# exo terra heat wave



## mattyd1701 (Feb 2, 2012)

*exo terra heat wave in wooden vivarium*

hi all

iv been giving a exo terra heatmat for my vivarium, i know stupid question on its way but on the box its got for glass vivariums only can these be used on a wooden vivarium?...


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## mattyd1701 (Feb 2, 2012)

answered me own question simple answer.... No

i contacted Hagen and they very kindly provided me with some info. The EXO TERRA heat mats are not designed to be used with any Vivarium other than the Glass Vivs made my EXO TERRA due to the heat mat needing to be under the glass, the heat mat should be used with the Spacers or stuck to the bottom of the glass to provide a gap between the mat and the surface to allow a air flow to stop the mat from over heating, this is a fire risk if not done. so no it cant be used in a wooden vivarium due to the fact substrate/carpet/what ever else you want to use will be going on top of it, it will not provide the amount of cool air needed to keep it from over heating.


personally i cant see how this heat mat is allowed to be on sale, i checked out some websites which sell this mat and 3 out of the 7 sites i checked said nothing about this mat been used on a glass viv only therefor they are not making you aware of the fire hazard this mat can cause it should be clearly stated on every website that sell this mat.


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## knowlex (May 13, 2011)

i used one of the exoterra heat mats on a glass exoterra viv with a stat and it still over heated and started to melt, luckily i was in the room at the time and could smell melting plastic i use prorep mats now in my vivs and have had no problems at all with them


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## mattyd1701 (Feb 2, 2012)

knowlex said:


> i used one of the exoterra heat mats on a glass exoterra viv with a stat and it still over heated and started to melt, luckily i was in the room at the time and could smell melting plastic i use prorep mats now in my vivs and have had no problems at all with them


although your the only person to reply to this you cant be the only person whos had this problem with the Exo Terra heat mats i dont understand how these can be sold if they are clearly a fire hazard a understand that anything that gives of heat can become a fire hazard but clearly there is some sort of design fault with this heat mat

i got the mate from a friend who stopped keeping reptiles after his snake died... think it was a corn snake but anyways it was never used so he give it to me so thankfully i didnt pay a penny for it but i have just ordered a Habistat Heat Mat which clearly can be used because its the same ones my local pet store use for their leopard gecko vivs


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## knowlex (May 13, 2011)

this is the link to post i made when my mat melted with pics

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/equipment-supplies/769277-melting-exo-terra-heat-mat.html


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## mattyd1701 (Feb 2, 2012)

knowlex said:


> this is the link to post i made when my mat melted with pics
> 
> http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/equipment-supplies/769277-melting-exo-terra-heat-mat.html


oh god your lucky you spotted it, did you get in contact with Hagen about it and complain that your heat mat has just melted itself?

a would have went off one if that was me like happy i have not used it in my viv


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## pingpongball (Feb 6, 2012)

In my experience a lot of exo-terra products are really exo-terra only. Such as their mats as you say and background etc. I'm not a fan of them. I abhored the stupid flaming glass vivarium and was glad to see the back of it. (having said that I would easily get again for frogs etc)


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