# Are Reptile Radiators Any Good?



## Tony Turbo (Oct 19, 2006)

At the moment I am trying to find a shallow ceramic fitting to move my ceramic in my viv without too much hassle, then I saw these reptile radiators and wondered if they were any good.

Habistat Reptile Radiator

Could I use this just as well and ditch my ceramic bulb, or do these not throw out as much heat?

Thank you


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## essexchondro (Apr 9, 2007)

Hi

I like them. I have about 9 vivs with these as the heat source. I keep chondros and emeralds and because these are arboreal species I dont like the standard ceramic heat bulb with heat guard set up because they hang down too low and take up too much room.

If memory serves correct the radiators are 75 watts so that should be powerful enough to heat smaller to medium sized vivs. They largest viv that I use is 30" x 24" x 24" (LxWxH) and one of these radiators has no trouble giving me the required temps. 

The only thing that I would say about them is use the heat guard that you can buy for it. They don't market the heat guard very heavily (infact, I'm not even sure its an official habistat product) because the design of the radiator would make it difficult for a snake to burn itself, but in terms of temps reached it does get very hot. In a 30x24x24 viv with a hot spot of 86F at perch height about 9 inches below the radiator I reasured the surface temp of the radiator at over 130F!

You can buy the heat guards on-line from Surrey Pet Supplies. Comes in a choice of black or white and is about £13.50.

All in all they are a good product in my opinion but they ain't cheap at about £50 each.

cheers

Stuart


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## Tony Turbo (Oct 19, 2006)

Thanks for the reply Stuart, but I don't think that will be powerful enough for me. I need to heat a massive viv so I think I will stick with a ceramic for now.

They might be handy for me later on at providing back ground heat.


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## Johelian (Nov 25, 2006)

I have one of these in the top part of the monkey tail viv for the winter, and let me tell you - we measured it with a temp gun kicking out over 230F! Ours is screwed to the roof of the viv well out of the way, but just keep in mind that these things can be quite dangerously hot if not used with the guard if the animal can get in contact with it. That was with a thermostat too by the way - it wasnt on for long at that temperature, but obviously it doesnt have to be too long to cause some damage.


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## Barry.M (May 19, 2006)

I find they work well in smaller vivs,and are useful as 'background' heat in 4x2's and larger


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

I've been using these for a while and found them to be excellant fella.... When I first bought mine I did do a bit of a review I'll see if I can find it now...


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## welshgaz (Dec 12, 2005)

Bosh ! Didn't take to long...

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/snakes/12517-reptile-radiator-review-snakes-images.html#post186955


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## ianyork (Sep 11, 2006)

ive got two of these on the go and i have had one flumax on me in my beardie viv but just took it apart had a look and put it back together and it worked fine, (changed fuses etc and had no effect, in fact ended putting the original fuse back in!) so i dunno why that went tits up but is fine now.

the other one im having no problems with and would recommend them, and my word yes they do get stonking hot!


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