Acrylic Enclosure(s) love vs hate

I have mentioned a couple of times that acrylic enclosures are scarce in South Africa and I have only seen one brand imported. Which has a few obvious faults in my opinion.

I would like to hear what you like/dont like about acrylic/perspex enclosures and why.

I have an opportunity to deal with a local company who already makes very similar products in terms of the shape/size of enclosures and have other products that could be considered "good ventilation".

So let me start, the one and only acrylic enclosure I have:


1)Size and shape is good.
2)The fact I needed to construct it myself and there is nuts and bolts exposed to your T(no sharp edges-trust me I checked... Maybe even did tongue test :tongue: ) was to my disliking.
3)The "hinge and lock" system leaves a lot to be desired. It squeaks. Take note of the upside tear drop, that is the latch, and sometimes you need two hands to open/close the door- I currently have an Avic Avic in there but I would not like that kind of hassle if a pokie was in there. I also left the bottom latch off because it was difficult enough without it.
4)I need some pro input here... Ventilation shape: My acrylic enclosure has rounded rectangles for ventilation, I once saw my T with a small bit of her foot sticking through and wondered surely they can hurt themselves... Wouldn’t drilled/round holes be a better idea?

I essentially want to get ideas as to what makes a good T enclosure and what not. What would you like to find on your LPS shelf or online site?

I first saw these acrylic tanks when I was at the NARBC Reptile Show in Arlington, TX. The vendor who had them in their booth was disapointed in the quality. The hinge and lock set up had a string to keep the parts from being lost. I try not to say anything negative about other products unless it's so obvious that I can't keep my mouth shut! did you measure the thickness of the plastic in the sample you posted? that thinness tells you how inexpensive these are. good enclosures use 3/16", 1/4" acrylic. they should also use polycarboante. for the base, always look for ABS plastic. it doesn't scratch, resists breaking and doesn't discolor when wet substrate stays in contact with the base. maybey vespers will accept my edit.

1) Look great.
2) Designs run the gamut from nice to poorly thought out.
3) Expensive.
4) Not really practical for large collections.

EricsPlasticShop said:

I first saw these acrylic tanks when I was at the NARBC Reptile Show in Arlington, TX. I think the vendor who had them in their booth was disapointed in the quality. I try not to say anything negative about other products unless it's so obvious that I can't keep my mouth shut! did you measure the thickness of the plastic in the sample you posted? that thinness tells you how cheap, yes cheap! these are. check out the postings that I have been putting on AB. we use 3/16", 1/4" acrylic. we also use polycarboante. for the base, we use ABS plastic.

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Are they as cheap as the cheap (yes, cheap!) commercial you just posted for yourself there? Crapping on some other product (even if true) while promoting your own is in rather poor taste IMO.

I've never purchased a premade enclosure.
I personally find them unnecessary and expensive.
A butane torch and whatever type of plastic container you like, is all you need.

skar said:

I've never purchased a premade enclosure.
I personally find them unnecessary and expensive.
A butane torch and whatever type of plastic container you like, is all you need.

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I personally find random plastic containers with melted ventilation holes extremely ugly.
But I can't argue about them not being cheap and practical.

the enclosure in the OP's pic looks like a reptiledge, i have one of these (but not for spiders). my concern with that enclosure is the large vent slots which look like easy escape routes for a T. any T big enough to not be able to squeeze through those vents would probably be too big for that size enclosure.

i also didn't like the latch system and the difficulty of assembly, but that's neither here nor there.