Heating Breeder Racks

[dougefresh]

I got a good idea to make some cheap breeder racks......what is the best way that breeder's usually heat them??

[AttackFish]

A crapload of heat tape?

I have always wondered how they dont break the bank heating every little space.

What are you going to breed?

[dougefresh]

Not necessarily going to breed anything, just going to get bigger drawers to keep some smaller stuff in instead of buying more tanks.....maybe breed down the road though......

[mines-bigger]

the easiest way to heat a rack is with heat cord, it may require a few loops to get the required temperature but its cheap and easy!!

[davo]

heat cable or heat mats

[elevatethis]

Flexwatt Heat Tape, hands down. Widely used in the reptile industry, safe, and efficient.

For more info:
http://www.reptilebasics.com/flexwatt_faq.htm

[gomezladdams]

Usually I see its more efficient to use a well insulated room and heat the room

[dougefresh]

I was thinking about going with the heat tape or cord.......I also had the idea to place infared bulbs on different sections of the rack to heat it that way because it is only going to be a single row of racks.......

[elevatethis]

Dougefresh, the only issue with that will be your power usage...not the most efficient...AND since the temperatures that heat lamps provide change as the room temperature does...its not the most accurate way either.

Gomez is correct though, flexwatt does function much more effectively in rooms that are heated.

What I like about the heat tape over the heat cable is that the heat tape evenly distributes the heat over its whole surface, whereas heat cable gets very hot in a small space and doesn't radiate that heat as well as the heat tape does. Many have used both successfully and it all depends on the specific application of it.

[Vicious_Fish]

I used heat tape on my custom made shelving system. It worked like a charm.

[rottbo]

Usually I see its more efficient to use a well insulated room and heat the room

the best way unless you have many temp requirements the by heating the room the cages on the top rack will be warmer then the cages on the bottom rack....