Frost King HC3A Automatic Electric Heat Kit Heating Cables, 3 Feet, Black

Worked as advertised and appears to be well made

Purchased for wrapping water line into my travel trailer. Temperatures dropped to minus 9 degrees Faranheight and kept the water flowing.

Easy to install. Works great. I installed these on the supply lines to my sinks in a new bathroom I had built out in an unfinished attic space at my vacation lake house in NC. The plumbers ran those lines on a day I was not there as I would have preferred that they run them under the floor because the attic gets very cold in the winter and the house sits empty most of the winter. I was concerned the supply lines would freeze and rupture, flooding the house. So far, I’ve made it through the coldest part of the winter without any issues. I also installed older Wi-Fi enabled thermostats to monitor the attic spaces. They did get well below freezing on a few days so am glad I installed these!

Did it's job through winter although the winter wasn't as cold as normal.

This Frost King 6ft heat cable works exactly as it supposed to work! I have a pipe that has frozen and split two times in a 10 year period in a non-heated crawl space area. As you can see from the pictures that this last time I made the repair I located the pipe 2 inches away from the outside wall and used the thicker walled "Type L" copper pipe. The Frost King heat cable was very flexible (after I tested it and it had warmed up) to easily tie-wrap to the pipe every 3.5 - 4 inches. After it was tied to the pipe, I trimmed the tie-wrap "tails" and covered the pipe and heat cable with Frost King cotton pipe insulation. Then I covered the spiral seems of the cotton insulation with aluminum duct tape to keep away bugs and critters that may be attracted to the cotton. The Frost King cotton insulation is Class A fire rated, so I have no worries that this install is safe... especially with aluminum furnace tape over it. When I first tried to test the heat cable by using ice packs to chill the sensor for 10-15 mins, the cable appeared to be a dud... it didn't get warm and my "Kill-A-Watt" meter showed no power usage. Then I thought that the heat cable and sensor, that have been sitting in my 90+ degree garage for a day, may be too warm internally to activate even with ice packs surrounding the sensor. So, I put the heat cable in my refrigerator, for 45 mins, to chill the whole thing down to my average crawl space temps in winter time. Then I extended the chilled cable on my counter top and covered the sensor with ice packs and wrapped a hand towel around it (just the sensor section) to let the cold do its job. Within 10 mins the watt meter showed that the cable was drawing 42 watts. I left the cable warm up for another 20mins to see how hot it would get and I could still comfortably hold it in my hand. After I removed the ice packs the cable switched off in just under 8 mins in a 70 degree kitchen... so this cable is slower to react to sudden temp changes than I had thought it would, but it works exactly like it should, since it is only keeping water flowing and preventing ice damage.

I bought this about a year ago due to a recurring freezing pipe in our basement when the outdoor temperature is in the single digits (or less). I finally got to try it out with this past week's (Jan 2026) negative degree temperatures in western PA. It worked GREAT! Our pipes did not freeze and the cable did not get hot - just warm.

Very good heat kit. I used to use the Frostex heat kit, used them for many years, but there expensive and their controller cannot get wet. This Frost King is waterproof which is a big plus. This Frost King does Not have an adjustable wire length, you could cut the Frostex to fit but not these Frost Kings, so get an accurate measurement of what length you need. I had installed a 12-foot Frost King but it turned out to be too long, I had to remove it and install this 9 footer.

Purchased and installed this unit in October of 2022, come just a few days before Christmas 2022, and the Midwest get hit with Winter Storm Elliot, (12/21-23/2022), with temperature at -6f (-11c) with wind chill values of -30f (33c). It has been one since 12/2/2022 as it on a switch-controlled socket (receptacle). No frozen main line yet, and I do not foresee one. PEX plumping pipe. You might ask yourself; will it work with PEX. simple answer is YES. However, you should place the thermostat switch on a brass or copper valve or connection, for best results. As in my case. My feed line is 3/4" PEX, from the meter to the service valve body. which is 3/4 copper with a quarter turn shutoff ball valve. I merely wrapped the PEX and attached the thermostat button to the valve body, and all is good. If your lines are only PEX and you have no copper or brass valves to attached to, use some aluminum tape and create a small base on the pipe to land the thermostat button on. Do you need to wrap the wire around the pipe of lay it flat on the pipe? Answer you can do Both. If you have chosen to wrap the wire around the pipe, do so without crossing back over the wire, as this creates a fire hazard. Lying flat along the pipe will ensure the greatest area is heated. Do I need Thermal Wrap after install? Answer is NO, but it will increase the heating efficiency of the wire. It will also protect the wire and could add 2 years of service life. When do I replace it? For safety, the wire should be replaced every 5 years, no matter its condition.

I ordered 3 of these. Be sure to plug them into a GFCI plug in. Regular plug in can be dangerous and a fire hazard. Best to get a qualified electrician to install it. People think they can do it then Ka Boom!

I've been using this to prevent our sump pump discharge water from freezing in the outdoor section of the pipe and so far it hasn't let me down. The built in thermostat automatically turns on the heater when the temperature drops to almost freezing. This item is well worth the cost for the peace of mind it provides in knowing the water discharge pipe will remain open and the water won't back up into the sump pump.

ok they work

The light is on but not cold enough to see if it is working

Fait la job