Heat Tape for Mobile Homes

[Andriy Boychuk]

What heat tape can you recommend to insulate water lines?

[Michael Gansberg]

@Andriy Boychuk, we've used heat tape in the winter on some outside lines- but heat tape isn't insulation, it's for active heating(I'm sure you know that already.) If you have lines that are outside, I'd use the highest R-value pipe covering and maybe a bit of heat tape as well(we use this.). Heat tape is just a resistive heating element, I don't think one is better than any other. On our outside lines, we've put heat tape under the pipe insulation. 

If your lines are indoor in well-insulated space, I'd still go with the higher R-value stuff- why not spend a few extra bucks if it'll help reduce the risk of freeze-burst damage, which can be extremely costly? If the space is well-insulated, you generally shouldn't need to use a heating element on indoor pipes, assuming the space is heated of course.