When the heat rope burns out the entire heat rope burns out not only in spots, when I had the heat tape it burned out in the same spot down the whole rack. I used 2 different thermostats to see if that was the case, it still burned out with a new thermostat that I had only used once previously on my incubator. When I installed the heat tape I did it the way the instructions dictated. I made sure it didnt twist in the process and it worked fine for about 6 months before it just stops working