Heat tape is making my fingers tingle. Question!

The reality is that you shouldn't have any exposed contacts for the electrical conductance of foil tape to matter. If the heat tape is leaking electricity it needs to either be repaired or replaced. In the case of this thread all that was necessary was to put a piece of electrical tape over the bus bars at the very end of the piece of heat tape.

Using duct tape or gorilla tape will work, but it will create a huge sticky mess if you ever need to pull it apart. the biggest advantage of foil tape is that the adhesive is designed with heat in mind and does't make a mess.

I have a sample of THG and just as a side note and to prevent further issues when I disenfected it it wicked disenfectant into the power bus. The non laminated cover (over the bus) allows liquid entry. I would suggest sealing the open ends very carefully I would use blue silicone myself but some suggest liquid eletrical tape. The second thing I found it has a up and down side, the top is the side you can read Made in Korea the other side where it is reversed should be down. My little sample had a rough time shipping and there is a small portion delaminating. It is likely safer to keep the smaller section down to protect it from rubbing of tubs sliding over the surface.

I have been getting the "tingle" question for 15+ years. While putting the aluminum across exposed ends is a bad idea the tingle is generally from an induced charge, not contact. AC current through a conductor has a neat property of being able to induce a current in another conductor when separated by an insulator. This is how transformers work. It is something that is actually kind of tricky to do on purpose but every now and then you get a perfect storm of tape length and spacing and it happens. Any brand, any time, any place.
The simple way to avoid it is to use the foil tape along only the clear edge of the heat tape (again, any brand). Do that and you should be good to go, no more tingle. If you use heat tape on a metal shelf this can also happen so ideally you either ground the shelf - which is about a necessity for safety on a metal shelf anyhow - or you can use a non conductive platform on the shelf like thin plastic.

We recently started selling this product-

http://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-ta...le-layer-tape/

It is heat resistant and does an excellent job without the possibility of induced electric current. Not ideal in all situations but make a very nice alternative and it has almost zero thickness. Might want to try it out some time!

LOL full circle. For years people have been trying to remove the sticky from heat products.

This is why I never understood why people are always recommending foil tape. Why on earth would you use something that conducts electricity to attach an electrical device to something? That never made any sense to me. I tape up all the edges with electrical tape and if necessary attach it to the shelves with duct tape.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

This is why I never understood why people are always recommending foil tape. Why on earth would you use something that conducts electricity to attach an electrical device to something? That never made any sense to me. I tape up all the edges with electrical tape and if necessary attach it to the shelves with duct tape.

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I would not recommend duct tape at all.

With any kind of heat, it tends to gum up pretty bad. If you have any friction from the sliding of tubs, it also tends to roll at the edges.

I have always used the aluminum tape because once it is stuck down, it tends to stay. Doesn't bubble or loosen back up, doesn't catch at the endges, and it is friction resistant.

Reptile Basics is now offering a thin double stick tape for heat tape installation, and it is working very well for their setups over time. It has a heat rating way over the operating range of heat tape, so shouldn't gum up or release when installed. Check it out here: http://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-ta...le-layer-tape/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarkS

This is why I never understood why people are always recommending foil tape. Why on earth would you use something that conducts electricity to attach an electrical device to something? That never made any sense to me. I tape up all the edges with electrical tape and if necessary attach it to the shelves with duct tape.

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Foil tape is made for temp swings from cool to hot, that's why it is used in insulation and duct work.
Duct tape is just a plain mess to work with and after my first rack.................. will never be used again on my heat source ;) It didn't handle tub rub and when it started to roll off it left a huge glue mess behind.

I tried foil tape at first, but it didn't take long for me to switch. I also wondered why everyone recommended securing heat tape with a conductive material. I took off all of the foil tape (not fun trying to get it all off the rack AND the heat tape) and I replaced it with blue painters' tape. It's held up great over time and has been easy to remove when needed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Robyn@SYR

I would not recommend duct tape at all.

With any kind of heat, it tends to gum up pretty bad. If you have any friction from the sliding of tubs, it also tends to roll at the edges.

I have always used the aluminum tape because once it is stuck down, it tends to stay. Doesn't bubble or loosen back up, doesn't catch at the endges, and it is friction resistant.

Reptile Basics is now offering a thin double stick tape for heat tape installation, and it is working very well for their setups over time. It has a heat rating way over the operating range of heat tape, so shouldn't gum up or release when installed. Check it out here: http://www.reptilebasics.com/heat-ta...le-layer-tape/

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It can be a mess to get off but I hadn't noticed that it was any worse then other tapes I've used. I do use a high temperature duct tape so maybe that makes a difference? I think I will give that sticky heat tape a try though.

I am sure a high temp version makes a huge difference over the off-the-shelf stuff.

Blue painters tape, that is intriguing. I wonder if it dries up and cracks over time?