Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

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.