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About BoaPhile Plastics

MohrSnakes said:
I believe this is the old style. I have a friend that bought some of his racks for his corns and kings and he has lost a few to the gaps. He also no longer uses the bottom row due to the sagging which then pinches the bottom row making the boxes unable to slide out.
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You are probably correct, but the ones I know of with too large gaps don't have the sagging problems, so who knows. What it comes down to is it isa BOAphile rack. The gaps are larger for ventilation and BOAS can't escape through them. Obviously, a safe gap for a Boa can let some yearling cornsnakes escape......lol. So, it might not be an actual design flaw - just our fault for using them with non-target species (colubrids instead of boas)???

MohrSnakes said:
I have no personal experience with this cages or racks, but I know my friend gets pretty frustrated with his. I personally make all my own out of melamine (yeah.....it's heavy...but I'm not moving it anywhere ;) ).
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I've got some like that, and I will probably be building more. I have some vision racks on wheels, and I've never moved them. Why do people think they need to move racks often, anyway? The secret with melamine, I think, is to not make LARGE banks of cages I make mine 7 V-35 tubs high and 1 stack wide. I can move this and position it around a room or move it all over my 2 acres if I wanted to with the cheap dolly. Who cares otherwise? My wife and I can lift them easily (it takes two - I admit it would be hard to lift one by myself) to stack them 2 high in the snake room. How is that too heavy?

Yeah, I'm with you. Melamine ain't perfect, but $225+ for 4-hole boxes is too expensive when you have large colonies. I can do a 7 hole rack for less than half that out of melamine. Once I glue the trim on (easy), they look professionally built, too!

KJ
 
Well, I'm the type of person who's lucky to still have all ten of her fingers after handling any tools so making my own rack is out of question. I do like what I saw at BoaPhile, especially the lighting option (at least that'll lower the chance of one day finding my husband's clothes in there :p). But some of the customer comments I saw on FaunaClassified scared me off.
KJUN, I looked at RBI's web sites. (Thanks for the link by the way :) ) Thing is I just want a small rack, maybe 3 or 4, not a whole wall full...
 
I don't know much about Boaphile, but AP is awesome. I've known these guys for about 10 years now when they used to own a very small exotics store in Johnston, IA called Doc's. They're good guys and make great products. I know my little brother just got one of there economy racks and loves it. Hope this helps.

Payton
 
AmelEP said:
I do like what I saw at BoaPhile, especially the lighting option (at least that'll lower the chance of one day finding my husband's clothes in there :p). But some of the customer comments I saw on FaunaClassified scared me
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On the lights, I have NO personal experience with them (no need - grey cages are lighted enough for MY purposes). HOWEVER, a local mueseum had some animals on display with the lights. It was the 4' cages divided into 4 1' slots. Little air flow, remember? The "ballasts" on the lights kept going out. They were changing one light (out of 6) every other week or so. Sucked. Not sure why. Jeff told them he hadn't experience that problem before. I believe he said he'd replace the first few that went out, but I don't know if he did or not. I didn't care enough to ask the museum guys later. HOWEVER, to give Jeff some credit, the Museum had the racks in a giant, lighted, solid wood and glass display thingie. It was getting too hot in there, and I even warned them it was getting too warm for the snakes! (Some minor problems with the animals, but thankfully nothing too major with many of them!) I think the extra heat (ambient ~82-84F instead of less than 80F) was why the ballasts were burning out so quickly. If this was the cause, it shouldn't happen in a domicile setting.

FYI> I was told the ballasts were going out meaning the bulbs were still fine but the equipment itself was breaking, but I never personally confirmed this.


AmelEP said:
KJUN, I looked at RBI's web sites. (Thanks for the link by the way :) ) Thing is I just want a small rack, maybe 3 or 4, not a whole wall full...
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No problem. Not sure what you mean, though. RBI has a 4-hole rack: http://www.reptilebasics.com/image.php?id=39&type=D
 
KJ do you build your own racks then that are just designed similar to the Vision racks? How big a tub do yo uuse for your adult colubrids (excluding your big bulls)
 
Pruddock said:
KJ do you build your own racks then that are just designed similar to the Vision racks? How big a tub do yo uuse for your adult colubrids (excluding your big bulls)
Click to expand...

I already told you I suck at carpentry, remember? It's true. I use a table saw to get clean/straight cuts, a sheet of plexiglass to get the "gap" correct on the holes, and use pre-cut melamine of the correct width to that MY possibility of mistakes is minimized.....lol.

Anyway, they are just 7-hole racks that hold the V-35 tubes. That's all. Nothing special except I no longer use tubs you get at Wal-Mart. Of course, I still have some of those and it'll be years before they are phased out completely, but I'm not buying any NEW tubs like that. I just wish Vision made one half the size of a V-35...like a RubberMaid "Show box!" The baby tubs are nice, but can only hold a bullsnake for a few hours before they get too big.....lol.

