Heat cables?

[Warren Beattie]

I have a tarantula cabinet heated by two 35x11" 42W heat mats, at the back; but recently I've been wondering about replacing these with a heat cable for more effective heating of the air. (I have a neurotic worry that a container behind another container will block the mat's infrared)
Does anyone have any experience with these, or any recommendations? I have a feeling that most replies will tell me to stick with the mats, but I'm curious.

Thanks.

[Adam Walters]

Having never used cables, I can't really comment on them. But to get the best out of your mats I recommend getting some thick polystyrene and lining the inside of your cabinet.

This way you are insulating againsts heat loss, and also directing heat back inside from the outer face of the mat.

[Warren Beattie]

I've had similar thoughts. Any recommendations on how to fix it? A hot glue gun comes to mind

Thanks!

[Mark Pennell]

I've had similar thoughts. Any recommendations on how to fix it? A hot glue gun comes to mind

Thanks!

I use radiator insulation, comes on a roll from B&Q. There are two types, one with foil on and foam and the other is polystyrene. I fix this using sticky tape.
Works a treat!

Cheers
Mark

[Neil Richardson]

Or, put the existing heatmats on the underside of the lid of the cabinet. That way all the tanks in there should get heated from them, with no risk of blocking. I second the polystyrene idea, reflect back as much heat as possible.

[Warren Beattie]

Thanks Neil, but I have three levels and two heatmats.

The latest random idea is copper foil tape - sticking strips of it along the inner surfaces (on top of the insulation, behind the heatmats) to see if that conducts and distributes the heat a little more evenly.

[Warren Beattie]

I'm very interested in hearing opinions because I'm fairly dissatisfied with how the heat mats heat, and I'm slowly losing patience with them.
I've read that 'if you have condensation in the viv - you're doing it wrong!' The only way I wouldn't have condensation is if the vivs were bone-dry. The heat mats produce temperatures to 25-27 deg C (I want it that high for culturing livefood and hatching mantid oothecas), but only heat up one side of the plastic containers. Any moisture at that side evaporates and promptly condenses at the other side where the temp outside the containers is 20-21 deg C. Even in containers where I've drilled so many ventilation holes that it starts to look like a seive.

Hence I'm considering the copper tape, to help distribute the heat, especially to the sides; and hopefully the warm copper will help heat up the air in the cabinet, too, and not just in the containers. That might alleviate the condensation problem to some degree, I feel.

My only worry is that the copper tape I've bought smells vaguely like superglue (cyanoacrylate), but if that's an issue I can hopefully seal it off a different kind of tape.

Any thoughts from the more experienced? Thanks for reading.

[Ian]

If you turn on the copper tape the smell will go the first time it heats up.
I use heat mats to heat a cabinet they are fixed to the back wall with insulation behind that. I left one out of 3 shelves unheated to get a larger temperature gradient but it didnt work the temperature on that shelve is the same as the rest. The temperature gradient from the rear of the cabinet to the front is about 5 deg I am not conserned about it as the T's can move towards or away from the heat at will . The smaller containers I use are placed either at the front or rear of the cabinet according to the temperature required for the particular T.

[Layla McInnes]

Just dont put any Avics in there eh Ian?