heating a rack

[kidchameleon]

what would be the best way to heat a rack for snakes? run a strip of heat tape up the back of it? that would definitely be the easiest for me, but i also think belly heat would be good too, but that would be a lot more difficult for me becaus the rack that i have built holds 5 sterilites stack up on each other, so i would need an individual strip of heat tape for each sterilite.
thanks

[Tim_Cranwill]

Belly heat ALL THE WAY. I found back heat to be uneven and not worth the savings in time and tape. I would say just do it right and use belly heat. :)

[mykee]

I'm with Tim; if you're going to do it, do it right, belly heat all the way. Instead of cutting off each individual piece of tape per level, you could use one continuous piece of heat tape "weaved" in between the levels. For an example, look in my Gallery, pic; "Rack1".

[kidchameleon]

i figured belly heat would be the best too, but ive seen a lot of racks that just have a strip of heat tape running up the back of them

[mykee]

Think about it, how are snakes heated in the wild? Ask the big breeders and see how they heat...

[VooDooMafia]

A strip running up the back is a waist of time if you ask me. You will have a hard time to controll the het that way and you will have to keep the heat tape turned up more to get the heat needed.

Take the time and run it right.

[Jeff_Favelle]

I love it down the back. The secret (shhh, don't tell anyone) to being a successful reptile keeper, is to realize and pay attention to what works BEST in YOUR setup. What works in my setup, may not work in yours. Down the back all the way for the 160+ adults and 300 babies I currently house right now. I wouldn't do it any other way. And all my breeder friends do it that way as well.

But the choice is up to you.

[Tim_Cranwill]

I had to have my tape running at almost 140F WITH Styrofoam lining the back of the rack to achieve a 90F basking spot. Not very safe or "power smart" if you ask me. All that extra head to save what, a few feet of tape? Not worth it in my opinion.

And for every inch away from the "hot wall" you get, the temp drops at a dramatic rate. Also, the bottom bins were 10F cooler than the top bins.

My snake room is kept at room temp (75F).

Heat rises. Why not have the heat rise into your enclosure? Makes sense to me. The most time/money I've EVER wasted on this hobby was building the "MJ" racks. No offence to him...

But yeah, it works for some people....

P.S. My new rack design will be posted soon with step-by-step instructions...

[mykee]

Tim, I built this rack that you are speaking of (I think) and I substituted belly heat for back heat and I have 3 of these racks. I love them, and the extra money and time it cost me to 'convert' the rack to belly heat was well worth it.
Jeff brings up a good point, (though I am on the other side of the line with regards to this) and that point is you'll have to do whatever suits your needs best. I would think that if you have your snakes in a warmer room, back heat may not be as expensive to run, while a cooler room could conceivably run belly heat. I keep my snake/rodent room at about 72-75 all year, and my tape as belly heat has to heat up to 103 to get my racks to 94. Pretty energy efficient if you ask me.

[Tim Schroeder]

A little late, but I figured I would add my thoughts. In almost all my racks I use ceiling heat. It seems to work quite well, having no problems keeping the hot end hot from top to bottom. Even my large rubbermaid racks, using the 2224s have no problem providing a basking spot of 86f at perch height and a floor temp of 84f. Another aspect I like about ceiling heat is it doesn't have to go through plastic and the substrate. So, the heat tape(or cable) doesn't have to get as hot to provide appropriate temps. Its like a cheap mans radiant heat panel for racks.

Tim