Water bed heater?

[SGT Fish]

Has anyone used a water bed heater to use under their enclosures substrate? I see them for cheap and they come with a thermostat. Just wondering if anyone has used one or if there are any downsides

 

[ascott]

Has anyone used a water bed heater to use under their enclosures substrate? I see them for cheap and they come with a thermostat. Just wondering if anyone has used one or if there are any downsides

What a fantastic idea..

 

[dmmj]

bad idea they're designed to heat a large amount of water no temperature control that I know of. bad idea all around

 

[ascott]

bad idea they're designed to heat a large amount of water no temperature control that I know of. bad idea all around

I believe..if memory serves me from my teen age days gone past..you can set it to a desired temp and it essentially works like an under tank heating strip/pad..and it was laid against the wood frame between the bed frame and vinyl bag...has that changed?

 

[dmmj]

my waterbed heater had hot and hotter there's no temperature settings on it

 

[ascott]

my waterbed heater had hot and hotter there's no temperature settings on it

Lol..the few that I had were spin dials with settings from 70s to 90...suppose the type would be a huge deciding factor..

 

[mike taylor]

The water bed heater I had on my old bed had a thermostat and a probe . The heater would plug into it . I don't see why it wouldn't be safe for under substrate heating . I wouldn't put substrate right on top of it . I would put it under a pond liner or something equivalent.

 

[SGT Fish]

The ones for sale on amazon have temperature settings and probes. But I may just end up using flexwatt. Unless I can find a good heater on Craigslist or ebay

 

[Len B]

I picked a waterbed heater recently, I was able to get the temperature to hold at 89 to 91 throughout the heating area with it setting on the floor, With the probe setting on the floor away from the pad the temp jumped to 137 degrees rather quick and was using 265 watts. I used a lamp dimmer to cut the wattage back to around 133 watts and set the probe on the pad and it didn't go above 91 degrees, it turned on and off like it should. The hi temp on the control is 95 degrees and that is where I left it, used the lamp dimmer to adjust the current. Here it is with the dimmer plugged into the kill a watt I used to read the wattage and amps being used. On the instructions it says do not put the sensor on the heating pad to have it at least 8 inches from the pad. But if I was to use one for tortoise warmth I would probably have it on the pad,since I wouldn't be heating a whole queen size water mattress. It would have to be protected from the tortoise also.