Flex watt heat tape buzzing?

My heat tape is making a buzzing noise. I just laid down my heat tape on a metal rack today. What is this noise? Will this affect my heat tape?

You might have a short!

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Originally Posted by LizardPants

You might have a short!

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There is still heat output, its just making this buzzing noise. Will this become an issue?

If there is a short that is a HUGE safety issue! Please unplug it, and re-check your wiring!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LizardPants

If there is a short that is a HUGE safety issue! Please unplug it, and re-check your wiring!

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I had this wired by the people at Reptile Basics. It has worked great up to this point. We just put together a metal rack today. Will this damage my heat tape? How can it short through the laminate on the tape itself?

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Originally Posted by JABA

I had this wired by the people at Reptile Basics. It has worked great up to this point. We just put together a metal rack today. Will this damage my heat tape? How can it short through the laminate on the tape itself?

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Call Rich first thing tomorrow! He wired it, ask him! He will be more than willing to tell you what to do with it. Trust me :gj:

If it's been used before and moved around, I would check if the laminate is worn through (with it unplugged of course). Flexwatt wears out over time.

Things can rattle loose over shipping. I bought an old rack and the flexwat was buzzing and actually quite loud. I pulled it all out and found bad wiring and poor old broken joints after everything was re wired it has made no sounds at all.

mine does this too but im not using it right now. rich wired mine too before he shipped it. i had it running for about a week and it buzzed the whole time but it didnt cause any problems. maybe ill call if you dont and ask him whats up

I may be totally wrong here but recently I set up a qt tub and put the tub on top of a metal grating of sorts - I quickly learned that the metal was interacting with the heat tape - every time I touched anything it would malfunction my Helix - I believe it was some sort of current between the heat tape and the conductivity of the metal - try using something less conductive like wood. I ended up putting my tub on a glass - it worked fine after that.

Just my thoughts.