Heat tape install/testing in horse stalls

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mark32

mark32

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Currently in NJ
A family friend purchased a horse farm a few years ago and last year they had some pipes freeze. This structure has, I believe, four rows with eight stalls in each, for a total of 32 stalls under one roof. Each stall has a copper pipe that feeds a tub for drinking water. I just want to locate the faulty cables and replace them, but how? Just turn them on and see if they get hot? Can I do a continuity test between the blades on the plug? Also, these cables are quite long, I can't imagine they were bought right off the shelf. Can you buy this stuff by the roll and make custom lengths? For the record, I've never installed or tinkered with heat tape before.
 
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mark32 said:
A family friend purchased a horse farm a few years ago and last year they had some pipes freeze. This structure has, I believe, four rows with eight stalls in each, for a total of 32 stalls under one roof. Each stall has a copper pipe that feeds a tub for drinking water. I just want to locate the faulty cables and replace them, but how? Just turn them on and see if they get hot? Can I do a continuity test between the blades on the plug? Also, these cables are quite long, I can't imagine they were bought right off the shelf. Can you buy this stuff by the roll and make custom lengths? For the record, I've never installed or tinkered with heat tape before.
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Yes these cables are available in rolls that you make up.
Tyco- raychem- winter guard - and others 120, 240v
nelson Heat
are some.

use a Megger to check the cable. Visially check the cable for damage to the outer covering. check for a thermostat!
check if the cable is selfregulating or not.
Make sure you do not go over the max footage for the type of heat cable.
check your version of the code as a 30ma trip GFCI is usually required.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I saw four t-stats, didn't think of checking them, duh. I'm not sure what self regulating is, I'll look into that. I'll also have to look for gfci protection as you mentioned SierraSparky. There was a tag hanging off some of the cables but they were too high up for me to read, wonder what info was on it. Looks like I'll have to determine how much of it is bad before ordering the cable, was hoping to do this all in one trip as they're kinda far from me. I do have a megger I've been dying to use, it's been collecting dust for three years now. What reading would I be on the look out for?
 
mark32 said:
Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I saw four t-stats, didn't think of checking them, duh. I'm not sure what self regulating is, I'll look into that. I'll also have to look for gfci protection as you mentioned SierraSparky. There was a tag hanging off some of the cables but they were too high up for me to read, wonder what info was on it. Looks like I'll have to determine how much of it is bad before ordering the cable, was hoping to do this all in one trip as they're kinda far from me. I do have a megger I've been dying to use, it's been collecting dust for three years now. What reading would I be on the look out for?
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The reading depends on the type of cable and manufacture.
 
mark32 said:
Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I saw four t-stats, didn't think of checking them, duh. I'm not sure what self regulating is, I'll look into that. I'll also have to look for gfci protection as you mentioned SierraSparky. There was a tag hanging off some of the cables but they were too high up for me to read, wonder what info was on it. Looks like I'll have to determine how much of it is bad before ordering the cable, was hoping to do this all in one trip as they're kinda far from me. I do have a megger I've been dying to use, it's been collecting dust for three years now. What reading would I be on the look out for?
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Most heat tape is self regulating. It means that less current flows when the temperature is warmer.

Your megger reading should be high from hot to ground.

If the heat tapes are GF protected the bad ones would trip the breaker. If they are not GF protected they should be by the time you finish.
 
make sure horses can't bite it

make sure horses can't bite it

Don't know what the other installers did but make sure it is out of reach of the horses. They WILL chew on it if they can reach it, they like the copper taste. I know of one that died. All the water lines in my stalls are sloped to drain just, the main is heated.
 
Thanks for all the replies, looks like this is going to be more involved than I had originally anticipated, but I like learning new things so I'll keep you abreast of what takes place.

Cowboy, the installers of the tape looked like they knew what they were doing. They wrapped the cable around 100% of the piping but ty wrapped it on one side of the pipe as it came down towards the stall, so the horses couldn't get to it as they stood in their stall. Sorry to hear about your horse, so sad.
 
Also keep in mind the better heat trace (raychem) for example require the megger testing to be done at 2500 volts dc.

A "standard" merger only goes to 1000volts dc.

Just another thing to factor in.
 
Joe Villani said:
Also keep in mind the better heat trace (raychem) for example require the megger testing to be done at 2500 volts dc.

A "standard" merger only goes to 1000volts dc.

Just another thing to factor in.
Click to expand...

I did not notice that about the Raychem, is that for Winterguard wet ?
 
Joe Villani said:
Yes. 2500 volts DC.
Click to expand...

How about this, can't I just plug each cable into a gfci and see if it trips? (Assuming of course there is no current gfci protection) I'd like to megger them but for one, as mentioned, my megger only goes to 1000v, plus, I don't have a manufacturer's value to go by and don't really have time to research this info.
 
GFCI test will tell you it has no fault to ground over 4-6 mA, at current temp and other conditions. Change those conditions and results can possibly be different. It also will not tell you if a cable with no ground fault is still in good enough condition to heat up as designed, or if there are any dead spots within the cable. I don't have enough experience with these cables to tell you how likely those possibilities are but I imagine they are possible.
 
Okay, let me ask you guys this, if you only had three hours to fiddle with this job, what steps would you take? (That's 4.5 hours with driving time)
 
Hard to answer without knowing what kind of cable is used and possibly knowing more about the install.

If pipes have froze before it could be many reasons, including problems with something other then the heat trace itself, or even as simple as circuit for heat trace was not turned on or not enough heat trace was used for the conditions encountered.
 
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