I'm puzzled re: heat mats...

huntsman · Jul 30, 2009

I would like to confirm what the heat mats are that are being discussed in the various forae...

If they're the same as mine, they're a (plus minus) 4" x 6" expanse of silver foil which covers about two yards of electrical wire, that is looped so as to create heat. Ours are either 9w or 14w, and are sold at pet stores.

Are we on the same page with heat mats, or are yours totally different? :rolleyes:

wordwiz · Jul 30, 2009

My "heat mat" is a water bed heater!

Mike

millworkman · Jul 30, 2009

That would be almost like a heat tape. The heat mat I use is a therapeutic heat mat for people with no timer to turn it off when it runs to long. But what you have will work great as well. I use something like that for my geckos.

LGHT · Jul 30, 2009

To simplify my germination I got a 72 cell Jiffy germination dome that had a heat mat included and peat pucks. I got over 95% of all my seeds to germinate in less than a week. It was almost too easy and only cost $35.00

Noshownate · Jul 30, 2009

i hope i have the same luck as you lght

Noshownate · Jul 30, 2009

my heat mat waas giving to my girlfriend at my local hydroponics store i cant feel any heat at all on it are you supposed to be able to feel the heat on your hand?

LGHT · Jul 30, 2009

Noshownate said:
my heat mat waas giving to my girlfriend at my local hydroponics store i cant feel any heat at all on it are you supposed to be able to feel the heat on your hand?

Mine isn't too hot to touch, but I can definetly feel the heat.

Here is what I used. The instructions said 3 per peat puck, but I only used 2 for my first time as I only wanted to plant 140 or so and not 210.

http://www.dripdepot.com/1353.html

http://www.dripdepot.com/images/product/462x462/1353-1.jpg

millworkman · Jul 30, 2009

Mine has three settings. Low gives about 92F if you are directly on it. Where the seeds are it is 83, every seed I used in this setup germed for me this year. Medium puts the seeds at abou 95 and high is 110.

huntsman · Jul 31, 2009

Dang! I'm in the jungle (speaking figuratively!) out here, so heated germ bins simply do not exist...

I wonder if an electric bed blanket would be better than my pads...?

millworkman · Jul 31, 2009

huntsman said:
Dang! I'm in the jungle (speaking figuratively!) out here, so heated germ bins simply do not exist...

I wonder if an electric bed blanket would be better than my pads...?

Anything will works great if you can get the temp of the soil, or whatever your seeds are in, up to about 80-85F.