IN-DEPTH Review of Self-Regulating Heat Cable Brands! Which does your installer use?

To purchase Drexan Self-Regulating cable directly from us, visit heatcable.com/shop/
Not all self regulating heat cable is created equally! Watch to see the differences between each, and learn why we choose Drexan. We know this is a longer video, so click the timestamps below to get to each brand:
Easy Heat: 0:22
Heatizon: 3:05
Proline: 6:10
Deltatherm/Heat Trace: 9:50
Raychem: 14:45
Drexan: 18:35

[@mattski1979]

Dude, the world's most predictable problem happens to us from our electric furnace. There's 6' of condensation line that was run on the outside of the house. When it freezes our furnace stops working. I'd love to get one of those and band clamp it to the condensate line for when we're in winter. Your video's in depth as hell. Thank you. You're awesome. I appreciate it.

[@happylandcampground4388]

Would love to see a review of the Heat It brand cables found on Amazon and manufactured in China. Not considering buying any, I just see plenty of 1-star reviews on their products talking about how they've failed within one or two months, and one review with a photo of a burned out house which was caused by one of their products. Would be really interesting to see what the guts on those ones look like.

[@joyful4350]

Thank you for the presentation. I purchased Drexan multi trace for a portion of my home due to this video! First snowfall of year today and they are working perfectly 🙂

[@kenschleede9382]

Very detailed breakdown of the manufacturing quality and your experiences. Thank you for taking the time to put it together.

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Thanks for watching!

[@tcmusic_thomas_upton]

I appreciate your expertise and the research you have done to put a top shelf product out there. We just recently purchased and installed a Wasatch system for our church building. It looks great, and with the high quality heat cable you supplied, we look forward to many trouble free years of running this heating application.

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Thank you for letting us help with your project! We're glad your church building will be protected from the elements moving forward.

[@dsmasynergy]

VERY useful info, thanks for making this video!

[@raywilliams4967]

Excellent presentation. Very informative.

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@cburgz3697]

Thank you, great video.

[@joseywales7930]

Very informative. Thanks for sharing.

[@highnoon907]

Thank you for your informative videos. I am having the Drexan multi trace installed soon here in Chicago area. What is the best setting temperature wise to set on the DS-9C controller? Or should I leave it on factory setting? I plan on using that and the cdp-2 for indoor monitoring

[@jimmcdaniel6292]

Excellent review!

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Glad you liked it!

[@clearnewview]

Great video...!!!👍

[@loumoral1]

Love your comparisons. How does Drexan compare to Radiant Heat solutions in Minnesota?

[@chris3m98]

Thank you for your knowledge. I was just searching the computer when I ran across your youtube video. I was wondering if Drexan could be used to put on my ramp to remove snow? There is a 3/16 " gap between boards, I have to hire someone to remove the snow. Sometimes they don't come & I have to leave the house.

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Thanks Chris! That's a good question. Drexan would fit in that gap, but we're not sure it would heat up the wood enough to melt the snow for you. We might try it for a future research project. Hope this helps!

[@shane_taylor]

Question about the number of cycles you mention toward the end. Is that power on/off cycles, or is that extreme temp change cycles, as in affects-the-materials cycles. I would probably want to put the system on my home automation system to be able to control the power supply to it at any time, from any where, and even have it programmed to not be energized at all above a certain temperature. Would such a power turn on/turn off cycle be detrimental to the components in regard to cycle 'lifetime'?

[@claudeisabel]

Très bonnes explications sur les différents câbles. Probablement le meilleur vidéo que j'ai vu sur KZbin! Félicitations et merci. Thanks for this video. Very informative. May be the best that I have ever seen on KZbin. Do you have an opinion on Heat-Line cable?

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Thanks Claude! We don't know anything about Heat-Line cable. Best wishes!

[@claudeisabel]

@@wasatchheatcable8757 Thanks

[@scottknorpp257]

I came across this video after the fact. However, just for my information, what are your thoughts about Hidden Heat (I believe manufactured by Helmet Heat) parallel self-regulating Heater cables.

[@lm1826]

can you put heat cable in the gutter only?

