Good news-

As I had hoped my decision to discontinue the racks has helped to force some action.  Today I pretty well closed a deal which would solve the problems I faced, lack of space and manpower without substantial increase in costs.  I found what I hope to be a very good solution- someone I already work with on some other projects who has plenty of space and some manpower.  While not at all “reptile people” they do have good machine expertise and I think will be able to do a very good job.  I will continue to sell the racks and they will build/ship them.  It is also in the plan to build up an inventory, something I did not have the space or manpower to do, which will greatly improve our already pretty good turnaround times.  The eventual goal would be almost immediate shipment of most rack orders.  I know- crazy talk!  We will see.

As of now I am wrapping up the building of all orders I took in over the past couple of weeks.  We hope to have that pretty well done by the end of next week.  Then the not so fun task of moving a CNC router and other support stuff to the new location.  While that should be a 2 day job you know how that goes!  We should be up and running again mid February or maybe a little sooner!  Once all of that is done and the new guys get comfortable with how this all works I hope to expand the line a bit and also bring back the cages.  One thing at a time though.

After looking at the numbers for the past year I have found that the racks are putting me in an uncomfortable position.  With the slowing economy we have actually held very steady on rack sales, which has been great.  The problem is other aspects of our business are expanding greatly, many of these we could not even foresee as recently as 6 months ago.  We can either expand our space and overhead greatly, and the racks simply will not cover that added expense, or something has to go. So while the rack business is a good, profitable one it is not one that fits into my current situation any more.

As it stands right now the rack business would be a good opportunity for the right person and I am open to discussion on purchasing it.  The “right person” would ideally have access to 600-800 square feet and at least a decent amount of  building/fabrication savvy.  I do not mind training and getting someone set up but I simply do not have the time to dedicate to starting from scratch.  I would rather not sell it than sell it to someone who will not do a good job of it and maintain a reputable name.  After all, a CNC router is a fun toy to have around.  I will find something to do with it!  If this sounds like something that would interest you I can be best contacted by email at sales@reptilebasics.com.

Thanks for all of the years of support and we will be around for many more years to come.  I am partnering with another very reputable name in the industry a little later this year on a very big and very exciting project.  Stay tuned!

Rich

We will be posting pictures and updates to the goings on here at RBI on our facebook page from here on out-

RBI on Facebook

Back from the Daytona reptile expo.  Nice show as usual.  Getting smaller every year to be sure though.  It seemed like the Florida fish and game guys were not so uptight this year.  They still went out of their way to make their presence known, citing quite a few vendors, but did not seem out to prove something this year.  Last year was ridiculous.

So, while the show was smaller with fewer vendors the crowd looked to be similar and they spent money.  Lots of money.  We had our best Daytona show on record last year and we beat that by about 25%- so how bad could it have been?  While this is not the crazy extravaganza it once was it is still the biggest and best I have seen.  We will plan on being there again in 2012!  Pro Exotics had the Ship Your Reptiles table there and looked like they took a whole bunch of shipments from people.  That really is about the handiest thing I have seen- ship your new animals home!  Where was this 10 years ago??  It sounds like they are adding a few more shows in 2012 they want to do this with.  Can’t beat it if you are flying to/from a show or are spending a couple of extra days for recreation like I do in Pomona and San Diego.  I think I have them talked into hitting those next year so we will see!

Next we are in White Plains NY again on September 11.  Any pre order racks need to be in pretty soon!  As usual we are filling up fast and I am not sure we will have a lot of racks for sale at the show due to trailer space limitation………..

I got a few of the new VE-300X2’s together in time for Daytona and pretty much sold what I brought.  This is the new 2 zone model with two independent probes/alarms/night drops.  They will be available on the site as soon as we get through this next production cycle in a couple of weeks.  Waiting on the display’s- always something it seems.  You will also be able to find them with our resellers then as well.  Now that we have that one behind us, there is more coming!  I have a couple here so if you are interested in one now send an email and I will see if I can fix you up.

