Adjustable vents for humidity control

[uscpsycho]

I am building custom enclosures and found an adjustable vent that looks interesting. I'd love some feedback on if you think this would be good for dialing in the humidity for a closed chamber cage.

I'm attaching photos of the front and back of the vent. The way it works is there is a knob that opens/closes the vent. The photos show it wide open and fully closed, but it can be anywhere in between. The diameter of the vented area is 3" wide.

Would you use these? And how many would you use for a 70" wide enclosure? Before you ask what animal they are for, I'm building three enclosures; one is for an animal that requires no humidity, one that requires 60% and one that requires 80%. But I may repurpose the enclosures for other animals in the future so I want each enclosure to be adaptable to any animal's needs.

My concern is twofold. One is that the vents aren't big enough to allow enough airflow for animals that require no humidity even when they are wide open. The other is that it's not sufficiently air tight when closed to achieve maximum humidity (but I know you probably can't assess that by looking at these photos).

In the alternative, has anyone used or seen a different type of adjustable vent for an enclosure?

 

[wellington]

No vent is needed. They just make it harder to keep temp and humidity up. There will be enough air exchange during the times you will be in and out of the enclosure daily.

 

[Tom]

I am building custom enclosures and found an adjustable vent that looks interesting. I'd love some feedback on if you think this would be good for dialing in the humidity for a closed chamber cage.

I'm attaching photos of the front and back of the vent. The way it works is there is a knob that opens/closes the vent. The photos show it wide open and fully closed, but it can be anywhere in between. The diameter of the vented area is 3" wide.

Would you use these? And how many would you use for a 70" wide enclosure? Before you ask what animal they are for, I'm building three enclosures; one is for an animal that requires no humidity, one that requires 60% and one that requires 80%. But I may repurpose the enclosures for other animals in the future so I want each enclosure to be adaptable to any animal's needs.

My concern is twofold. One is that the vents aren't big enough to allow enough airflow for animals that require no humidity even when they are wide open. The other is that it's not sufficiently air tight when closed to achieve maximum humidity (but I know you probably can't assess that by looking at these photos).

In the alternative, has anyone used or seen a different type of adjustable vent for an enclosure?

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There is no reason that you can't build in adjustability. I used regular home air registers that were around 6x12 inches when I built my last enclosures. They had the lever that was up for wide open or down for closed.

But... I still want to know what animals you are housing because the usual humidity numbers given are wrong. There is no animal that requires zero humidity, and the usual tortoise species that are listed by many sources as needing 60% need more when they are babies and do well with more as adults.

Also, I leaned the hard way that building your own out of wood costs more than simply buying one already made. Further, there is no treatment that will protect the wood and it will rot right out from under your animals in a surprisingly short amount of time. I used primer and three thick thorough coats of DryLok on my last attempt, and the bottom literally fell out of it one day after about a year and a half. I've tried Pond Shield, and that one works for a while, until the tortoises wear through it with their daily activities, after which post your wood rots. The lesson is: Wood doesn't work for tortoises. Use expanded PVC sheets instead, AND... Its cheaper to buy one already made from several sources than it is to buy the materials and spend 30 hours building your own.

 

[uscpsycho]

No vent is needed. They just make it harder to keep temp and humidity up. There will be enough air exchange during the times you will be in and out of the enclosure daily.

I explained that I'm not always trying to keep humidity up. But when I am, I wonder if these will effectively keep the humidity up, and when I'm not, if they will allow sufficient air flow.

There is no reason that you can't build in adjustability. I used regular home air registers that were around 6x12 inches when I built my last enclosures. They had the lever that was up for wide open or down for closed.

I hadn't thought about hvac registers that but I'd rather not have my vents be such a prominent visual feature. I'd prefer something more subtle like the ones I posted, if they will work well.

But... I still want to know what animals you are housing because the usual humidity numbers given are wrong. There is no animal that requires zero humidity, and the usual tortoise species that are listed by many sources as needing 60% need more when they are babies and do well with more as adults.

At the moment, only one of the three animals is a tortoise, and that's a Sri Lankan Star that will get 80% humidity.

And while I said zero humidity I didn't mean literally zero, that is probably impossible. I just mean an animal that doesn't have any specific humidity needs. That is a uromastyx, and the third is a ball python.

Also, I leaned the hard way that building your own out of wood costs more than simply buying one already made. Further, there is no treatment that will protect the wood and it will rot right out from under your animals in a surprisingly short amount of time. I used primer and three thick thorough coats of DryLok on my last attempt, and the bottom literally fell out of it one day after about a year and a half. I've tried Pond Shield, and that one works for a while, until the tortoises wear through it with their daily activities, after which post your wood rots. The lesson is: Wood doesn't work for tortoises. Use expanded PVC sheets instead, AND... Its cheaper to buy one already made from several sources than it is to buy the materials and spend 30 hours building your own.

I agree that trying to build an enclosure is not something most people can do with success. And that includes me! I am not actually building them myself, I am having someone that builds cages build custom enclosures for me. But if I don't specify venting he will incorporate his generic vents which will be fine for low humidity animals but may make it hard to keep the humidity up for others. So I want to specify some type of adjustable ventilation to make sure that I can accommodate whatever animals I have in the future. I like the adjustable vents I found, just not sure how well they will work; their intended use is for home exhaust vents like bathrooms and kitchens not animal cages.