3" flex watt only heating 1.5" wide

This evening i was fortunate to pick up 3 very nice snakes from someone who is downsizing. a male Karma, Female Black Pastel, and Female Mystic. I was setting up the tubs in my spare bedroom (which is my first time using tubs) and i was putting down the 3" flexwatt that came with it. I have been monitoring the temperature of the strip with my heat gun and ive noticed that only one side of the flexwatt seems to get hot. It does heat up the black stripes but according to my gun, lets say the "left" edge reads like 78, the middle around 85, and the "right" edge reads 95. Im waiting on a new herptsat 2 to get here so she threw in a dial thermostat to get me through until it arrives. the thing is, it keeps shutting on and off and i have yet to see a surface temp in the tubs above 80. I dont know if this means the flexwatt is bad or if it just isnt being allowed to heat up enough with the thermostat kicking on and off. Even plugged straight into the wall, only one side of the tape gets to 105. Any advice would be great.

I have never heard of that before. I am guessing you have it wired wrong. Maybe one side of the connection is faulty or it disconnected itself. I'd have to be there to really sort out the issue.

One wire on each black bar right, not on each end of a black bar?

Correct. It came already wired and seems to be getting hot, I just thought it would be hot evenly across the 3" width. The funny thing is, the hot side changes when you flip it over. You can't feel or detect heat on the left side when it's laid one way, but flip it over and that same side is hot!

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Originally Posted by FranklinMorphs

One wire on each black bar right, not on each end of a black bar?

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u mean one wire/clip to each copper lining. the copper wiring from the wire should make contact with the copper lining on the heat tape to conduct electricity for proper heating.

Right. I haven't actually undone the tape she has on there to look at it yet. I just noticed that if I started with my temp gun on one edge and ran it across the 3" width there was a big difference from one edge to the other and I don't know why! This is my first time with tubs and I'm terrified of messing it up. I've got a herpstat 2 and more flexwatt in the mail, but haven't gotten tracking info yet. Being the holidays I hope it doesn't take forever.


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if u are using an on/off thermostat, the heating might be inconsistent b/c of just that - it's turning on and off. so the heat tape is constantly heating up and down, therefore u have variation in temps across the heat tape. a proportional thermostat like a Herpstat should provide enough constant power to maintain the more consistent temp u set it too.