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Stop ice problems before they begin.

Protect your roof, gutters and pipes with Radiant Solutions heat cable.

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FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Heat Tape Pro is our line of robust, outdoor rated cable. It’s designed specifically for the demands of extreme environments including wet locations such as outdoor pipes, open drain lines and of course roof and gutter de-icing applications. Do not use Pipe Freeze Pro as it is rated for dry locations only.

As the manufacturer we do not recommend using exension cords but we recognize that many customers do it. If you must use an extension cord, then buy the shortest cord necessary to do the job and make sure it is a 12 gauge thickness.

The Thermostat keeps the heat cable turned off (and thus draw no power) until it detects temperatures below 37ºF. 

Once it turns on, the self-regulating aspect takes over and directs heat to the area(s) of the cable that are in contact with the cold. The thermostat should be positioned outside of the insulating layer so it can effectively read the temperature of the air.

Yes, but there are limits.

Like Heat Tape Pro, Pipe Freeze Pro should not be installed on pipes that regularly heat up to over 150ºF as this may cause longterm damage to the heat cable. It therefore depends on how hot you have your water heater set to. On average, water heaters are set to about 140ºF to prevent scalding.

There is no difference.

The terms heat cable, heat tape and heat trace are all used interchangeably to described heated cables used to protect pipes from freezing, preventing roof and gutter ice dams from forming and for safeguarding temperature sensitive components.

Other terms we’ve seen used regarding Heat Tape are:

  • Heat Coils & Heating Coils – Heat Tape has been called this because of the way the zig-zag pattern looks like a heating coil-element (like inside of a toaster)
  • Gutter Trace – Heat Tape get’s called this because of the usage in and around gutters

You can install Heat Tape on pretty much any type of roof.

This includes, but is not limited to:

  • Asphalt Shingle
  • Cedar Shakes and Shingles
  • Slate
  • Spanish Tile
  • Metal
  • Flat Roofs (EPDM, TPO, Sprayed Urethane, etc.)

The type of roof you have determines the roof clips and accessories needed. Check out our Heat Tape Installation Accessories.

Radiant Solutions products, including Ice Dam Prevention products such as Heat Tape Pro and Pipe freeze Prevention products like Pipe Freeze Pro can be purchase here at this website or at Amazon.com.

There’s two main steps to determining how much Heat Tape you need:

  1. Make a couple simple measurements of your house/roof, while noting a couple aspects of your situation
  2. Use Our Heat Tape Calculator to plug in those numbers, which can tell you how much heat cable you’ll need

See Below


Measuring for Heat Tape

Measuring is not difficult and you can make measurements without going up on your roof or using a ladder if you err on the side of overestimating the distances. Here’s Radiant Solutions Guide to Measuring for Heat Tape, which gives a detailed overview of measuring and some tips and resources, if you think you need it.

The Heat Tape Calculator

Once you have your measurements, you can use our Heat Tape Calculator to help you determine the length of Heat Tape Pro you need, the number of Heat Tape Clips you’ll need, and misc. product considerations.