Heat packs are useful tools when shipping live animals, as they allow you to regulate the temperature in the shipping containers. Particularly when shipping through colder climes, and especially when shipping reptiles, amphibians, and other cold-blooded animals, care must be taken to ensure that the animal is not caused stress by the cold. Without proper temperature regulation through heat packs or other means, these animals can die during shipping owed to the cold. Heat packs are not intended to provide the animal's perfect temperature, but rather to keep the temperature at a safe level.
If you wish to test your heat packs before shipping, be sure to place the heat pack in a small space. Good options include rolling it in a layer of newspapper or placing it in a small space; a pocket, a small box, and so on. If you simply set the pack on the table or in another very open space, you are likely to not detect any result; there is too much air for the heat pack to warm in its early stages.
Heat packs have two sides, one of which has red strips with many tiny perforations. This is the side that must be exposed to air. If you place this side of the heat pack face-down, or cover it with tape, or allow objects to fall or rest on it, the heat pack will not cause the desired warming effect. Air must be able to flow through these perforations for the pack's heat to fill the space it is in.
The effects of a heat pack can vary based on the size of the pack and its container. As a rule of thumb, a single heat pack in a cubic foot insulated box will raise the temperature by around twelve to sixteen degrees. Each additional heat pack will further raise the temperature by about ten degrees. A temperature range of sixty to seventy-five degrees is safe for most reptiles and amphibians during shipment.
It is important to note that water is a primary ingredient in heat packs. If this water freezes, the heat pack may cease to function. It is thus important that you do not allow the temperature in the shipping box to fall below thirty-two degrees.
Heat packs are often used when shipping fish, lizards, and other animals. When placed in the animal's container, the heat pack helps to ensure that the temperature won't get so low that it could harm or kill the animal. Different types of heat packs can last for different lengths of time, and also reach different peak temperatures and reach their top temperature at different intervals. Finally, different heat packs may take different periods of time to activate.
The shortest duration heat packs last for 20 hours. Though shorter in total time, these heat packs have the most rapid activation (five to ten minutes) and achieve their highest temperature most quickly (about seven hours). They also give off more heat than other packs, making them ideal for shipping tropical fish, as water is not as easy to heat as air. When shipping from a cold climate, these heat packs can be used with others to balance the temperature throughout the trip; the greatest heat is provided early on in colder climes, while the longer-lasting heat packs provide lower grades of heat later on, when the outside temperature starts to increase.
Thirty hour heat packs activate more slowly, generally taking twenty minutes to half an hour, peaking in about half a day. These heat packs are nicely balanced, being faster and hotter than 40+ hour packs, but longer-lasting than 20-hour packs.
Heat packs lasting forty hours and above have the longest activation times (about forty to fifty minutes) and lowest maximum heat output (around 110 degrees Fahrenheit). These heat packs can range in duration from 40 to 72 hours, with peak times from seventeen to twenty-eight hours, depending on the duration. Forty-hour heat packs are the most popular for shipping reptiles, amphibians, and insects. Sixty and seventy-two hour heat packs are ideal for export shipments.
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