I really hate to jinx a new project by talking about it before it is in hand but-

I am expecting our first shipment of the new RBI rodent watering valves in about 2-3 weeks.  This has been a long time coming.  The Edstrom valves are nice but they are very sensitive to any kind of dirt in the water and the water pressure itself.  If all is not just right they drip and flood a pan.  Not really cool and I have it happen to me too.  Very aggravating.  Our new design is spring actuated so one size valve works for all rats/mice/ASF’s and is pretty much drip proof.  I have been using the prototypes on my ARS mouse rack for weeks now and they are flawless.  The mice seem to be able to drink easier at a younger age as well ’cause they are growing a bit faster.  Thought I was imagining it at first but you can see a difference.  I am not ready to commit to a price yet because I do not have the shipping charges as of yet but it looks very good.  Should easily beat the Edstrom price as well.  The replacement o-rings will be much less expensive as well.  No more proprietary guts in the valve.  This has been long over due but with a bunch of research and testing I think we have it beat!

Been awhile since I updated this.  I guess I am not a social media kind of guy?

So, thermostat roll out has been great.  A lot of time and planning went into this so I would have been disappointed if it did not.  The next Vivarium Electronics model out will be the dual zone this September.  Looking forward to it and have already had a lot of interest.  Software and hardware are done and being tested.  Had it running for a few weeks now and all is well.  Pretty much a dual of the VE-300 so the software tests and development has not been quite as intensive but still, a lot of things to check to make sure it is working.  All the parts should be in by the last week of August so we will have some together and in a box the first week of September!  We are already working on the next one after the dual…………

Rack sales have been off the chart.  I really do not know where all of this goes?? I was a bit apprehensive removing the cages from the website when sales on them sort of trickled into not cost effective but now it looks like the right decision.  Racks sales have just gone up and up.  We are able to keep pace pretty well without the cages to work on as well.  No matter what we do it seems like we can not break through the 2 week wait.  There is always a show to build for, large order or a bunch of smaller orders.  Good to be busy though!

I am off to Pomona for a Reptile Super Show next week at the Pomona Fairgrounds.  Great show- the one in January was packed and that is what I generally think of as the “off” season.  Now that everyone has hatchlings it should be quite a bit busier if that is possible.  Daytona is right after that.  We will not have racks at either of these shows, just not very cost effective to bring them we have found.  That allows us to bring more of what people do seem to want- hides, thermostats, stainless, heat tape, etc…….

Then we are back in NY for the White Plains show September 11- this one we will have the usual racks and lots of them.  Get your pre-orders in by the last week in August please!  With all that is going on in August I want to make sure we can take care of everybody.

Have a good summer and hope to see some of you at these shows!

Some of you have probably noticed that I have added a new thermostat on the site in the last couple of weeks!

About 3 years ago I started working with a group of engineers to create something that fit into what I believe most reptile hobbyists can really use.  First thing I found was most of the thermostats out there, expect for a couple of higher end models, where “hang on the wall” models.  Over the last several years I have seen and sold thousands of racks to house about everything from garter snakes to Ball Pythons.  Seems like 8 out of 10 times the thermostat, whatever type, was sitting on its back facing the ceiling because it is simply not convenient to mount them.  Why not something designed to just sit on the top and face the user?

Next thing I had issue with was the very dated design of a brand I had used for quite some time.  Sure, they had served me well but when the price started to go up and up and nothing changed to offer me a little more, like say an up AND a down button at the very least, I found it harder and harder to justify the cost.  Maybe a more sophisticated display that tells me something?  Probe that can be replaced easily because, well, things happen.  Fuse that is replaceable?

After talking with the design group we decided to start from the ground up.  We could have gone through this project in 1/3 the time but would have ended up with the same as everyone else.  We also decided that while cost is obviously a big deal, lets start out with a “perfect world” and work from there.  Multiple buttons, table top case, large display, easy menu, etc and see where it takes us.

So, half a dozen prototypes and a few years later here we are!  After a lot of searching for components to fit our needs and redesigning a few things we are where we wanted to be.

So what does it do……….

