Concerned about fire hazard from heat needed for leos...............

[reptile4me]

I have been researching leopard geckos and there care for well over a year. Mostly by reading many many threads on this helpful forum.

I am very much interested in starting with the purchase of one leopard gecko but I have one major concern.

I am very worried about the fire hazard that various heating methods could potentially cause. That said I have several questions/comments and am interested in what more experienced leo keepers opinions/suggestions are.....

1. What have leo keepers used to minimize or nearly eliminate the concern for fire hazard?

2. My intentions are to build a small rack from the start so that I could potentially own more than one leo, are there certain materials that can be used to build the rack that are "fireproof or fire resistant? ie certain types of pvc

3. If I do get a leo I will be purchasing one of the top of the line thermostats to control temperatures and hopefully minimize chance of a malfunction.

4. I am leaning towards the use of heat cable plugged into a thermostat. Any other better suggestions, has anyone used radiant heat panels with leos successfully (I know they can be expensive)? How about temperature monitoring alarms?

5. With using heat cable, would routing be the safest method to go with, having the tubs rest on the rack material above the heat cable?
I would wrap the heat cable with the correct tape on top and bottom. My concern would be that as the heat cable heats up it could also begin to overheat the material that it was routed into.

thanks

 

[Tony C]

There shouldn't be any serious fire hazard from the temperature, as leos only require a hot spot in the mid to high nineties. A 95-98 degree hot spot really isn't that hot, it's lower than your body temperature, and things obviously don't catch on fire when you touch them.

Follow basic electrical safety rules, allow proper ventilation around the heat source, and if you want to be extra safe, run two thermostats. Take your backup thermostat (must be on/off type, NOT proportional), set it to a higher than desired, but not immediately dangerous temperature, say 115 degrees, and place the probe appropriately. Now take your primary thermostat (may be on/off or proportional type as you prefer), plug it into the backup thermostat, and plug your heat source into the primary thermostat. Place the probe appropriately and set your desired hot spot temp.

Set up this way the backup thermostat will be on all the time, allowing the primary unit to function normally, unless the primary malfunctions and allows the heat source to overheat. If that happens the backup unit will cut the power to the primary unit before it reaches a dangerous temperature.

 

[gitrdone0420]

There shouldn't be any serious fire hazard from the temperature, as leos only require a hot spot in the mid to high nineties. A 95-98 degree hot spot really isn't that hot, it's lower than your body temperature, and things obviously don't catch on fire when you touch them.

Follow basic electrical safety rules, allow proper ventilation around the heat source, and if you want to be extra safe, run two thermostats. Take your backup thermostat (must be on/off type, NOT proportional), set it to a higher than desired, but not immediately dangerous temperature, say 115 degrees, and place the probe appropriately. Now take your primary thermostat (may be on/off or proportional type as you prefer), plug it into the backup thermostat, and plug your heat source into the primary thermostat. Place the probe appropriately and set your desired hot spot temp.

Set up this way the backup thermostat will be on all the time, allowing the primary unit to function normally, unless the primary malfunctions and allows the heat source to overheat. If that happens the backup unit will cut the power to the primary unit before it reaches a dangerous temperature.

Very good advice, Tony! =]
I agree, there really isnt a fire hazard.

 

[Khrysty]

I'm with Tony and Melanie on this one. The only way I could see a fire starting is if your heat cable (or whatever you decide to use) malfunctions, your thermostat breaks, and it overheats so much it lights the rack on fire beneath it. This, of course, has such a low chance of happening that it's hardly worth worrying about.

And honestly, you'd smell the barbeque geckos long before your rack caught aflame