box with a knob sticking off of it so that is much more aesthetically pleasing, and it works great!
 
biblefreak said:
It seems everybody is bent on building a rheostat! Go to Wal-Mart/Lowes/Home Depot or virtually any hardware store and get a lamp dimmer. I found them cheapest at Wal-Mart for 8.95 and the highest was Home Depot where they were 13 and some change. Either way it is much safer than building your own, its total size is significantly less than a single gang box with a knob sticking off of it so that is much more aesthetically pleasing, and it works great!
Click to expand...

I have two cats that would like nothing more than to get at my corn. So, I have his cage elevated on my book shelf (~4ft high). The dimmer I made works perfect because the dimmer is right next to the cage, and I get a nice extension cord out of it! The dimmers I have seen at wal-mart go right into the wall outlet, which wouldnt work for me because I would have to reach behind my bookcase and try to adjust it. The dimmer I made only cost a few bucks because I had most of the supplies here at home. And, I think its fun to make something, like a great accomplishment! :grin01:
 
Im having the same prob too.
I use a heat light, actually an infrared. But sometimes the temps change in my room and i am not there to do something about them
So i figured i would get a rheostat. I went to wallmart and saw those dimmers that you put into the wall, but i just couldn't figure out how that thing would control the temps. And i am really afraid of building one myself because who knows what could go wrong.
And i do have my viv on my dresser and the only electric outlet is in the back of it so it owuld be hard to reach it as well....

I am really debating over the fact of getting a rheostat for the light i have. Or a lower wattage bulb since it tends to get too hot in there sometimes. or get a heat pad. But i don't know what type and if there is one that comes with a rheostat itself!
 
ratsncorns said:
I have two cats that would like nothing more than to get at my corn. So, I have his cage elevated on my book shelf (~4ft high). The dimmer I made works perfect because the dimmer is right next to the cage, and I get a nice extension cord out of it! The dimmers I have seen at wal-mart go right into the wall outlet, which wouldnt work for me because I would have to reach behind my bookcase and try to adjust it. The dimmer I made only cost a few bucks because I had most of the supplies here at home. And, I think its fun to make something, like a great accomplishment! :grin01:
Click to expand...

I shouldn't make it sound as if mine is the only solution, I am sorry if I did. For most situations with a single or even two viv's, the lamp dimmer is great. You plug it into the wall, then the UTH plugs into it at the electrical outlet. The rheostat slider is then on a six foot extension so you can put it higher on a shelf or on a table in the case of a lamp. Hope this helps.

Justin
 
justcage said:
Well a dimmer is NOT the safest.. A thermostat is the safest!!!
Click to expand...

Eh, tell me about it! The temp has been fluctuating a lot here lately and I have been having serious issues with the dimmer. At night the temps drop pretty low as I like it cool and the dimmer kind of shuts off, making the cage cold. Well today, I got back from the gym and noticed that the temp was at 107F!!! Thats just crazy, I was only gone for about an hour so hopefully he did all right at that temp. Good thing the other day I bought a thermostat and it should be here any day. I just hate worrying about the temps.
 
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