Rack heat tape

Hello!

I am planning on building a rack pretty soon but I had question about the heat tape installing.
I have seen couple different ways of installing heat tape, which were separate heat tape pieces connected with wire into one power cord and just one long heat tape going through all levels of rack.
I am probably going to build 2~3 level rack first and I was planning on doing just one long piece of heat tape through the rack. However, I was wondering, if the heat tape is slightly bent and is going through different levels, heat tape would end up being upside down on one of the level, if you guys understand what I am saying.

So basically, my question is, is it okay to have heat tape upside down? any problem with it giving off heat?

I have heat tape installed that way on a couple of my racks and it hasn't given me any issues. It heats up just the same no matter which side is up.

I haven’t built a rack yet but I think the safe way to do it is by putting the tape along the bottom of each tub and then running the wires in parallel to the one power cord.

Series is how you want it, and let's you control the entire run with 1 device.

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Originally Posted by gusanr14

Hello!

I am planning on building a rack pretty soon but I had question about the heat tape installing.
I have seen couple different ways of installing heat tape, which were separate heat tape pieces connected with wire into one power cord and just one long heat tape going through all levels of rack.
I am probably going to build 2~3 level rack first and I was planning on doing just one long piece of heat tape through the rack. However, I was wondering, if the heat tape is slightly bent and is going through different levels, heat tape would end up being upside down on one of the level, if you guys understand what I am saying.

So basically, my question is, is it okay to have heat tape upside down? any problem with it giving off heat?

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Keep the bend gentle and you'll only have roof heatIng if you intentionally run it that way. You should end up with floor & 1 side heated on a continuous run. If you mean just 1 side vs the other being up, doesn't matter.