Using waterbed heaters for UTH in custom enclosure

[buffcoat]

Could this be done? They are made to lay on wood. They are sealed so if your mattress busts you wont get shocked. In this case water bowl/pee. They have a thermostat and a probe. Best thing is they are about $45 a piece, for the complete kit.

I don't think anything would be wrong with it, unless it heats the substrate up and it ignites. That could be any UTH on failure though, I would imagine.

Does this sound like a reasonable way to give belly heat for an enclosure?

[bcoop1234]

I use ones designed for this specifically...
IntelliTemp Reptile Heat Mats for Less

They work great.

[Aanayab1]

On my enclosures that require heaters, everything from saltwater tanks to dart frog vivs, I use the RANCO ETC heater controller. I have had many heaters of all types go bad and stick in heating mode. It took only the loss of one moray eel and I had to find something to to help secure my animals from this. They are simple to use and only around 60$ , you set a high temp and low temp cut off, place the water proof probe where you want the measurement taken, plug your heater in the controller and the controller in the wall and you instantly have a fail proof heating system. If the heater does not cut off due to failure the controller will cut the power to it. Now I would strongly suggest still checking the actual heater unit every couple of months because I have had a few fail that put out stray current. I cant imagine that is good for any living creature, but it will prevent fires, burns on animals and overheating of enclosures. Oh and for what it is worth I use a waterbed heater to heat my pre-mixed saltwater vats I use for water changes and emergency quarantine tanks.

Antonio