Didn't see this posted before, so if I just copied someone else, just ignore this.
I needed a heater for my conical that sits in my non heated garage. I tried the standard flexible heater flex watt type product but could not get enough surface area contact to keep my temps us.
I then decided to try a pipe heater strip that can be found at any Home Depot. I bought the 12' one.
They come with q thermostat inline that needs to be removed. If you take a razor knife and carefully cut along the seam of the thermostat you can get the silicon housing to open up and expose the wiring. The thermostat is simply a small button looking device wired inline on the black wire. I removed that and wired it back with some spare wire and heat shrink.
It's rather tight in there and in case you have to cut the heat wires, it's possible to wire back up to those as well. These are actually very tiny wires I would guess maybe 30 gauge that are spirally wound around a core of fibers, then covered in an insulation, that is then covered in a ground, that's again covered in insulation.'
So you need to strip off the outer insulation, expose the ground wire, then carefully strip off the inner insulation ( I used a 16g setting on my stripped with light pressure.). They key is to strip the insulation without stripping the spiral wire off the strands. It took me a few times to get this down. You then just need a 16-22 butt splice connector to join the heater wire to your cord. Insulate it all back up somehow with black tape or heat shrink and it's ready to go.
I can keep my 14 gallon conical at 68 degrees in a garage that gets below 40.
I attach the heat strip with foil tape to the cone of the conical.
MY ONLY CAUTION IS THIS IS FAR FROM A WATERPROOF INSTALL. i have mine wrapped well in shrink wrap and plugged into a gfci outlet.
Please decide for yourself if this is safe, as it could potentially expose 120 volts to the conical if done incorrectly.
I needed a heater for my conical that sits in my non heated garage. I tried the standard flexible heater flex watt type product but could not get enough surface area contact to keep my temps us.
I then decided to try a pipe heater strip that can be found at any Home Depot. I bought the 12' one.
They come with q thermostat inline that needs to be removed. If you take a razor knife and carefully cut along the seam of the thermostat you can get the silicon housing to open up and expose the wiring. The thermostat is simply a small button looking device wired inline on the black wire. I removed that and wired it back with some spare wire and heat shrink.
It's rather tight in there and in case you have to cut the heat wires, it's possible to wire back up to those as well. These are actually very tiny wires I would guess maybe 30 gauge that are spirally wound around a core of fibers, then covered in an insulation, that is then covered in a ground, that's again covered in insulation.'
So you need to strip off the outer insulation, expose the ground wire, then carefully strip off the inner insulation ( I used a 16g setting on my stripped with light pressure.). They key is to strip the insulation without stripping the spiral wire off the strands. It took me a few times to get this down. You then just need a 16-22 butt splice connector to join the heater wire to your cord. Insulate it all back up somehow with black tape or heat shrink and it's ready to go.
I can keep my 14 gallon conical at 68 degrees in a garage that gets below 40.
I attach the heat strip with foil tape to the cone of the conical.
MY ONLY CAUTION IS THIS IS FAR FROM A WATERPROOF INSTALL. i have mine wrapped well in shrink wrap and plugged into a gfci outlet.
Please decide for yourself if this is safe, as it could potentially expose 120 volts to the conical if done incorrectly.
