HEAT CABLE vs FLEX WATT

[GeffGecko]

I figured I would do a small test using the heat cable their have been a lot of mixed reviews. My rack is done now but before I hook the cable up I rigged the cable to the top of my rack to test were the hot spots are.

The way heat cable works is the cord has some spots that are hotter then the other.The first 6 feet of the cable is cold so take that into account as well when buying. The cable got pretty hot real quick like within seconds.

I set my heat for 90 for this test. My rack will be for Leo's so 88 would be their max down to about 75.

Right in the middle after 5 mins

I used the same method on the right side and the temp dropped to 86.7

On the left side was 91!!!


So the heat range was about 90 to 86 for one tub.

The back of the top rack

From my observation I would say heat cable can do the job and is very easy to set up. I will still most likely use some flex watt for some future racks. My main reason was I did not want to order anything offline I got the cable from my my local pet shop.

 

[ajveachster]

Thanks for the info. I'm sure this will answer a lot of questions for people who are working on DIY projects. We have both types of heat sources. We have cables in the AP racks, and heat tape in a DIY rack we got. We find bigger fluctuations in the DIY rack temps, but we also don't have a back to that rack. We will be putting a back on it soon to see if that makes a difference over all as well.

 

[GeffGecko]

Thanks I know its a big topic. My rack is open in the back I might conceder closing as well.
I wanted to show another picture of how I used my cable . Each rack has a different cable setting.

 

[GeffGecko]

I got my foil tape set up today works way better for the cable.