Cutting flex watt

[Otter_23]

I have a roll of 4 inch flex watt and 11 inch. Does it matter where you make your cut. I know you want to cut in clear plastic when cutting across, but can you cut your cross section through this IIII?

Hope this makes sense. If this is the heat tape

IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII

Can you cut here

IIIcutI IIII IIII IIcutII or do you have to cut it like this

IIII cut IIII cut IIII cut IIII

 

[Otter_23]

I meant the second one to be

IIII cut IIII IIII IIII IIII cut IIII

not cut happy like above

 

[Clay Davenport]

Let me see if I can do this using something like you did as an illustration.

11" flexwatt looks like this:
IIIII|IIIII|IIIII|IIIII|IIIII|
The bars are actually zig zag rather than straight.

You can cut it at any one foot increment. There is a dotted line between panels showing acceptable cut points. You can cut a 10 foot piece into a bunch of 1 foot pieces or two 3 foot heaters and four 1 foot, etc.
You just can't cut it into an 18" long piece, since this would require you to cut across the element. Follow the dotted lines.

IIIII| <-- you can cut here IIIII|
III <-- but not here II|IIIII

The 3 and 4 inch flexwatt does not have the dotted cut lines and usually looks like this:
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

but sometimes the heating bars are not slanted and it looks like this:

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

You can cut either of these at any point, and in the case of the slanted bars, you still make a perpendicular cut and go through the last bar.
I doubt it would matter if you made a slanted cut and only went through the clear plastic, but that is not necessary.

 

[Otter_23]

I see the dotted lines on the 11 inch and would cut those in foot increments anyway so that is good.

On the 4 inch the lines are not slanted they are in clusters of 4 looking like a roman numeral 4 (if there was such a thing). I was wondering if I could cut through that roman numeral 4 (if there was such a thing). It looks like this IIII not IV. There is a break between these clusters so the tape looks like this

IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII IIII

Maybe I'm over thinking this but I want to make sure I don't mess up the 4 inch tape (I want to cut it in 30 inch increments if possible).

 

[Clay Davenport]

I've seen I think three different versions of the 4 inch over the years but I don't think I've seen that one. Are there any dotted cut lines in the wide spaces, or something else that specifies to "cut here"? How long is the heating area between the spaces?

If the bars are straight and not zig zag, looking like a stretched out V or W, then you should be able to cut between them at any point. This may not be advisable in order to make a very small heater, but when the length will be 30" then there shouldn't be a problem.

I have some four inch that is just a narrow version of the 11 inch and can only be cut in 1 foot increments, but the last four inch I got wasn't like that, but it also didn't have any larger spaces at all between the bars.

Keep in mind however, that I can't recall using 4" made exactly like that, and I'm only relating an opinion really. If you want the final word, you might want to either contact your supplier or Calorique directly.
Calorique's support email is [email protected] and you might want to include a photo of your flexwatt just to ensure that they know exactly which type you have without having to depend on them correctly deciphering the text illustration.

 

[Otter_23]

There is no spot to show where to cut on this 4 inch. I'll call the people and see what they say and post it here.

 

[Mooing Tricycle]

you should take some pictures of it too Mark ^_^

 

[Otter_23]

I will, I had got it from bean farm and called them today. She stated that as long as you cut on the clear part it is fine. She said not to cut the horizontal black line (although I wonder if she meant the vertical). I'll try to take pics tonight since I am just confusing myself more.

 

[Clay Davenport]

She said not to cut the horizontal black line (although I wonder if she meant the vertical).

Just hold the heat tape out with the flat side facing you, one end in each hand. Now rotate your hands 90 degrees so that one is above the other. You'll notice that the bars are now horizontal.


Interestingly, I just received some 4" from the Bean Farm late last week and it isn't made like what you describe. The black cross bars are evenly spaced for the length of the tape, there's not any spaces.

As you were told though, definitely do not cut through the black bars. I'll be interested to see the pics of it just for a good visual reference and hear what the manufacturer says, but I still tend to think you can cut it at any point as long as you're just cutting the clear part and not the black bars.

 

[Otter_23]

LOL I guess they are horizontal then.

I will definately take pics when I get home tonight.

 

[Otter_23]

Here are the pics with bad editing. I tried to mark the cut with a green arrow and the one in between the plastic with a blue arrow.

 

[PaulSage]

Mark, that's the same type of 4" flex-watt that I have in 14 racks. I just cut it straight across wherever I felt like, and it all works just fine.

 

[Otter_23]

Thank you very much Paul.

 

[Clay Davenport]

Now that I see the picture it makes sense. You were describing the heat tape from the back side and I was visualizing the front side.
The 4" that I got just last week is identical to that and I too cut it at any point and it works fine.

 

[Otter_23]

Alright so just to clarify I understand I can cut it at either of those points. Thanks for the patience and help.

 

[Clay Davenport]

Yes, you can cut it between any two bars you want.
Just don't split a bar itself. I do not know what effect that would have, but the instructions from the manufacturer are very specific on that point.