cold racks

Classic · 05-16-04, 06:24 PM

I've been having a hard time keeping thses couple racks up to a decent temperature. I had them set up in the basement but the room temp was avg 65°. I convinced the wife to let me move them into the kitchen. hehe.
Now if the rest can fit into the bedroom.
Brian
hwh

Tim_Cranwill · 05-16-04, 08:02 PM

I have a love/hate relationship with my racks like yours.

I love the usability of them and even the looks are pretty nice but I HATE the poor heat distribution I get from them!!!! I recently hooked up 2-3 dimmers on each rack to have a bit more flexibility with the whole heat rising issue but that only helped a bit.

I am currently working on a new design that I think will be a great way to incorporate the benefits on the lidless racks with the stable and reliable heating of under belly heat. I'll let you now how that project goes.

Classic · 05-16-04, 08:27 PM

They are actually not to bad now that i have them in a room with a warm steady temperature. One thing to try as i did with the suggestion of Jim (aka JWSporty) was to sdd this bubble insulation on the back. I doubled it up and it helps.
I am using heat tape on the back wall. I considered using heat rope but it would be alot harder to router out the groves in my mind. I have a few lenghts of heat rope but i have not experimented with it enough to utilize it.

Brian

mykee · 05-19-04, 05:56 PM

Classic, if you're trying to heat your snakes in a colder room, I would definitely NOT recommend back heat. Back heat doesn't get to the animals before dissipating, but belly heat would dissipate up, to where your snakes could actually use it.

Classic · 05-19-04, 06:21 PM

mykee: Isn't that what was said in the post?

Thanks
Brian

mykee · 05-19-04, 07:04 PM

Brian, I read the thread three times, I actually made reference to the advantage of belly heat to back heat for cooler rooms. Are we reading the same thread?

Classic · 05-19-04, 08:58 PM

Think so. Your right. But i am not trying to heat the racks in a cold room as you persumed. I was but moved them to a warm room. That solved the problem. That's what i was saying in the thread. You just sumed it up.
The rack does work very well, but there are pros and cons to every rack. This one will work better in a colder room if i used rubbermaid instead of critter keepers because of the amount of excess ventilation in the critter keepers. The rubbermaid has a wider lid rim that keeps it farther away from the tape but the keepers are very narrow and stays close. The list can go on and on. Bad and good, but don't necassarily agree with the heat disipation theory. This rack is using 5/8" melamine and the heat would certainly rise up through but the same is to say about the back heat method. I guess i'm just going to have to build a new rack with the under heat and compare the 2. When you think about it though, it would cost more for extra materials for the under heat method.
oops, thats another con. See what i mean.

Brian
hwh

mykee · 05-20-04, 09:28 PM

Brian, I use belly heat on all of my racks, and I actually 'weave' the tape in one continuous piece up through each shelf, avoiding all the dimmers and having to wire each level (refer to my gallery for pics). It may use more tape, but in the long run, it's just neater and easier to maintain with only one Helix, and one piece of heat tape. IMHO.