I started with the intro of the VE-300.  Full featured with alarms, 16 character x 2 line display, battery backup for the clock (that will last years unplugged!), built in Night Drop, HI/Lo history and more.  Nothing else to buy and on top of that 700 watt capacity.  With the table top case style and a slightly larger footprint we were able to up the wattage by about 40% over the Helix!  Number one issue with designing a solid state thermostat like this is heat.  A smaller, unvented case can lead to overheating, especially in a warm snake room.  That limits power capability quite a bit and also can lead to failures.

Next out will be the VE-100 and VE-200.  The 100 will have the same external features but will just be a simple on/off thermostat.  We are launching this one as an alternative to the Ranco ETC’s and the Johnson A419.  While the wattage capability will not be as high as the realy driven Ranco and Johnson, we have found that most all users never come close to using the wattage potential of them anyhow.  Thhis usint will also be silent, no more “click” every time it turns on and off.  More than a few people have complained to me about that with the Ranco/Johnson because they have them set up in a bedroom.  The mechanical relay also has a limited life span and the reptile hobby tends to be tough on relays- lots of on/off cycles.  Also, the VE-100 will have an available night drop option you can add at any time down the road should you need it.

The VE-200 will be similar the the VE-300 but does not include alarms and built in night drop.  It can be used in proportional OR on/off mode and you can add a night drop any time if you decide you need it.

With this case design you can also stack these units!  Got a couple of stacks of racks next to each other?  The thermostats will not only be facing you so you can read them but will stack on each other to keep your display looking sharp!

Myself and the design team also set this hardware platform up to do many, many more things.  I will be rolling out new products in this line all year as well as something more budget oriented for situations that simply do not require a lot of hardware and software capability.  Stay Tuned!

We had a great time at the show in Pomona.  Wow, what a crowd.  Ramy does certainly pull them in.  Over all I would recommend the Reptile Supershows to anyone.  Well organized, well attended and sales were good for our first time attending.  I didn’t really know what to ship out there but I think we came out all right.  A few more hide boxes would not have been bad to have on hand but now I know!

Trip home was a bit of a problem.  Seems we had snow and ice here in NC (55-60 degrees in LA) and the Charlotte airport started canceling on Monday.  Not a good thing.  Finally got home about 4 am on Wednesday.  After being up for around 22 hours that pretty much killed Wednesday as well.  To all that have tried to call I apologize.  Friday was the first day I was able to really get to the phone.  It was murder trying to get every ones orders out, get caught up on cages and emails.  I expected to come home to a bunch of work but this was a bit more than is ideal.  I guess that’s what you get for traveling in the winter.  We were lucky we got out of Dallas when we did or it would have been another 12-18+ hours to get another plane.  Pretty backed up getting to NC.  I ran into Andrew Wyatt (USARK) in the Dallas airport on Tuesday afternoon.  What are the odds?  Anyone who has been to that airport will know what I mean.  Anyhow- he was in pretty much the same boat I was.  He got out a little sooner, I think he was headed for Raleigh.  My wife is a teacher- school was out all week.

So what do we do after all of that?  Drive to NY into the heart of snow hell, of course!  We will be there this weekend (1/23) for the White Plains show.  Here, we are right at home.  Hopefully no new snow.

Been looking at the shows for this year.  We will be in White Plains for every show (as always).  We will go to Daytona again this year and we may very well have a crack at the Pomona show in August as well.  Not sure on that one yet but I would like to.   Should keep us busy!

Happy New Year!

I made the decision this past Friday to make a couple of changes to some of the racks we offer.  We have been turning out virtually the same product(s) now since 2005 and a couple fo things have come up over time that I think are worth addressing- most of which you wouldn’t notice if I did not tell you.  Little things that improve efficiency in cutting or building,  how they work out with dimensional weight for shipping, etc.

