Heat Mats, Cable or Tape for snake rack?

[garysumpter]

Hi all.

I am speaking to an experienced builder of all things wooden this weekend who is going to be building me a rack to house my balls and corns.

The rack will be 2 tubs wide by 9 high.

I am working out the design and have come to the heating part. I had originally planned to buy 18 smallish heatmats (££!!) and run each off individual matstats but I am now weighing up my options.

Do you guys have any thoughts towards the use of heat cable as a substitute? It SEEMS cheaper than mats would be and I know a few people use it.

I assume the best thing to do is route out a channel for the cable to lay in?

Does heat cable come with a mains plug on the end?

Does it give out sufficient heat compared to a heat mat?

I'd really appreciate any thoughts on the best choice of rack heating.

Many Thanks

Gary

I have used both heat cables and heat mats mate.The cable i found very good for hatchling racks but if you are using anything like large conticos then it does not sopply enough heat in my opinion.Yes you would need to groove out to allow for it and yes it does come with a mains plug fitted.The thing to watch out for is that the cable can not touch itself in any way or you will short it out.

My rack takes 3 large conticos and is heated with 47x6 heatmats and then run with pulse proportional stats.I have 7 layers and 4 stats running it so one for every 2 layers.All i do is regularly rotate the sensor from one layer to the other to make sure all the temps are fine but my rack is on wheels so it is easy to move around.


This is my rack not a very good pic as it was taken on my old camera



I started it off with the heat cable but had to change it as i was not getting the required temps and i could only run it on one stat.

[welshgaz]

yeah you should be able to run them off one mat stat! The difference between th elower tubs and upper tubs is usually only around 4f

[gaz]

i use narrow heatmats but bear in mind my rooms are also heated,with good air circulation one stat will,as welshgaz mentions,be plenty for any rack up to 5 feet tall,with the variation between top and bottom rows being nowt to speak of.
if your room is cool or subject to draughts you will find it almost impossible to maintain reasonably constant temps in this way and may need several stats to compensate.
regards gaz

[welshgaz]

Originally Posted by gaz

i use narrow heatmats but bear in mind my rooms are also heated,with good air circulation one stat will,as welshgaz mentions,be plenty for any rack up to 5 feet tall,with the variation between top and bottom rows being nowt to speak of.
if your room is cool or subject to draughts you will find it almost impossible to maintain reasonably constant temps in this way and may need several stats to compensate.
regards gaz

I knwe there was something i missed

[garysumpter]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for that.

Well my room is very warm as it is as all my vivs are in there.

I am going to house corns, royals and a garter snake within the rack initially so I will need differences in heat, i.e warmer for the Royals. Unless I just make sure they are higher up?

I obviously want to make damn sure that eac hsnake has what it needs and I thought the best way to do that is individually stat every tub?

Gary

[welshgaz]

as long as the temps are ok, just check them with digi thermometers, then you can place them where you like ! Take note of the tip Gaz gave about though. Your room maybe warm but all the hot air will rise to the top of the room. Getting an occilating fan in there will help get the temp of the room equal i.e. same at the top and bottom. That wil help the heating in you rack