Anyone have experience with seedling heat mats?

MantisMan

MantisMan

Fourth Instar
hey all, just curious, anyone use hydrofoam seedling heat mats to warm their roaches? i'm thinkin in investing into a few but i wanna know if they r good to use

do i need to get a thermostat device to control the temp too?

thanx :)

 
never used heat mats for seed always used the reptile ones and then i ether have them on a thermostat or rheostat which i think would be a smart idea anyway especially if you use it on a plastic tub.

 
I just purchased a diy flexwatt reptile heat pad on ebay, it was so cheap! Seriously worth your time to search flexwatt on ebay.

 
I watched my grandfather go through dozens of seedling mats when I was younger. They just aren't well made and they die after one season - IF they even keep a decent temp on them in the first place. (He had cooked plants a few times.) I would say go with a good brand of UTH (I've heard the Ultratherms are great) or a DIY heat tape - they cost whole a lot less than seedling mats and are of much higher quality.

 
i've also used the heat tape on two shelves where i keep my smaller coloneys, each shelf is around 9 feet with a stip of the 3" wide heat take running along the enter and plugged into this Thermostat ( not because it good but because i got it for free), so to sum it up if you have a rack type system for your roaches the flex watt heat tape is ideal. in my bigger coloneys i use individual heat mats connected to a rheostat to controle tempature also i have difrent heat mats on difrent tub conected to one rheostat you just have to make sure the heat mat are the same wattage. and if you do use a heat mat or heat tape please use a rheostat or thermo stat with them to both control the temp and because thay help with preventing fire if the heat mat malfunctions in some weird way.

these are some decent cheap thermostat you might consider

http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-MTPRTC-Digital-Thermostat-Heat/dp/B000NZZG3S/ref=pd_sim_petsupplies_28

http://www.amazon.com/RZilla-11939-Temperature-Controller-1000-Watt/dp/B002CZ0J3E/ref=pd_sim_petsupplies_95

this is the rheostat i use

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Repti-Temperature-Rheostat/dp/B0002AQD0Y

 
ya but again you really should use a thermostat/rheostat when dealing with plastic just so if something does go wrong with the heat pat or heat tape it doesn't over heat and melt said plastic

 
That's the plan :)

Question: can I hook several lengths of tape up to the same thermostat at the same time or should I keep it in a long line?

Thanx :)

 
you can usually do that, some thermostats actually have multiple plugs other don't. when thay don't have an extra plug i usally just use an extension cord with more plugs (probably not the safest but i make sure that each heating device is around the same wattage so you don't get multiple different temps). the main think is just make sure that you don't go over the wattage that the thermostat is made for (considering there usally like 1000 watts thats not too hard lol)

 
the large flexwatt cant be over 10feet i believe i cut it off at 8 feet to play it safe i have a bac1000 running its temp pretty consistant had a rheostat never liked it at all

 
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