4 replies to this topic

[PaxxMantid]

hi all -

 

How do you use heating cables with your mini hearths? I know it's idea to keep the heat away from the water, etc. But putting the cable under the mini hearth makes it uneven, etc. and along the back I'm not sure a good way to fasten the cable against the nest.

 

How do you guys do it? any tips appreciated! 

 

thanks! 

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

If you leave it flat on the table you can still basically do what i did in the image here, just without it runnig under it.
I used bluetape/painter's tape to tape the cable onto the side opposite the watertower. It is in a half circle around the side port

And then use it's own bending tension to hold it in place against the glass.

Even with the heat as far from the water tower as you can get it, there will be condensation on the glass.
By heating the glass a little too, you can prevent most condensation from happening. As condensation happens when there is a strong tempature differnce between the glass (cold) and the heated humid air inside the mini.

 

 

You'll notice the cable wants to bend in its own ways, so try to use the cables own bending to make the circle around the side port, rather than force it to bend in a circle it will automatically unwind from.

 

 

I used little rubber feet on the bottom of my mini.

I cut a small grove the heat cable could pass through, they helped absorb vibrations, and lifting it up just a 1/2" like that let's me slip a small light under there as needed for photos/viewing.
it's just resting on them they are not glued on.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE:

best to not let the heat cable touch itself. It may cause it to over heat at the touching point. In the image above the cable is never in direct contact with itself, though it comes close in a couple spots.

 

Also the cable touching the glass is barely touching it. The first contact is the magnet, and then it touches the glass directly just a little bit around the top of the arch.

It does not take a lot of heat to keep the condensation off.

Edited by Full_Frontal_Yeti, October 13 2023 - 10:05 AM.

[PaxxMantid]

If you leave it flat on the table you can still basically do what i did in the image here, just without it runnig under it.
I used bluetape/painter's tape to tape the cable onto the side opposite the watertower.

And then use it's own bending tension to hold it in place against the glass.

Even with the heat as far from the water tower as you can get it, there will be condensation on the glass.
By heating the galss a lttle too, you can prevent most condensation from happening. As condensation happens when there is a strong tempature differnce between the galss (cold) and the heated humid air inside the mini.

 

heatcable.jpg

 

You'l noitce the cable wants to bend in its own ways, so try to use the cables own bending to mkae the circle around the side port, rather than force it to bend in a circle it will automtically unwind from.

 

 

I used little rubber feet on the bottom of my mini.

I cut a small grove the heat cable could pass through, they helped absorb vibraitons, and lifting it up just a 1/2" like that let's me slip a small light under there as needed for photos/viewing.
it's just retsing on them they are not glued on.

 

Thanks for this reply. I love the DIY innovation around here

I'd love to see the other side with the tape.

 

It looks like quite a lot of the heating cable it against the glass - seems like it would heat up the whole nest and not have much of a gradient - but if it works it works. I love the notch idea so I might go for something like that, yea!

[ANTdrew]

It will be challenging to get much gradient in such a small nest.

[Full_Frontal_Yeti]

My ants have moved out of their mini already so i don't have it in use any more to show additional images.

 

The tape we can't see on the side is an upside down L shape. You can see a little bit of the tape on the top edge there.
the cable makes a semi circle around the side port from top to bottom, front to back, back to front.
Then runs along the table as shown in the image to bend upward to curve back over across the top of the glass.

 

later i put a bit of tape to hold the table run in place. It would slip from time to time and let the cable off the glass, which would get condensation in short order.

 

 

But i can say that the heat cable is not touching the glass nearly as much as it looks like from the front POV.

If i had a top down shot you could see there is a tiny air gap between the cable and most of the glass, only contacting it at the top of the arc for about 3/4" or so and on the magnet in the corner.

 

But i had in a few different configurations over the 8 months they were in it, and all of them worked fine with more glass contact in some setups, but that didn't seem to make any real difference.