Heat cords

[Stompsy]

Hey guys,

At the moment we have 2 hatchies, their click clacks sit on a heat mat and they are quite content.
However, we are getting another 3 hatchies very soon and I had the idea to buy some heat cord and sit all 5 click clacks along it instead.

My questions are:

1. Where can I get a length of heat cord from at a reasonable price?

2. How can I make the click clacks sit flush on the heat cord? I was thinking we could buy some timber and cut indents along it for the heat mat to sit in but we don't really have the tools to do this so I want people's ideas on how they've done it.

Pics would be awesome.

Thanks
Sarah

 

[JUNGLE-JAK]

well, my friend cut a chunk in some ply and ran heat cord in the gap abou 2cm wide, if you come to cairns, at petstock they have, i think 3m for $40, give or take, he used a rouder for the gap

 

[Snowman]

Use Tubs with flat bottoms makes life easier. Just run two lengths of heat cord on a shelf (optional to use foil tape) and put the tub ontop. done.

I use 10mm core flute to put my tubs on. Makes the setup even easier if you have access to core flute and it retains the heat better.

 

[cheekabee]

You can try the herp shop they have heat cord at a very reasonable price

 

[l3atman]

i use aluminum gutter tape from bunnings to stick my heat cords in place, works really well, i also put tiles beneath and above the heat cord as it holds the heat really well and spreads it evenly...
i would suggest you get some ply wood to still the cord to then place the tiles on top and place your tanks on top of the tile...
...
little bit extra work, but i think its worth it

 

[Kitah]

Herpshop sells 15W 4m long cables for $20- I got one of these and it works well. I actually placed a layer of tiles down, taped the cord in parallel lines on top, and placed another layer of tiles on top- seems to maintain the heat reasonably well, and distributes it well across the tubs. I'm using 3 sistema tubs on this setup and it works well for me Just an idea anyway

 

[Stompsy]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Does anyone have pics or can anyone take some?

 

[Kitah]

Uhh I cant really take pics (youll just see a layer of tiles, unless I pull it apart), but I could draw you a diagram if that'd help?

 

[Stompsy]

That would be awesome thanks

 

[Kitah]

mhmm im not sure how much sense this will make. But the dark grey/black outlined rectangles are the bottom layer of tiles, the pink line is the heat cord on top of that layer of tiles, and then theres another layer of tiles on top- shown by the light grey outlines. This is also good if something ever *somehow* goes wrong, as the tiles obviously aren't flammable

hope it helped..

 

[Stompsy]

That makes perfect sense. Thanks heaps. One question though, how do you keep the top layer of tiles level?

 

[Kitah]

Mine, I just let them sit there- theres a very slight upward slope but hardly noticeable and the tubs still sit flat. What you could do is just get a piece of cardboard and stick it at the front, to counteract the bit of height from the cord. Or little blobs of silicone on the bottom tiles, etc to make them sit up just that little bit.

 

[Stompsy]

Alright awesome. Thanks heaps for doing that. I guess this weekend we'll be working out the measurements and sourcing tiles.

 

[Kitah]

No problem, hope it was of some use at least as to tiles, check out any local tile stores, they tend to sell left overs/spare tiles pretty cheap. Goodluck

 

[Stompsy]

I have one last question. How much of the 4 metres actually heats up? I've read that some have the full 4 metres heated and extra for the electrical components and some that are just 4 metres long and only a portion of that heats up. I'm looking at getting the 15w device from the herp shop...

 

[Kitah]

With my cord from the herp shop (the 15w cord), 4m actually heats up, then it turns into a black cable to the power source.

 

[Stompsy]

Awesome, thanks again.

 

[MR_IAN_DAVO]

There was a thread on the weekend about very similar thing with some good pics attached, check it out.
It was called - heat source for small click clack.
Cheers
Ian

 

[Stompsy]

Yeah I've been reading heat cord threads from the site all night! My eyes nearly popped out of my head I think. Got a pretty good idea of how I'll do it, just have to get all the bits and pieces!

 

[caleb96]

I'm in need of building something for my hatchies this year and that diagram is very helpful thanks mate

Cheers Caleb.