250 Watt CHE! good or bad?

[WeLsH]

Have any of you ever used or are using the 250 watt CHE from zoo-med? I am thinking of buying one for my tegu cage, but I am a little worried cause they get so darn hott. ( Fire Hazard ) I will be buying the zoo-med fixture that says it can handle the 250 watt CHE's. How safe do you people think these are with the proper set up? Also it will be sitting over thick metal screening
( Carpenters Cloth ) you think the extreme heat could melt the metal screening, or should it be fine? My current 150 watt CHE doesnt hurt the screening, actaully the screen isnt even hott to the touch when its right under the heat. Thanks for any replies!

P.S the Zoo-med CHE is also UL approved.

[ClayEnglish]

Re:250 Watt CHE! good or bad?

I just think the 150, 200 and 250 watt CHE's are too hot. There is no way you could leave them on full open without a thermostat device in an enclosed structure, especially the 250 watt version.

They may be viable for an open air enclosure but still I would worry about the extreme heat they are capable of producing.

Again speaking from a snake enclosure perspective, I have never seen a need for anything above 120 watt, and even then they must be regulated with a rheostat/thermostat typle device. Most of the ones I use are 60 watt and a few 100 watt.

[WeLsH]

Re:250 Watt CHE! good or bad?

But this is for my Tegu cage that measures 6 long, 2 deep, 3 high. And it is in my unheated basement wich gets very cold during the winter, thats why I need so much heat. And the CHE wont be near anything, only above the metal screening.

[XzyluM]

Re:250 Watt CHE! good or bad?

Speaking from your perspective, I really would not count on a CHE to produce enough heat during the winter months in an unheated basement. It's pretty unlikely the CHE would melt hardware cloth, I've seen 250w on full blast for a few days during the testing period and letting the CHE burn before monitor the temperatures and putting anything in the enclosure on the regular screen tops, the most it did was turn the black screen to silver. Like Clay stated, the 250w do get relatively hot. I don't see a fire hazard with the proper ceramic fixture capable of handling 250w. Just keep it on a thermostat even during the winter months.

[WeLsH]

Re:250 Watt CHE! good or bad?

Hey thanks XZ!!

I was gona put two 250 watt CHE's, one on each side, but now I think I have convinced my parents to let me keep it in the house only during the winter, so all I will need is two 150 watt CHE's.

[___LEE___]

Re:250 Watt CHE! good or bad?

lol cool welsh


LEE