The one thing that will be noticed is the change from 3″ heat tape to 4″ heat tape.  With the rise of the Ball Python the hobby has seen a HUGE increase in rack demand.  Not all of it due to BP’s but in my opinion that has been a driving force behind much of the growth over the last few years.  Even if you are not a BP person I doubt many will argue this.  The challenge from a caging standpoint is that many want to keep their BP’s rack/cage in a cool “room temperature” setting and BP’s like the high end of the temp range.  If you only have a couple of animals then this makes sense- why heat a room or the whole house up to accommodate a couple of snakes.  Not practical.  So after a lot of testing and tweaking we went with the 10 watt/3″ tape for heat.  Most bang for the buck and if managed properly can yield a good basking temp even in a cool room.  I have found that while the 6 watt/3″ can get a good surface temp it does not have quite enough oomph to project these temps into a bin with air gap, substrate, etc.  So, the 10 watt it was.

The problem lies in the application- if the user does not understand that heat tape alone is not an answer for ambient air temp then the likelihood of heat tape failure is much greater as they tend to run it hotter and hotter to achieve the goal.  Generally I have 4 or 5 customers per year have their heat tape cook.  75% of them find after looking the temp probe has been dislocated off the tape or something similar.  In some cases it was just worked too hard for too long and called it quits.  The likelihood of this is the greatest with the 3″/10 watt but the 3″ 6 watt and the 4″/8 watt is not immune to this.  So there is the trade off- how too keep the most people happy with the least likelihood of premature failure.  I have never liked heat cable- talk about a low surface area to put a lot of heat down.  11″ is obviously out of the question for belly heat.  I can have a custom heat tape made for my use easily enough but that becomes more costly but worse yet the user is now completely at my mercy which is also no good.

So, after pondering on all of that and weighing the evils of change vs. the benefits of change the scale has finally tipped to change and what better time to make changes than the first of the year.  I will be changing to 4″/8 watt heat tape on all belly heat racks beginning 1/1/2011.  The 4″ tape has the same wattage density, and therefore the same potential temperature, as the 3″/6 watt but gives you a bit more surface area and therefore a bit more energy applied to the target- the bottom of the tub.  The 4″ will not be overkill for the 15-30 qt size and should do the job on the cb-70 in reasonable room temps of 70F+.   The CB70 racks will now have a single strip/plug instead of the dual.  Most will say “if it works the same or better then who cares?”  Well, the new models will not work on the same thermostat as older 3″ racks.  Other than that- same or better.  Cost will remain the same.

For those who are keeping about any snake in a a room consistently 76-80F+  I still recommend the back heat versions!  They are nearly indestructible and much safer in a hot room if your thermostat or probe should fail or become dislodged!  Many people seem to fight the back heat concept but most of them have not tried it or tried it in a cool room.  For colubrids it is definitely the choice and I did quite well with BP’s with it for years as well- just in a 78-80 degree room.

So there it is!

Made the arrangements today and it looks like we will be vending at the Reptile Super Show in Pomona CA in January.  Dates are January 8-9, 2011 and the website is www.reptilesupershow.com which you can check out for further info.  If this show is a good as the San Diego show I attended as a customer this past June I expect we will be back for more………..

This is a long way away from home so we will have a more limited stock on some items.  The big red truck is not going for this ride, it is nearly a 2 week round trip by car!  If you have specific needs please contact me and I will do my best to accommodate you.  We will also be bringing a few pre-sold racks with us.  Space on them is very limited and we will only have pre-sold racks there at the show.  Again- contact us ASAP for details and to arrange a delivery.  There will be a $20 discount on pre-ordered racks at the show. The cutoff for ordering will be the last week of December- which is coming soon or when we hit capacity.

Next show is shortly after on January 23, 2011 in White Plains NY- a show we are quite familiar with!  You can get more info on that one at www.reptileexpo.com/nyfirst.htm.  We will have our usual items there and several racks/cages on hand for purchase.  Pre- orders, as always, are taken up to about 2 weeks before the show- Let me know as soon as possible if you need something!

2010 has been a good year here.  A lot of new items have been added, a lot of projects have been started and completed.  Business has been good.  I would like to thank all of our loyal customers out there for their continued patronage.  We already have a busy 2011 planned and hope we can continue to satisfy your reptile supply needs.