[@narcislight]

Excellent review, ... Do you know the Radiant solution co. ? They call their cable ETL or Heat Tape Pro and they sell on Amazon ? Thank you, Daniel from Canada

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Thank you Daniel! We know who they are. Steve Kuhl does a great job at Radiant Solutions Co.

[@wayneflett6816]

These cables , do they turn on and the whole thing heats up? Where is the thermostat located. For instance, I only need like 10-12ft. I'll have 1 ft. in cabin 6 ft. under cabin 3 ft. under ground. You covered the basics very well. You mentioned 220. Bad in my case. I was thinking having 2 cables insulating our pipe. One temperature set at 34 degrees, the other 36. I'm sure there is at least 1 other person out there with same or simular questions. Thank you for being out there. Cooler weather heading this way . CANADA.

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

To answer your questions. 1. You're going to need a thermostat to power the electrical circuit. The cable only regulates it's heat out-put based on the ambient temperature around it. Question 2. We've never seen two cables on a water pipe unless it's really large in diameter. If you have any further questions or need parts please visit our retail site at heatcable.com.

[@jerrysmith9780]

Again, amazing detail. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge. You like direcsan? How do you spell that? It was hard to make the name out in the video.

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

The name is Drexan. Thanks for watching!

[@mbasmileskea1677]

@@wasatchheatcable8757 drexan

[@bobmariano3731]

Are you familiar with Frost King line of cables ? ? Great video thx 👍

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Yes, we are. We have tried several types of self regulating heat cables and Drexan is by far the best. You can purchase it at heatcable.com along with the components needed for your heat cable project. 801-896-8960

[@cohenkevinloriqueen818]

I need some heat tape for a rain shower head piping that is in my bathroom ceiling ... The pipe is in the attic and there is about 2 1/2 feet of copper pipe total.. about 6 inches of the pipe is vertical and then 2 feet is horizontal.. I'm not sure if the horizontal will hold water when the shower head is not being used, but I know that the vertical pipe will hold water... The attic is insulated with blown fiberglass and these pipes are covered with about a foot and a half of the insulation...This is a new install and has not been exposed to cold weather yet, but I live in Ohio so it will get around 0 degrees or so this winter... Can you recommend what heat tape I should use? Does it matter if some of the pipe has water, and some doesn't ?

[@user-pg7mk9hu6i]

Hi, your video is really helpful. Could you just add text with names of products for easier following? Thank you!

[@lawrencetaylor5481]

I have a mobile home and live in North Dakota. My heat tape just died and my pipes froze. I didn't put the heat tape on, bought it this way and know nothing about the stuff. What would you recommend? Any help is appreciated.

[@mrjoehimself]

How do I connect it to a 12v battery?

[@Heinousology]

Eric what would happen if someone accidentally put 1 lead of 120v to the ground shield and the ground to one of the wire leads on 240v self reg trace?

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Good question, David. It should trip the breaker immediately.

[@10aumabran]

Can you provide the model of the Delta-Therm cables tested?

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Sure! It was the Roof and Gutter De-icing Cables we tested.

[@martinlemke861]

what would be the best plus to attach to Drexan self regulating heat cable,

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Hi Martin - Do you mean plug? We recommend a GFEP pigtail. If you'd like to purchase a SR heat cable kit, we can help you out. Give us a call at 801-896-8960 In a few months our heatcable.com site will be up and running for future needs.

[@paulwangerin2416]

Not sure what happened to my earlier post, but here is most of it again. Great review. You would make a good college teachers (which is what I was until just recently). We're installing synthetic slate roof on a 115 year old landmark-potential house in Chicago. We're thinking of installing a de-icing system in a couple places in the gutters, at the bottom of some valleys. We'll probably use Dextran cables. But, question: Edge Melt Systems sells a product that involves what it calls a "cable bracket." This NOT really a "bracket" but, rather, aluminum channel pieces -- they are 5 feet long -- that run the entire length of the gutter and enclose the cable, either a single cable or a double cable. The theory seems to be that the aluminum pieces increase the heated area and thus improve the efficiency of the heating. Have you used something like this? (RayChem seems to have a somewhat similar product, but less robust.) What do you think of this idea? Is it worth adding these aluminum channel pieces? (Obviously, the use of these pieces significantly increases the cost of the installation over that of just use of the cable in the bottom of the gutter.) Thanks Paul Wangerin.

