Urgent! Heating....

Linds · 03-05-04, 04:46 PM

Well the heat tape in my rack died and I have been unable to locate anyone with a surplus so far. I remember someone stating they found a hardware store or something that carried it? I don't want to have to resot to ordering up from the states, as it is a very pressing matter. Any info on the whereabouts of this would be appreciated greatly!

Big Mike · 03-05-04, 04:53 PM

Is the whole length dead? Have you tried to reconnect the wires and checked all the plugs etc.? Maybe you could even cut off a small bit of the end and connect the wires to a fresh patch.

Sorry I don't know where to get any

tHeGiNo · 03-05-04, 04:57 PM

I believe Grant at PCPC has some.

Siretsap · 03-05-04, 05:07 PM

Tehre is a good alternative, use the heat wires that canadian tire sell to heat the roof to melt the ice, they come in different sizez and wattages...

Linds · 03-05-04, 05:10 PM

Big Mike,
The connection is very, very secure where it is. I haven't tried to cut off the length a bit and reconnect it, I will give it a shot though. Hopefully it works :/

tHeGiNo,
I have tried Grant, Chris, and Chris, and none of them have any 3" available right now. Nobody I have contacted has any either.

m1k3_88 · 03-05-04, 05:19 PM

Mykee sayd he had some a while back, dont know if it was 3'' though

Linds · 03-05-04, 05:31 PM

Big Mike,
Phew! Thanks for the suggestion, it worked!

Soooo relieved now...

Mike,
Mykee was selling the 11" and 4", but thanks for the suggestion :0

Jeff_Favelle · 03-05-04, 09:10 PM

4" is better than 3". It uses less watts as well.

mykee · 03-05-04, 09:27 PM

Unfortunately, I don't have any 3", it seems that not too many people use it. Good luck with the search though Linds.

Linds · 03-05-04, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeff_Favelle
4" is better than 3". It uses less watts as well.

I know, unfortunately that is what my rack is built for. I didn't build it and when I had it built, just went on the advice of the person putting it all together at the time. They said that was what worked best for them, and I hadn't looked in to it at the time. I hate it though. Totally useless IMHO. Gets waaaaayyy too hot and doesn't even provide as large as hot spot for the wattage used :/ My next rack is just going to be using 11" down the back, or I may also give that purty-smelling heat rope a try. It seemed really neat when I was playing with it last year. I'm actually planning on picking some at the next show up for when the heat tape dies for real, I would rather replace it with something besides the 3".

I am a very relieved girl now though. I thought my kids were gonna end up the weekend without heat. I was gonna have to boost the ambient heat until Tuesday, and screw up all the breeding snakes that are being cooled right now

Jeff_Favelle · 03-05-04, 10:38 PM

Breathing a sigh of relief for ya!! Always good to start the weekend with a bang eh? LOL!

Stockwell · 03-06-04, 02:12 AM

Linds, flexwatt heat tape never burns out, its not really even possible.. I can guarantee you that you have an open circuit(break) somewhere, probably at the connector, where the cord is attached. If the crimp connector is wiggley or arcs when you move it, that is the point where the problem is
I recommend you simply reconnect it, if you can't find an obvious break.
If you don't have more of those special flexwatt crimp on things, then just use ring terminals on the line cord and put screws through the ring right into the silver buss runners on the heat tape, and into the wood.

Stockwell · 03-06-04, 02:15 AM

Also it might be your dimmer. Plug the flexwatt directly into a wall socket that is proven good with some other appliance.. and see if it heats up.
Send me an email if you need anymore pointers trouble shooting this problem