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.
You must cover pipe, freeze prevention, cable with insulation under all circumstances. Otherwise it will likely fail to do its job. This includes both Pipe Freeze Pro and Heat Tape Pro.
Use a minimum 1/2″ thickness standard pipe insulation.
Because our heat cable can be overlapped, there is no specific way to wrap valves. A simple loop of cable around the body of the valve will be enough. A couple things to remember. First, try to keep the cable in contact with the valve so the heat transfers effectively from the cable to the valve. Next, do your best to insulate the valve to protect it from the cold. This often means getting a little creative with the same insulation you use for the pipe. You can use a scissors to cut the insulation into one or more shapes and then secure those shapes to the valve with tape (duct tape works well). Speaking of tape, remember to use our fiberglass installation tape to secure the cable to the pipe.
Radiant Solutions Self-Regulating Heat Tape changes its heat output based on the temperatures of its surrounding environment. At any given point, depending on the temperatures outside, the cable could be a range of temperatures. However, its peak temperature is not very hot –typically between 60º-85º when operating in a cool environment. Another way to think about it is that as long as the cable is above freezing it will do its job, which is to create and maintain melted pathways through snow and ice.
This gives our Heat Tape a great advantage over the heat tape you can buy in ‘Big Box’ retailers, because it creates enough warmth to effectively do its job, but won’t do damage to surfaces that it touches. Additionally, our heat cable can be overlapped without concern. Heat Tape that is not self-regulating (i.e., ‘constant wattage’) can not do this (they have explicit warnings in the directions not to do this for risk of fire).
We have even witnessed a coil of crappy big box heat tape starting a fire because it got plugged in when it was still coiled. (Yikes!)
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.
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.
Every Length of Heat Tape Pro has a cord length of 10-feet that is not included in the listed/state length. Meaning: A 100-foot Heat Tape pro will have a 100 feet of heated cable + a 10-foot unheated power cord.
Every Length of Pipe Freeze Pro has a cord length of 3-feet (36″) that is not included in the listed/state length. Meaning: A 30-foot Heat Tape pro will have a 30 feet of heated cable + a 3-foot unheated power cord.
The short answer is NO. Self-regulating heat cable does not turn itself on and off automatically. To do that you need to put the cable on a switched circuit or outlet or on a controller. Of course, you can also be old-school about it and simply plug and unplug as needed.
“Self-Regulating” refers to the fact that these cables are temperature sensitive. Due to their construction, these cables sense changes in temperature along their entire length, demanding more power as temps fall and less when they rise.
PipeFreeeze Pro™, Pipe Freeze Protection Solution has a built in thermostatic switch, meaning it will turn on and off on it’s own.
Heat Tape Pro™, does not contain a built-in thermostatic controller. We recommend adding the ThermaCord™ Thermostatic controller to turn your Heat Tape PRO to turn the cable on and off with changes in temperature.
