Testing EasyHeat 2102 Freeze Free Heating Cable

Test Conditions:
About 12" of 1/2" AquaPEX tubing was capped at both ends and filled with water. A 12" strip of EasyHeat 2102 was applied in a straight line along the PEX tube with 3M electrical tape (per mfg indicated procedure). The heat tape was then connected to a fuse block (EasyHeat 10802).
The PEX tube and heat tape was then wrapped in 1/2" foam pipe insulation (trimmed for smaller diameter of PEX), wrapped in electrical tape and placed in the freezer overnight.
Temps were measured at ~ 17F
Energy consumption was 5W
After 10 hours the assembly was removed from the freezer and inspected. No frost was observed.

[@Deltro61]

Troy hear from Fairbanks Alaska where we know a thing or two about the cold! This easyheat cable is one of the easiest ones I found to make to custom lengths in the field, and is far less finicky about blowing breakers, etc. than some other cables I've used. Sometimes the smallest amount of dampness will cause these things to trip breakers. Within the instruction kit easy heat will tell you how many wraps of the tape you need to make per foot or to put another way the frequency of the wraps based on temperature, pipe type, etc. I've installed this on P-trap's down to 40 below zero, and it works well. For water lines I would use a 6 W per foot. One of the reasons for the extra wattage is if the water does happen to freeze, it takes a lot more power to unthaw a frozen pipe than it does to just keep it from freezing to begin with. More than once I've had to call out a professional to thaw my well line. I would say the devil is in the detail with any heat tape. You want to make absolutely certain you got good contact with the pipe, and don't miss any areas or otherwise have gaps. Seems simple enough but you'd be surprised how many people loosely wrap a cable like this around the pipe. The other thing is the job is not complete until you wrap it with insulation. That's going to keep whatever heat that does escape close to the pipe. Here in Alaska we actually spray foam the pipe with a good 6 inches of urethane foam, and that is key. There's no way a heat tape like this is going to keep up with 40 below zero without some good insulation coverage. I think it's as important as the heat tape itself. This is one product that has consistently perform well for me, but again the devil is in the details. I would also suggest to people they wrap in fiberglass, and not cotton rolls to prevent the possibility of fire. Really only an issue if the tape shorts out, but it can happen.

[@traditionrider]

Troy, I have the Easy Heat Freeze Free installed in a home in Northern AZ. Yes, it gets cold albeit not Alaska cold here. I noticed the system was tripping breakers due to the in-rush current. Seems there is a warm-up period of about six minutes where the heat cable draws 2-3 times the rated current. For 240 feet of this stuff on 4 circuits I broke it into two 15A service lines. Normal steady state current at 3W per foot should only be about 6 amps for all. This is a remote home and it is temperature regulated with a bimetal switch, on at 35 deg F and off at 44 deg F. The pipes are under a home crawl space and the outside temp needs to get below 17 deg F to turn on the system. Also, my installation is under the pipe not around it, so due to installation there are a few spots where the heat cables run together. At this point, the water in the pipe gets to 90 degrees F, single pass runs get to 75 deg F. So even though the heat cable is "self regulating" I am working on a circuit that regulates the temperature of the pipe to keep temperatures above freezing while not too hot as to waste energy. Let me know if you are interested in testing it in Alaska. Cheers,

[@nicolesoftic7107]

Is that orange sensor supposed to blink or be a steady light? Is that a thermostat?

[@SeecondToNone1]

He was just showing the temperature. It was 17 degrees in the freezer and in for 10 hour's.