Heat tape is making my fingers tingle. Question!

I just got to setting up my rack, and when I touch certain sections of one of my strips of heat tape, it makes my fingers tingle like they fell asleep. I've never used heat tape before so I don't know if that's normal. But in most situations it normally means I have a short somewhere and that its bad, right? Both sides of my heat tape are taped with aluminum foil tape, with only the middle sticking out. Should I cover the whole section? Or does that mean that I'm going to have to order another section from RBI and wait another week? Ugh, its really disappointing.

Alright, I've kinda figured it out a little bit. I'm only getting shocked when my fingers are touching both sides of the foil tape. Now if I take my fingers and put them in the middle, (where the heat tape is showing) I'm not getting shocked. So does anyone have any suggestions to make it stop?

Aluminum tape is conductive. Make sure all your connections are insulated with electrical tape, including the end that isn't wired up.

lol try touching both clamps at once...it'll give you a little more than a tingle. Trust me I tried it a few years back, fun stuff haha. But forreal, cover the connections with electrical tape. Don't cover your flexwatt with it, just the connections. And Kaorte is right, aluminum is conductive because it's a metal (imagine sticking a fork into a socket, not saying you will get shocked badly like that, just think of the fact that you CAN get shocked simply by touching the metal)

X2 about the electrical tape. Tape off all open connections with the electrical. The once everything is sealed, go ahead and use foil tape to secure the heat tape down.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

So I need to use electrical tape on both "ends" of the heat tape? Right now the only part that has electrical tape is the sides with the wiring on them. Sounds easy enough I hope!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Montypython696

So I need to use electrical tape on both "ends" of the heat tape? Right now the only part that has electrical tape is the sides with the wiring on them. Sounds easy enough I hope!

---

Hmm I'm a little confused about this, so is the aluminum tape in contact with any connections, wiring, etc, or is it strictly only touching the plastic exterior of the flexwatt?


I've been assuming the heat tape is flexwatt. Am I wrong?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Montypython696

So I need to use electrical tape on both "ends" of the heat tape? Right now the only part that has electrical tape is the sides with the wiring on them. Sounds easy enough I hope!

---

Yes, the opposite end where the flexwatt is cut will have a small part of exposed metal. That is most likely why you are feeling the shock. Just cover them with electrical tape and you will be good to go :gj:

Flexwatt = heat tape. Same stuff

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kaorte

Flexwatt = heat tape. Same stuff

---

That's what I was assuming, but then I realized maybe I should double check

The heat tape is from RBI its THG heat tape.