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Help, My enclosure (rack) won’t heat up

H

Hutch

New member
My enclosure won’t heat up. What am I doing wrong??

Here is my setup…

The cabinet is 48”h x 36”w.
There are four shelves approx 22” h.
It has a peg-board back.
I have two 4 foot strips of 11” flex watt running vertically inside along the back.
The flex watt is connected to a herpstat controller kept at 94F.

The temp in the enclosure will not get above 80F. What is wrong??

The room temp is 74F.
The Flex watt is getting to the 94F setpoint.
Is there a max above ambient room temp that flexwatt can raise the temp?
I don't want to have to put the flexwatt under the tubs.

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Hutch.
 
First off I have some questions for you. This is an easy problem to fix.
Where is your thermostat probe fixed and how is it fixed there?
Is the rack located against a wall or is there space behind it?
Where are you taking the enclosure temperature readings from?
We can fix this, I am doing exactly the same thing as we speak.
 
graffixcs said:
Where is your thermostat probe fixed and how is it fixed there?
Is the rack located against a wall or is there space behind it?
Where are you taking the enclosure temperature readings from?
We can fix this, I am doing exactly the same thing as we speak.
Click to expand...
The thermostat probe is taped to the flexwatt (in the middle on the first flexwatt panel).

There is about a 3" gap between the wall and the back of the cabinet.

I have 6 thermometers taking reading from various spots on various shelves.
3 about 6 inches from the back of the cabinet (closest to the flexwatt) these are about 80F.
1 is in a tub, near the back, it is reading about 80 as well.
The ones at the front are ready about 78.

Thanks for the help, I hope we can fix it.
 
There are 2 simple ways to hopefully correct this. Keep in mind that the temperature "on" the heat tape is irrelevant in regards to the snakes tubs. It is in the tubs where the snakes are that is important here. Peg board will safely take the 100F temps flexwatt is capable of reaching.
First off I'd suggest swapping some probes around. The thermostat probe is controlling the temperature of the flexwatt as it stands now. You could simply "up" the temperature setting on your thermostat and juggle it until you get your desired temperatures in the tubs.
Or you could move the thermostat probe to where one of the thermometer probes is to control the desired ambient temperature. As a safe guard replace a thermometer probe on the flexwatt to monitor it.
If this is not working (it will take a while for the temps to "settle") you could duct tape part of the peg board to minimise heat loss through the back of the rack or move it closer to the wall if that is possible.
I hope this helps, let us know. I am sure somebody else will chip in with some other ideas.
Good luck.
 
graffixcs said:
Keep in mind that the temperature "on" the heat tape is irrelevant in regards to the snakes tubs. It is in the tubs where the snakes are that is important here. Peg board will safely take the 100F temps flexwatt is capable of reaching.
Click to expand...
I thought that the maximum temperature that Flexwatt should be allowed to reach was 95F? That is why I set it to 94F. Is this wrong?
 
You said the magical word, "should" be allowed, this is correct from what I've been told too, but I did say "can" reach.
Just to see what would happen I plugged in a strip of flexwatt without a thermostat (no snakes involved at all) & it got to 108F before I unplugged it, that was only 4 inch. It had no visible problems, however it was only at that temperature for a few minutes.
(sorry I took so long to reply, I am completing another rack myself)
 
graffixcs said:
You said the magical word, "should" be allowed, this is correct from what I've been told too, but I did say "can" reach.
Just to see what would happen I plugged in a strip of flexwatt without a thermostat (no snakes involved at all) & it got to 108F before I unplugged it, that was only 4 inch. It had no visible problems, however it was only at that temperature for a few minutes.
(sorry I took so long to reply, I am completing another rack myself)
Click to expand...
So is it "safe" to run the flex watt at 100F permanently?

Thanks for the feedback. I'd really like to get this sorted out.
 
I would think 11 inch should be able to handle 100F, but I won't guarntee it. Hopefully someone else could give you a definite answer on that. I'd try it anyway, without the snakes in the rack to be safe.
 
Flexwatt can be run at alot higher temps that one would think.. Thank about your body temps, your normal body temps are 98 so if you had a fever of 102 you woudl not harm the flexwatt by handeling it.. I personally put the probe on the flexwatt and them just raise the thermostat until the temps are where I need them to be in the cage.. Now I would not go over 120 or so.. :)
 
justcage said:
Flexwatt can be run at alot higher temps that one would think.. Thank about your body temps, your normal body temps are 98 so if you had a fever of 102 you woudl not harm the flexwatt by handeling it.. I personally put the probe on the flexwatt and them just raise the thermostat until the temps are where I need them to be in the cage.. Now I would not go over 120 or so.. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks... I'll bump it up and see what I need to have the temps set to get the tubs to 85F on the warm side.
 
Ok, I have not set up a rack yet or seen one done. I am definitely hoping to do one soon though... I don't understand when you guys are talking about taping the probe from the thermostat to the flex tape. As I understood it, the probes on the thermostat have a really long wire so you could run it through to one of the tubs right on/in the substrate to get an accurate read on that tub. I assumed that if the temp in that tub was good or close to it, so should the others be...

I know that you should have a number of thermometers though and generally watch all the tubs every now and then to make sure everything is still good...

Rebecca
 
Your correct on the probe.. It really is best to have the probe in one tub and run it as a control tub. Setting it up just like you woudl your normal tubs with animals but dont put an aniamal in the control tub:)
 
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