# How often to change heating?



## liam peel

Effectively as the title suggests, how often should you change your heat mat, wire, bulb kinda makes sense you see the light no longer working.
I've noticed my thermostat doesn't really reach the temperature I want it to so I've ordered a new one and hopefully that will work but I'm curios. Do people often change their heating equipment?


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## LiasisUK

When it breaks/blows


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## Elly66

With UVA/UVB bulbs, they need changing at least every 6 months. Heating elements we only change when they stop giving the heat needed.


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## LiasisUK

The regularity in which you change UVB bulbs actually varies with type but also brand. Arcadia T5 tubes only need replacing once per year. Zoo Med tubes also only once per year. Exo Terra once every 6 months. MVB (Mercury vapour) bulbs only need replacing when they blow.


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## QWERTYOP

Personally I don’t wait for heat lamps to go. Doesn’t seem very responsible to me. What if a heat lamp goes while you’re at work potentially leaving your animal without heat for hours? Not something I wish to risk. I’ll typically change my heat bulb when I change my UVB. I’d rather change the bulbs more often, spend a bit more & have that peace of mind that my animals conditions are fine & uninterrupted than penny pinch & wait for a bulb to blow. Potentially at a time when I might not be home for hours. I’d rather spend a bit more on bulbs being replaced more regularly. It’s hardly bank breaking. It’s a bulb! And I always have plenty of spare back up bulbs too. Blows my mind the amount of times I read messages from keepers whose heat source has blown and they’re panicking because they have no back ups. Given how essential a heat source is to keeping most reptiles, why would anybody not have the insurance of having back ups in stock?


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## LiasisUK

They would be absolutely fine for a few hours, or even a day. However yes, always keep backups.


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## Malc

It's always worth getting the most of of the equipment. I keep spare CHE's but can't see the point in replacing something that can last decades (some of my 150w trough CHE's are more than 10 years old and still going strong) and is otherwise still working perfectly.

If a heater failed whilst you were at work, not a problem.. with the average UK room temperature being 20c, it will take a good few hours for a viv to cool down to that same ambient temperature and at 20c that's fine, even for tropical species such as Royals. Snakes can handle cooling a lot better than if they are exposed to higher temperatures.


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## frogeyed

QWERTYOP said:


> Personally I don’t wait for heat lamps to go. Doesn’t seem very responsible to me. What if a heat lamp goes while you’re at work potentially leaving your animal without heat for hours? Not something I wish to risk. I’ll typically change my heat bulb when I change my UVB. I’d rather change the bulbs more often, spend a bit more & have that peace of mind that my animals conditions are fine & uninterrupted than penny pinch & wait for a bulb to blow. Potentially at a time when I might not be home for hours. I’d rather spend a bit more on bulbs being replaced more regularly. It’s hardly bank breaking. It’s a bulb! And I always have plenty of spare back up bulbs too. Blows my mind the amount of times I read messages from keepers whose heat source has blown and they’re panicking because they have no back ups. Given how essential a heat source is to keeping most reptiles, why would anybody not have the insurance of having back ups in stock?


You could change your lamps/ c.h.e. as often as you like, and after changing the item it could still fail within hours/ days if it's a faulty batch, especially if made in "Outer Mongolia", which most things tend to be these days. Bit pointless really.
As Malc says I've had che last for many years, and even lamps lasting for 3 years, as long as they are on dimming stats and not cycling on and off.


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## QWERTYOP

frogeyed said:


> You could change your lamps/ c.h.e. as often as you like, and after changing the item it could still fail within hours/ days if it's a faulty batch,


Which is why I always always keep spares. It’s incredibly rare though. I once had one that was faulty out of the box. Brand new. No, I don’t think it’s pointless actually. Just because an animal might be OK without heat for hours doesn’t mean it’s ideal. I’d rather avoid that if possible. So I change mine more often to drastically reduce the chances of that happening. Others don’t. C’est la vie. 🤷🏻‍♂️


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## Swindinian

Planned preventative maintenance? Wild guess you have an engineering background? 😁


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## Elly66

LiasisUK said:


> The regularity in which you change UVB bulbs actually varies with type but also brand. Arcadia T5 tubes only need replacing once per year. Zoo Med tubes also only once per year. Exo Terra once every 6 months. MVB (Mercury vapour) bulbs only need replacing when they blow.


We use bulbs, not tubes though will probably look at tubes when we build bigger viv for my Royal. Which bulbs we get depends purely on what's available when we buy them. We've always done 6 monthly though.

I'd be interested in any links with more information on the different bulbs/tubes lifespan.


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## LiasisUK

Which bulbs do you mean? The compact ones?


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## Elly66

LiasisUK said:


> Which bulbs do you mean? The compact ones?


In the Royal viv we currently have a compact one as only to provide uvb/uva. In the corns viv we use more standard ones as it also provides heat. With so many changes in bulb laws happening we're waiting to see how much it will affect availability on different types.


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## Zincubus

Elly66 said:


> In the Royal viv we currently have a compact one as only to provide uvb/uva. In the corns viv we use more standard ones as it also provides heat. With so many changes in bulb laws happening we're waiting to see how much it will affect availability on different types.


So what type of bulbs in the Corns ?

Normal household light bulbs .. etc ??


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## Elly66

Zincubus said:


> So what type of bulbs in the Corns ?
> 
> Normal household light bulbs .. etc ??
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


No, not normal bulbs, uva/uvb ones. 75 watt plus as provides enough heat as well for corns. Been using them for 25 years. I'm a strong believer in making sure reptiles get uva/uvb.


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## Zincubus

Elly66 said:


> No, not normal bulbs, uva/uvb ones. 75 watt plus as provides enough heat as well for corns. Been using them for 25 years. I'm a strong believer in making sure reptiles get uva/uvb.


Excellent 


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