Confused about heating Rubbermaids

[LPacker79]

I've seen a lot of talk about using Rubbermaids for babies and juvies. The more I read the more confused I get. How do you create a "basking spot" with a heat mat? Every care sheet I've seen refers to ambient heat and then basking temps. Do you have two ambient temps (hot and cool side) and then a basking? Or just one lower temp and then a higher temp on the other side?

I'm not buying anything until June or July, but want all my ducks in a row. This question has been driving me nuts for the past week now.

[Drew S]

Basically, you put the heating pad under 1/3 of the container, and the area on the heating pad becomes the hot spot. This should create an ambient of around 82, and a hotspot of 90 - 95. Just make sure you measure the surface temperature, not the air.

EDIT: Also, make sure you use some sort of thermostat to control the heating pad.

[Big_V]

Make sure to buy a heating pad that you can control the temp on too. Buy a human heeting pad with multiple heating settings so that you can control the heat to get the perfect temps.

[GreenNeutron]

Also if you were thinking of using heat tape as your heat mat, make sure to give it room to "breathe", ie don't sandwich it between two surfaces. Apparently you can also hook it up to a rheostat instead of the thermostat and just control the temps that way, but that would leave me checking the temps every hour or so, lol.

Question about human heating pads though:
All of the ones that I've found have an automatic shutoff device. How do you get around that feature? Or if that would be unsafe (and it sounds like it might to me) where do you buy human heating pads without this feature?

[HetForHuman]

Originally posted by GreenNeutron


Question about human heating pads though:
All of the ones that I've found have an automatic shutoff device. How do you get around that feature? Or if that would be unsafe (and it sounds like it might to me) where do you buy human heating pads without this feature?

WalMart has the ones with and without the automatic shut off.

The boxes damn near look identical so you just have to double check to make sure.

The ones i buy from WalMart are the SUNBEAM brand..

[Dani33]

I have the same one as hetforhuman. It's generally the cheapest one on the shelf. Just be sure to read the box. Oh yeah, you can buy them at shoppers as well.

[marisa]

Yeah same here. Got them at both Walmart and Shoppers drugmart. Its the "SunBeam" brand. Using them with a thermastat 12on/12off and replaced once per year for my own peice of mind.

Work like a charm.

Marisa

[Optimus Prime]

For my JCP's when they were smaller I had a pad under the rubbermaid and then had a lamp over the left side to create a hot stop.