Heater Safety

[Nexus]

Is anyone here using something to make their heating safe. My concern is that I use a 350w ceramic heater through a thermostat which provides all the heat in my vivariums hotspot/background gradient. If the thermostat fails in the on position then very rapidly the tank will over heat and kill the occupant. The only options so far as I can work out is to either set a second thermostat to run the first one through, but set slightly higher so that normally it does not switch off, or secondly I have been looking at a resetting thermal switch that will trigger at 30 degrees celcius then reset at 25 celcius the plan would be to wire this in circuit to the thermastat and if the stat goes awol then it would trip out the heater, as it would be positioned at the cool end of the tank normally would never see 30 degree temperatures.

Option two is preferred as it only costs £2.30.

Anyone else got any ideas or experiences

Cheers
Nick

[justcage]

WOW a 350 watt CHE thats a beast! I have seen them but never used them.. I would imagaine they are not for reptile use.. One of the distributors I go through sells them but does not recommend them for any "indoor" use.. A dual setup woudl probably be a good idea.. What type of thermostat are you using?

	Ceramic Heat Emitter Ceramic Heat Emitter: A porcelain heating device that screws into a standard porcelain incandescent socket

[Nexus]

The thermostat is a 600w Pulse Proportional stat with night/day drop on it, the 350w CHE are full trough shape heaters about 245mm long x 50mm wide x 65mm deep when fitted into the reflector. They are normally for process heating at a distance of 200mm from the surface, running at full power. I had a long chat with the suppliers technical department before using them, on a stat in my setup they are safe and never run at full power because of the state, they take 10 -12 minutes at full power to get to their potential maximum temperature. They fit nicely into the tops of my vivariums and provide the entire heat for the tank hotspot and background. I have been using them for 6-7 years now without problems and have yet have not had to replace one. Although I have had a thermostat fail, luckily it failed in the off position.

The cheaper thermostats will unfortunately only handle 300w so thats why I was looking at the thermal switch at £2.30 its a more wallet friendly option than a £42 thermostat as I need five currently.

	Ceramic Heat Emitter Ceramic Heat Emitter: A porcelain heating device that screws into a standard porcelain incandescent socket

[donttouchmycloaca]

i just bought an alife thermostat that will handle 3 heating elements at a total of 1000 watts combined. if that helps it cost me 25.oo i dont know about the fail safe its ays it has a back up shut off for 110 degrees but i think that would equal a dead snake

[Nexus]

Cheers, I will have a look round but if its like normal we probably don't get them in the UK, I did look at room thermostat's as well because they were cheaper but they cut out to soon.

[donttouchmycloaca]

room thermastats run on 24 volts in the us so if your your planning on using that it probably wont work i tired it and no luck just a pop

[muzixman]

I use a reostat with my alife thermostat I set the reostat so it will not get no hotter than 90, 91 degress when on all the time that way if my thermastat fails it aint going to cook them, but then again I watch mine real close, but anywhy it works for me.

[justcage]

Originally Posted by muzixman

I use a reostat with my alife thermostat I set the reostat so it will not get no hotter than 90, 91 degress when on all the time that way if my thermastat fails it aint going to cook them, but then again I watch mine real close, but anywhy it works for me.

Thats a good idea when using those tstats. I have seen them fail as well.. If you guys want to see what the inside of one of them look like here is a link..
http://www.mgreptiles.com/thermoguts.html

[pathfinder36]

I use the Ranco thermos for my primary heat (potential to get 93deg if thermo failed) and the $30 thermo from big apple herps that you showed in that link for my secondary heat (if thermo failed 88deg would be the top out). Works quite well.

[pathfinder36]

As far as the type of heater, what type of enclosure do you have? I like to use human heat pads for under belly heat and a small radient heat panel for basking spot.

[justcage]

Thats really a better option in my opinon than the dual rancos.. I mean the chance of a ranco failing is remote.. Then using it with another tstat will provide 100% security...

[Nexus]

Looks like the consensus is a second Tstat then, oh well better get saving.

Pathfinder36, I built the vivs myself and they are insulated and landscaped with fibreglass so undertank heating is not really an option hence the CHE to provide all the heat.

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers
Nick

	Ceramic Heat Emitter Ceramic Heat Emitter: A porcelain heating device that screws into a standard porcelain incandescent socket

[pathfinder36]

Then how about "in tank" flexwatt set up in a manner similar to boaphile's in cage heat with a small radiant heat panel in the top of the cage. I'm sure it would be an easy conversion if you built the cages yourself.

http://www.boaphileplastics.com/heating.html
http://www.boaphileplastics.com/radiant.html

[Nexus]

Not sure how good flex watt or equiv would be as the tanks are 2.5 ft high and the ones 4.5 feet high(This ones in my gallery I haven't taken photo's of the others yet). The one i am currently building is 6 x 2.5 x 2 for my boa to move into. Also the temperature in the room drops to about 12 degrees by the morning in the winter.

I think I will stick with the CHE's as I have used them for a while without problem, it is just the thermostat safety that bothered me, so I will have to bite the bullet and double them up.

Cheers
Nick

	Ceramic Heat Emitter Ceramic Heat Emitter: A porcelain heating device that screws into a standard porcelain incandescent socket