Easy HeatEH-38 Freeze Thermostatically Controlled Valve and Pipe Heating System

In the great white north, summers are short, and every year it seemed like right after I had winterized the boat and put it away, we'd get a last ditch week of sunshine. When you only have a couple of months of boating season, a week or so is significant. A few years, right after a nice sunny week, we'd take the boat out of the garage and get it ready, only to have a late May freeze/snow hit and have to contrive all sorts of MacGuyvered things to keep the block from freezing.I set this up with ACU_RITE Refrigerator/Freezer Wireless Digital Thermometer 00986 and a small (200w) quartz heater set on low, and it has worked FLAWLESSLY this year, keeping the block at a more or less constant 36-38 with outside temps well below 0. I made sure it was cycling by plugging cord(s) in and putting the unit in the freezer before I trusted my engine to it, and found out it comes on at 35 and shuts down again at 45. I ran a heavy extension into the engine hold, placed this level with the oil pan, and then plugged the heater into this and set the heater on a sheet of melamine at about water pump level. Absolutely no chance of the block freezing, and much less energy wasted than a timer would have caused. I can monitor the temps from inside, with a history of high and low temps, and it has been VERY reliable for the month or so it's been in use. If there was a heater thermostat problem, this would cut the power if the temp got too warm as well, so it's also a failsafe on the high temp side.Maybe the negative feedback is due to QC issues, but all I can say for sure is that the unit I got works perfectly, is priced right, and does precisely what I needed it to do. It has given me some ideas for lots of other winter safeguards, and I'll be buying more.

Works great for my heat lamp

UPDATE: Date Jan. 26. 2014. The 60 watt light bulb was no where near enough, do to the unusual freezing cold weather this year (-14 degrees), to keep the pipes from freezing; so I replaced the bulb with a 250 watt bathroom heat bulb. That will cost, but it worked and is working. The thermostat is still working flawlessly.------------------------------We bought an ancient (circa 1900) three story brick home in western Pennsylvania. Previous owners had bumped out the back of the house (crawl space...no basement on the bump-out) in order to enlarge the kitchen. Water pipes, including the very thin water line for the new refrigerator, had to be run through this crawl space where temperatures could reach well below freezing during the winter. The water pipes had been replaced from having burst previously.Using this device, I rigged up a 10ft 2X4 with an ordinary incandescent 60-watt bulb attached to the end, making sure that the thermal switch was as far from the bulb as possible so as not to trigger the thermal switch with the heat from the bulb.So far, the rig has worked flawlessly....going on when it should and going off when it should, preventing our waterlines in that crawl space from freezing.I'm giving it a rating of four...just to wait and see the longevity of this thermal switch.

Works great

Works great. I have 1 on my home built toy hauler to keep water tanks from freezing with a battery heat blanket and 2 on my outdoor water faucet pipe heaters. No problem with pipes freezing sense I installed these and don’t have to wast electricity when it’s above freezing.

The Easyheat thermostatic plug I received was supposed to come on at thirty eight degrees, and turn off at fifty degrees. It would not turn on until it was exposed to sub-freezing temperatures for several hours. When it would come on, it would stay on for approximately 15 seconds and then shut off again. A minute later it would come on again, and the cycle would repeat. Before some uninformed amateur technician thinks he can diagnose my problem, let me explain the circumstances. The thermostat was nowhere near the heating cable it was controlling. To make sure it had maximum exposure to outdoor temperatures, I hung it in open air on a tripod. I had a thermometer placed adjacent to the thermostat. In the most exteme case, I observed the temperature at 26 degrees, the indicator light was off on the EasyHeat thermistatic plug and the heating cable was cold. I observed and tested this product over a series of three frosty mornings. The product performed horribly. The Easy Heat thermostat plug is an embarrassment. I would not recommend this product to anyone... except maybe to Ryan, he's a dick.

This does what it's supposed to do. Kicks on before freezing and saves electricity and wear and tear on the heat tape. Why not?

I returned the first unit believing it was not working. The instructions are not clear and a sentence should be included to allow at least 45 minutes for the unit to sense the temperature. A good test is to put the EasyHeat in the freezer for at least 45 minutes remove it and connect 120VAC. The Power Indicator should be on. Connect your lamp, volt meter or other device to the output of the EasyHeat and you should have power out. Allow the unit to warm and the output power and power indicator will shut off.The 3 stars are due to lack of proper instructions.