Reptile basics and THG for me, but I have not used any other heat tape.

I have tried to solder the connections and can not seem to not melt the plastic around the cooper strips. This causes an air gap that leads to arching and more melting. I put electric tape over it buy I would be lying to say that it doesn't still make me a bit nervous. My new method is whole punching the mat and slipping in those ring connectors, then I put a crushable copper sleeve trough both holes. I use a hammer and a metal tap to hammer the sleeve down around the ring.