Fold a small piece of paper a couple layers thick until it's about 3"x2" and put the paper over the probe against the heat tape. Then tightly tape down the ends of the paper to the heat tape. Now the probe will be secured without actually taping over it. The main reason for not taping over the probe is that when you do that it holds heat on/in the probe causing it to cut off/reduce power to the tape before reaching the proper temperature. People who are taping over the probe are probably running their thermostat at a higher temperature than actually necessary. Using the method I described leaves open space on either side of the probe for ventilation and the paper itself doesn't hold much heat at all. Problem solved.