Heat tape burn marks.

[norcal707]

So I've been using this cserpants v18 rack for just over a year. Today I went to put a new probe on it for my herpstat instead of the ve-100. And noticed that on the fire retardant side of the tape showing on the 2 levels have burn marks.... I bout it brand new and have the thermostat set to 90.... any ideas why? Should I replace the heat tape or contact Chris and find out what's up???

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[Sauzo]

Thats weird. I would definitely replace it and also call the guy and see if Flexwatt has a customer support line and call them. I cant give much help as i have never used the new flame retardant stuff. i just use the original flexwatt and have never seen any weird scorch marks like that. Are the marks also on the bottom of the tubs?

I cant imagine it would be getting too hot as i assume you have the probes sitting directly on the flexwatt so no matter what you put on top of them, they will only get as hot as you set it because the probes are sitting directly on the flexwatt.

[norcal707]

no marks on the tubs... yeah I'm contacting chris and see what he says.. it shouldn't have these marks this early, ever... I have the probe taped in the corner right on the heat tape. first time ive seen this before....

Thats weird. I would definitely replace it and also call the guy and see if Flexwatt has a customer support line and call them. I cant give much help as i have never used the new flame retardant stuff. i just use the original flexwatt and have never seen any weird scorch marks like that. Are the marks also on the bottom of the tubs?

I cant imagine it would be getting too hot as i assume you have the probes sitting directly on the flexwatt so no matter what you put on top of them, they will only get as hot as you set it because the probes are sitting directly on the flexwatt.

[SDA]

Yeah there is no way heat tape regulated like that should be scorching like that. Only thing I could even think of is too long of a strip for one thermostat to adequately regulate but then again people do this all the time without it doing this. If this is a 4 shelf rack that would be even worse. Something is definitely up here.

Wait did you have this controlled by a ve 100 or a herpstat? Ve 100 is on off control and not proportional so just like having a herpstat it can run far hotter than the set temp. That would be my only other thought. You could have it set to 90 on say the bottom rack and the top gets to 100 due to using an on/off controller like the ve-100. Again that is wild speculation because I am sure others do this as well. If a portion of that tape got over 110 degrees, given enough time and having a tub over it could insulate it to over that and it could scorch. That is just theoretical minimum to cause a thermal burn but again this shouldn't be happening.

Not knocking RBIs thermostats but anything less than the VE 200 is not proportional heating.

[norcal707]

Yeah there is no way heat tape regulated like that should be scorching like that. Only thing I could even think of is too long of a strip for one thermostat to adequately regulate but then again people do this all the time without it doing this. If this is a 4 shelf rack that would be even worse. Something is definitely up here.

Wait did you have this controlled by a ve 100 or a herpstat? Ve 100 is on off control and not proportional so just like having a herpstat it can run far hotter than the set temp. That would be my only other thought. You could have it set to 90 on say the bottom rack and the top gets to 100 due to using an on/off controller like the ve-100. Again that is wild speculation because I am sure others do this as well. If a portion of that tape got over 110 degrees, given enough time and having a tub over it could insulate it to over that and it could scorch. That is just theoretical minimum to cause a thermal burn but again this shouldn't be happening.

Not knocking RBIs thermostats but anything less than the VE 200 is not proportional heating.

I was using a ve100 and it's only a 4 shelf rack and the probe is on the second shelf. I've never herd of a ve 100 causing this issue but then again things do happen.... I talked to Chris at cserpants and he is contacting the manufacture and go from there..

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