# ceramic heat emitter/kitchen foil HELP



## reptaar (Mar 6, 2012)

hi I am using a 150w ceramic heat emitter and the outside top of my viv gets pretty hot. I thought of using kitchen foil on the inside to deflect the heat off of the top. is this a good idea? thanks


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## stevier (Feb 15, 2012)

I'm keen to hear the answer to this as I'm putting ceramic in my rebuild - my thought process was that heat would be reflected back to where it was needed rather than being wasted.


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

You can buy heat deflectors which are basically a metal plate that fits the bulb holder & it will deflect the heat down into the viv. This would be far better to use & probably far safer too :2thumb:.


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## reptaar (Mar 6, 2012)

hi thanks yes I know about those but would the kitchen foil idea work? I have it running with it now and the viv is at 32oC and the top of the viv is a lot cooler than it was before


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## stevier (Feb 15, 2012)

I can't see a safety issue TBH as kitchen foil quite happily survives in my oven at 200+ degrees


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## Crotalus atrox (Dec 12, 2008)

Had kitchen foil attached to the top of my arboreal viv running a 250w ceramic haven't had a single issue in the last 7 years. Just make sure you got a stat and the foil is attached properly.


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

If the foil falls onto the bulb/guard it will get very hot & the reptile could get burnt. This is the safety issue i was talking about. Might be better off using heat reflective tape as this will stick to the viv roof & should stay there :2thumb:.


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## stevier (Feb 15, 2012)

corny girl said:


> If the foil falls onto the bulb/guard it will get very hot & the reptile could get burnt. This is the safety issue i was talking about. Might be better off using heat reflective tape as this will stick to the viv roof & should stay there :2thumb:.


I see your point. I think I'll be using a piece of kitchen foil not massively greater than the footprint of the guard. Foil glued (type tbc) to the roof and then the guard screwed through it - should be safe enough.

Not a great fan of any sticky tape in my viv TBC following an unpleasant incident many years ago.


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

stevier said:


> I see your point. I think I'll be using a piece of kitchen foil not massively greater than the footprint of the guard. Foil glued (type tbc) to the roof and then the guard screwed through it - should be safe enough.
> 
> Not a great fan of any sticky tape in my viv TBC following an unpleasant incident many years ago.



Heat tape would probably be far safer than you using glue to stick the foil up as the glue on it is designed to withstand heat :2thumb:. If you only cover the area of the guard with the tape & then put the guard up over it there is no reason why it would cause any harm.


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## Crotalus atrox (Dec 12, 2008)

No reason the tin foil will fall off if you attach it properly. I use drawing pin tacks about 10 of them they hold fine but I attach the tacks to MDF you may need something more heavy duty if your using Ply etc Just make sure what you use has a wide surface to hold the foil on then you don't need tape or anything sticky :2thumb:


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## TEENY (Jan 4, 2008)

It would prob work, foil is safe at very high temps too, just make sure its on there good


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## stungy (May 28, 2011)

I use the foil tape from £ land iy does the job pretty well but I found if you tape a thin piece ov polystyrene to the viv first then foil tape over the top works even better I found that those metal reflectors that sit above the bulb,have a good sized gap and my ig used to jump up to it trying to climb onto the top and the odd time he made it his tail used to flop down,onto the bulb I always managed to get him off before he managed to burn himself but it was always on my mind so i got rid.


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