Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So I just built my first rack; it's a horizontal design with six slots for 41qt tubs. Anyway, I just finished taping down 20' of flexwatt, which I decided to 'snake' down in one continuous strip. Now after plugging into the Helix and getting everything squared away, I'm noticing a pretty loud buzzing noise coming from the heat tape. My question..... is this normal?

It is 60Hz noise. Not all that uncommon, but more common when one of the connections is not solid. Can also occur when Flexwatt is covered by a conductor like aluminum tape. Magnetic field flows around it, manifests itself as noise. Grounding the tape can help alot. 3-wire plug - ground wire to the aluminum tape if that is what you used.

The hum is not dangerous, but darn annoying.
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Mark

Hey Mark, it has to be that because I did use aluminum foil tape to secure the flexwatt. By grounding the tape with a 3 wire plug, what exactly do you mean? ...Please excuse my ignorance...

Use a cord and plug with a hot, neutral, and ground. Hook hot(black) to one side of FW, neutral(white) to the other. You should have a bare copper or green wire left over. Attach it to the tape. Make sure your tape is continuous or you will need to "jump" the breaks

I take it back!

The problem with what I told you about grounding the tape is this: if you short-circuit the heater to the tape accidently, the current will run through the tape to ground.

Problem is, the tape is thin, so it could catch fire.

This is worst case scenario, but can theoretically happen. Therefore, do not hook the ground wire to the tape.

It may solve the noise problem, but is not wise in this application.
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Mark

Thanks guys, much appreciated!