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Thanks Paul. Glad you like the information. You can't go wrong with Drexan Multitrace SR Heat Cable. Although we don't use the channels you're describing in our installations, we HAVE done some extensive testing between aluminum, steel and copper for our heated panels. We've found that copper has the best performance in transferring heat to the material. Steel is second and aluminum, dead last. We had high expectations for aluminum, but we're disappointed to see that it underperformed in transferring the heat. We are NOT convinced that you need to channel heat as we've had huge success without using them. If you're looking for better performance than just laying cable in the gutter, you might want to consider copper and we have a few ideas. Check out heatcable.com/shop/ for any products to aid in your project(s). There are more things to come there. We're happy to discuss your project further if want to give us a call.

[@paulwangerin4842]

Thx. I saw your video etc. on copper, steel, aluminum. Your reply confirms that akuminum brackets orobably don't add much. Another question. A contractor I know and like in Chicago has done a bunch of jobs with RayChem cables. If I ask him to do my job but ask him to upgrade to Drexan cables, will the installation, etc. be similar to installation of RayChem? Or will it be totally new to him? Also: Could this guy use the controllers, accessories, he normally uses with RayChem also with Drexan cables? I ask both questions because I don't want to scare away this guy - who I like a lot from a bunch of jobs - from doing my gutter job with a better kind of cable than he generally uses. Thx. Paul W

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

All good questions. 1. The installation will be similar to Raychem. 2. Although, Raychem accessories would work okay with the Drexan cables, the components won't last as long as the one's we use for Drexan. We've replaced far too many products like these for customers for various durability/functionality issues, so we don't recommend it. And Drexan cable is expected to last 25+. We don't think he would be scared away anyways. In fact, he might end up liking the install better (simpler) and will make that change. Give us call for more info or have him contact us. We'll provide ongoing customer support and have a dealer training program starting up. We even have a few additional leads in Chicago area. heatcable.com/ is 801-896-8690 or WHC 801-866-1110 Thanks - Maria

[@paulwangerin2416]

Thanks. I'm going to ask my guy to explore the possibility of using Drexan stuff. I'll also tell him to consider one of your training programs, at least if it's "remote." (He's in Chicago, like me.) Paul

[@carllandahl7954]

Have you tried BriskHeat?

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

We have not tried BriskHeat. Let us know your experience if you do. Drexan is our SR product of choice. Thanks!

[@Paufit]

what exactly is meant by cycles in this case ??

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Hello. If I understand your question correctly, cycle would be referring to turning your cable on and off. Any time it is turned on and off, that is one cycle.

[@Paufit]

@@wasatchheatcable8757 I thought these type of cables are always on at some level, unless you use a thermo cube outlet ? thanks

[@johnwooton2008]

What cable do you feel has best combination of flexibility and durability?

[@ericwimmer3230]

Drexan has the best durability by far but the most flexible was Proline. I don't feel that proline had that much better of flexibility than Drexan to compromise on the reliability. I have seen two projects with proline that completely ignited and blew the gfep with out any reason. Drexan is the cable I would use.

[@rafb145]

So that’s the only product you sell on your site, are you their only distributor in us?

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

We sell multiple products for heat cable systems on our site. As far as we know, yes. Let me know if there's anything specific you are looking for! We're happy to ship them out.

[@amashatark8746]

I can used aheat cable for Condenser air conditioner.please back to me?

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

This is not something we have ever tried. Drexan Mulitrace SR Heat Cable does have a variety of uses, depending on your needs this might work for you, but we need more information. See link below for a plug and play product. heatcable.com/product-category/factory-terminated-kits/ Please call us at 801-896-8960. We're happy to help.

[@amashatark8746]

I work in air conditioners and our area is very cold. I can use aheat cable for Condenser air conditioner.please back to me؟

[@wasatchheatcable8757]

Sounds like heat cable might work to keep your condenser from freezing up in the winter, we just don't have experience with it. Maybe try the things listed here first: www.professionalservicestoday.com/what-to-do-to-prevent-your-hvac-unit-from-freezing-up-in-the-winter Best wishes!

[@bettykeller1245]

Where to get drexan does Menards handle it