My corns are all GOING to be kept in V-35 tubs. Some of my older tubs at few more inches of square floor space, but I'll deal. I personally consider them a little small for BIG things like large Honduran milks (which is why I'm selling my last two....lol), but they are perfect for 98% of the corns I've got.

KJ
 
It's a sign!

AP just wrote me back saying they make the Economy Plastic (open-sided) rack in 23x16x12!!

Nanci
 
AmelEP said:
Well, I'm the type of person who's lucky to still have all ten of her fingers after handling any tools so making my own rack is out of question. I do like what I saw at BoaPhile, especially the lighting option (at least that'll lower the chance of one day finding my husband's clothes in there :p). But some of the customer comments I saw on FaunaClassified scared me off.
KJUN, I looked at RBI's web sites. (Thanks for the link by the way :) ) Thing is I just want a small rack, maybe 3 or 4, not a whole wall full...
Click to expand...
I have the Reptile Basics 4 tier Iris Sweaterbox rack, and absolutely love it. Plus...shipping, heat, and bins are included in the price. You really can't go wrong with that. Also...it is light enough that I can move it all on my own, fully loaded, and even hatchlings can't escape. Definitely a good product, and my future rack purchases will be from Reptile Basics.

For caging though...I REALLY like the looks of the BoaPhile cages. I'll probably order a couple of those for my boas, as I have heard great things about their single unit cages...
 
Boaphile comment

I have both a boaphile rack and cage. I have my hypo corn in the cage and I have been extremely pleased with both rack and cage. I am currently building more cages myself using 16" wide by 36" long melamine shelving from Lowes. I will use Pro-Products.com radiant heat panel for heat and a bigappleherp.com thermostat. Love their product but build it yourself is really very economical. I wonder about the dragons4you.com cages-prices look very attractive.
 
Thank you guys for all the valuable comments. I think I'm going to give BoaPhile a try 'cause I really do like what they offered. I'll let y'all know how it goes.
 
And I paid for the AP Economy Plastic rack last night- which I'll have to put together myself! I'll report back, too. (I don't mind having to assemble the rack if that means it's safer to ship- after the HUGE CLUSTER I went through with my custom cages this winter/spring...) They say it will take three-four weeks to build.

Nanci
 
Nanci said:
And I paid for the AP Economy Plastic rack last night- which I'll have to put together myself! I'll report back, too. (I don't mind having to assemble the rack if that means it's safer to ship- after the HUGE CLUSTER I went through with my custom cages this winter/spring...) They say it will take three-four weeks to build.

Nanci
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RBI comes assembled and GLUED. I find that is MUCH stronger in the long run. I had one boo-boo during shipping - it arrived without a box around it AT ALL thanks to UPS! The rack was barely warped, but not in the correct condition. I told Rich, he sent out a replacement pretty much before I had time to blink!

What more could one ask for? ...except for UPS to go out of business for such sloppy work, of course!

KJ
 
I just received a robot floor scrubber and vacuum. I could see _into_ the box!! Clearly! Where they floated around in their packaging without benefit of cushioning newspaper or peanuts or anything...

My cages, the first set, were in a plain box with no packing of any sort- just the box they fit into exactly. No wonder they were broken. The next set were packed properly. I have no idea why they weren't right the first time. Meanwhile, Jay and PJ were holding a snake that was a Christmas present for me till April!!

Nanci
 
Nanci said:
My cages, the first set, were in a plain box with no packing of any sort- just the box they fit into exactly.
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Geez! Can't blame the common carrier for THAT level of improper packaging. The one I mentioned was an oddity. UPS lost the box, the corner protectors, everything. Rich and I figured that they must have torn up the box SO much that they just threw it away and hoped I wouldn't complain about the damage.
KJ
 
Sheesh, that's horrible. It use to be UPS was everyone's choice but lately people have been switching to FedEx, wonder why.
 
Nanci said:
It's a sign!

AP just wrote me back saying they make the Economy Plastic (open-sided) rack in 23x16x12!!

Nanci
Click to expand...

What size tubs are those? I have the AP economy plastics rack that holds the 32qt sterilite bins. How much was it if you dont mind my asking? I would love a taller rack for my corns.
 
"The closest we have is a 12" tall tub that we have
designed an EP rack for. The tub is the Sterilite 1758 (23 1/2"L x 16 1/4"W x
12 1/4"H). The rack is 5 shelves high and runs $195.00 w/heat plus $45.00 for
shipping. The model number for the rack we are speaking of is
Sterilite 1758(5)EP."

66 quart. Not on the website.

Nanci
 
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