Keeping an old dog warm...

Ok all, I'd like to pick your brains for a bit as mine is letting me down at the moment.

I'd like to keep a hot water bottle or steel plate warm, to allow my dog to not freeze his knackers off at night.

I've pondered Peltier devices, nichrome resistance wire and electric blankets.

What would be the best way to keep the bed temperature warm, but not hot? Say around 40 degrees...

Would nichrome wire be suitable to insert into a hot water bottle to keep it warm?

A Peltier device hooked up to a smallish steel plate under the bed, much like a waterbed heater, with a heatsink on the 'cold' side to allow it to draw sufficient heat from the subzero air/ground?

All help appreciated!

--mark

Reply to
jb
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Pet shop. Not cheap, but reliable and safe.

Reply to
T.T.

You can buy a circular heated plate designed to keep beer warm while brewing. Perhaps the temperature will be right.

Cheers, Nicholas Sherlock

Reply to
Nicholas Sherlock

Australia is a metricated country so when you say 40 degrees on an aus newsgroup it means centigrade, and that's bloody hot even for a frozen dog.

read

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and consider a pet electric blanket.

Reply to
Ross Herbert

**MY mum had an old heated slipped thingy. She was throwing it out, because the fluffy material had deteriorated. My dog didn't care in the slightest about the crappy looking material. He slept on it for many years. You could buy a new heated slipper. I imagine they're made in China nowadays and probably sell for $19.95.
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Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au
Reply to
Trevor Wilson

My friends cat likes to sleep on the amp. The amps basically on full time so it gets quite warm.

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Wing Wong.
Reply to
Wing Wong

You are probably better off getting a proper heating pad from a pet supplies for this purpose. probaby a lot safer

for example.

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With the wattages quoted there (up to 120W !!) I would be very reluctant to try generating this level of heat in bedding (which is usually flammable material)

Other things have to be taken into consideration such as what happens if the dog pees the bed, chews wiring,bedding etc

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If you do buy a 240v pad like shown, I would also consider buying an isolation transformer to go with it

Reply to
KLR

**Oh, you're one of those? People whose amps have to be cleaned of pet hair, before service. People whose amps go belly-up prematurely, from capacitor failure, because they're under the delusion that keeping an amp switched on 24/7 is a good idea.
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Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au
Reply to
Trevor Wilson

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[snip]

As others have suggested I would go for a pet electric blanket as I suspect that human ones are not as chew proof.

Mike

Reply to
Mikegw

I have an idea pet shops these days sell pet electric blankets for less than any mucking around you might do.

See:

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I have had a pet electric blanket for many years, which I originally bought in the U.K.

Ross

(To get email address ROT 13) ebff snipped-for-privacy@lnubb.pbz

Reply to
RMD

Yeah, I'm not really a technician, just a EE, but I do the occasional favour for friends. Pet hair is usually hinders my progress.

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Wing Wong.
Reply to
Wing Wong

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I think it was Oatley Electronics that was selling heating tape (silicon rubber with nichrome?) for doing this sort of thing about 12 months ago. They may still have some lying around.

An alternative may be an old waterbed heater pad - maybe 2' x 3'. I think they need to be "heatsunk" to prevent hot spots.

rob

Reply to
rob

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hot?

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CSW1 (NEW) CAR SEAT WARMER: Provides warmth and comfort when driving in autumn and winter. Fits all seats. Connects to the car cigarette lighter socket (adaptor provided). Features include built-in thermostat, low power consumption, easy to fix, non-slip and uses elastic strap retainer. $20

Reply to
rob

First of all, get the dog off the floor. A bed made from a small circular exercise trampoline will get the dog off the cold floor and out of any drafts. A couple of old blankets on the trampoline should also keep the dog warm.

Reply to
dmm

Our dogs, when they lived outside, had a 25W bulb inside a Milo can wrapped in wool tucked inside their box (can was earthed of course). The main thing was the box - sittng on a thick piece of foam and well insulated. Worked well for small dogs, bigger dogs would need a bigger box I guess.

Reply to
Poxy

My sister used to keep pet rats in a set of old kitchen cupboards outside the house. To stop them from freezing, I took a concrete house brick and using a Hilti I drilled a hole about 3cm diameter and 10cm deep into the brick (but not right through to the other side), and I soldered wires onto a truck indicator bulb 21Watts, 24 Volts. I put the bulb in the brick, and filled the hole with cement mortar (be careful to stop it getting on the metal parts of the wires etc. since cement can corrode copper, I forget how I achieved this). The cable was sticking out through the mortar. I put the brick in the cupboard (cage) with side with the wire directly against the wall of the cage so that the rats couldn't eat the cable. I connected the 24V bulb to a 12V halogen downlight transformer so it would put out less than the rated power but enough to keep the brick warm, and so it would last for a long time.

The basic idea is that whatever goes wrong with the bulb, the brick can't catch fire because bricks don't burn, and the halogen transformer is supposed to be short circuit - proof too.

To keep the power usage down, a timer or thermostat located where it is safe from the dog and the weather might be a good idea, and more environmentally friendly.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Jones

What about a waterbed heater with it's temperature control?. Sort of like a mini electric blanket with a temp control.

Reply to
Mark Harriss

I couldn't resist -

Reply to
GM

What happened before dogs had humans??? For f*ck sake, the dog can handle the cold, or else he wouldn't be a dog. If it cant handle the cold then its time to shoot it.

Reply to
The Real Andy

Thankyou, most of you, for your help.

Slipper or car seat warmer looks to be the way to go.

Nichrome underfloor heating tape would not really be suitable; ~230 deg Celcius is probably a little too hot to have near old blankets and flammable bedding...

-mark

Reply to
jb

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