EasyHeat 2102 Freeze Free Heating Cable - 100'

The media could not be loaded. I did a lot of research on different heat cable systems and this product gave me the best bang for the buck. Here are a few things I learned from my installation. I did not install the heat cable myself so when I say "I" in this review, I am referring to my installer.I installed 240 feet of this heat cable under the crawl space in a vacation home in the Northern Arizona White Mountains. This heat cable allows me to shut off the water rather than drain the pipes so I can come in an just turn the water on if I want to visit in the winter. A couple of notes from my installation:1. If you need close to 300ft of cable, buy the 300ft roll. Maximum single run is 75ft. I was left with several 25-30ft sections that I could not use from the 100ft roll. For the longer runs, I measured out 75 feet and placed a marker tape to know when I was at the maximum length. I wanted to keep the number of heat cable circuits to a minimum so I kept the runs close to 75ft each.2. Recommend you use a good quality electrical tape rather than the manufacturer's suggested tape. I wound the tape in a spiral to avoid constantly cutting it to length which saves time.3. Even when temps are not near freezing this heat cable is still on. Recommend you use a thermostat plug to turn it off and save electricity when not needed.4. Be careful when calculating the circuit power requirements. The heat cable chart for my region shows a current requirement of 3W/ft. But this heat cable has an in-rush current that is much greater. My steady state circuit requirement is 720W (6A) at 50 degrees (3W/ft * 240ft). But for the first few minutes the maximum cable draw was 1,440W (12A), or 6W/ft. Once the temperatures get much colder, this in-rush current could be higher. I am testing it this winter so I will know better come January when it gets really cold.4. For my installation I was able to install it under the pipe not wrapped around. But in certain installations where the hot and cold copper pipe are very close together, I don't see why you could not wrap the heat cable around both hot and cold to make the installation easier. I did wrap the insulation around both pipes where they were close enough to do this.5. Other reviewers have suggested a monitoring device to ensure the heat cable is working. I am a bit of a geek, so I designed my own and now measure the temperature of each heat cable circuit. It sends me a warning SMS if one of the pipes reaches freezing temps.The installation is not trivial if you are working under the crawl space. It took a week to complete it including electrical, thermostat, cable installation, insulation and remote monitor. Nevertheless, it's not rocket science, just a lot on time on your back in very tight spaces.Update December 2018:. Well as predicted the 240ft of heat cable tripped a 15A breaker on startup on a cold day. That's greater than 7W/ft.Update October 2019: I added a controller that not only includes a thermostat, it also provides an 8 minute soft start for the heat cable. I will be testing it over the winter. Also moving to a 20A circuit.Update October 2020: After testing the 8 minute soft start controller I learned that my total cable in-rush current draw at near freezing temperatures is 20 Amps AC. This means the components I selected for the soft-start were underrated. I abandoned this simple design for a more complex one where the thermostat regulates the heat cable in a range between 35 deg F and 50 deg F. It also allows you to set a on time delay so if you have several circuits like me, I have four, you can help keep them from all turning on at once. I have my 270 ft of heat cable attached to a 30 Amp service divided into two 15 Amp circuits with two heat cable systems on each. A real overkill based on what can be done with a proper thermostat/controller. I am testing my prototype over the Winter so maybe in March of 2021 I will have more results.Update June 2022: After much trial and error, I finally decided the best way to control the pipe heat cable in-rush is with a traditional soft start controller. It uses a controller and a 10 minute TRIAC control slo-start. By limiting the current in 10 minute progressive steps, the resulting post warm-up current is equivalent to the specified current draw. In my case 10 Amps. I built a prototype and have sent it out to a heat cable company for evaluation. My current project is to develop an IoT controller with slo-start capability reporting to a server with mobile app.

Perfect - Great price

Easy to use and gives peace of mind in case something happens to the heaters

Good heat tape. It was -25 last night, and the pipes that I put the tape on, and wrapped with insulation, are flowing just fine. The ones I didn't wrap, are frozen. I wrapped some spiral, around the pies and water meter, over top itself, and it worked just fine, like wrapping a rope round it. I also ran long straight runs, without wrapping. Works just fine. I secured it against the pipe with electrical tape. My two Pex water lines, run side by side, up against each other, so I ran one line, between them both, and wrapped with insulation, instead of running tape for each pipe. It should take care of both pipes just fine. It was -25 last night and all is ok on the pipes I wrapped. It can get below -40 here, so I will be putting it to the test, but so far, this seems like good industrial stregnth stuff, much better than the cheap stuff you get at Lowes. Get extra plug ends, and end caps. You are probably going to have to cut it in places, and make multiple runs. That's why I havent finished mine yet. Waiting on more plug ends to come. Every cut will require a plug end. I ran the heat tape right up through the floor, under the sink, went through the hole the pipe comes through, and installed a GFCI under the sink that works on a light switch (used to run garbage disposal) and plugged it in there. When it's cold I just flip the switch. Easy peasy. This is good stuff.

A simple method to check your 'build':Assemble according to instructions NOTE that the cable that goes into the orange adapter should be the YELLOW outer sheathing, if you have removed the outer yellow sheathing to get to the black core cable it will not work.With the YELLOW sheathing inserted and the 2 screws screwed down use an Ohm meter to measure the resistance across the two screws you just tightened, the resistance will vary (3000 ~ 400 Ω) depending on the length of the cable. Check between each screw and the AC plug end to make sure the fuse is good. Finish the assembly of the unit then plug it in, you should be able to feel the cord warming up. The light is across the incoming AC but I can't say if it is before the fuse or after it but I now know that there is NOT a thermostat in the orange adapter so you can have it in a heated area and have the cable run outside where it is needed (12°F right now). Also NOTE the END CAP that has gel in it does nothing but protect the end wires from shorting or corroding, it has no effect on the operation of the cable. I took one star off for the instructions not having the above simple procedure to test the install and protect your pipes with a working install. What is 'Sheerness'?