40 Sqft 120V Electric Radiant Floor Heating Kit – Includes Heating Cable, Programmable Thermostat, Sensor, Cable Guides, Installation Monitor and Under Tile Heated Floors

A solid product, DIY friendly
I’m impressed with this product, I’m a relatively new DIY home owner, I completely redid my bathroom just based on YouTube videos. I was intimidated by a floor heat install but pulled the trigger and so glad I did. With a couple YouTube videos and the instructions you get with this product, it’s much easier than I had built up in my mind.Simple things like floor heat really added to the finished product, a warm floor is quite the feeling. I wish I did adhered more closely to the instructions, it suggested a skim coat of mortar over the heating cable, let it cure, then tile over that. I saw guys on YouTube who just used thinset over the cable without securing it first, but I’m a very average tile installer so it became stressful when my hot glued heating cable broke from the hot glue I used and came up as I was tiling. There is also a beeper device you can install and it will detect if you cut the heating cable, I didn’t realize it till after I was done that the beeper is supposed to be hooked up until install is complete. One thing the instructions did not mention was not turning on the heat till after the tile has cured for a month, I saw some YouTuber guys mention it, I turned on my heat after 5 weeks and it’s just marvelous.My only critique with this product is that the heating cable doesn’t seem as tough as other products I saw installed on YouTube, but those other products were 4 times the price, which is why I still gave this product 5 stars. But as long as you skim coat thinset over the heating cable or at least be gentle with your tiling trowel you should be fine. I was initially discouraged after install, sure I had cut the heating cable, but I didn’t and it works great.

Pay more for the mats!! (an installation review)
I have only installed this product, the tile has not been laid and we’re not moving in for another month.BLUF: Spend the extra $60 and get a mat-based set unless it absolutely will not work.Planning:Take the time to layout the best way to meet your room dimensions and needs. Take into account where you will actually be standing/walking. You don’t typically put your foot within 4″ of a wall unless the room is super narrow, but you might stand right up to the edge of a tub/shower while turning on the water. Keep it 6″ away from the toilet to prevent the wax ring from melting (some people debate this point, I figure its not worth the risk for no reward)You can actually heat the room with several different approach, if you have a massive Roman Bath you might want to focus the heat on certain areas (main path/vanities/toilet/makeup bench) or do what I did and just heat it all.Both the cable and mat will require some thought while laying out. Breakup the room into areas that will be heated and think of where the cable will “enter” and “exit” the current area being heated. This is critical with the cable set because if your last run is going in the wrong direction you’ll be spending a lot of time shifting runs.Thermostat Installation:I won’t get into where to locate the wall Thermostat or how to get electricity to it. Make sure to put this on a GFCI protected circuit (i went dedicated to the main panel). Pull a permit and follow code or hire an electrician.The struggle I had was getting the hole for the cable and floor sensor as close to the floor as possible since in most modern construction there is a 2×4 bottom plate located down there. I had access to the backside so I bore down with a 3/4″ spade bit to the subfloor then came in sideways with a 3/8″ bit from the drywall side. I used a fishtape to help them make the bend since the sensor wire is so thin. If you don’t have access to the backside I guess my next option would be to drill a hole 2″ off the floor and find a way to mount the baseboard so it doesn’t pinch the wires (shimmed out or route/chisel a recess in the back)The thermostat itself was easy to connect. 4 wires on the thermostat itself, 2 black and 2 whites. One goes to your Line (house wiring), the other to the Load (Cable, also connects to ground). You also need to pull the floor sensor to connect in the front of the unit. It is very thin wire and they give you a jewelers style screwdriver to secure. Pay the extra $15 and get a second floor sensor in case your first one were ever to fail.Cable Installation:If you typically skip directions here’s the simple jest of it, each wire will heat 1 1/2″ on each side, so space your wires 3″ apart and 1 1/2″ away from wherever you want heated. Beyond that will not be heated. Unroll it with as little tangles as possible (yeah right) and tape it to the floor. Simple as that. I ripped the tape off in 1-2″ sections to hold it to the floor. Once applied the tape cannot be reused (once you remove the tape it lost all grip).I unrolled the entire reel as best as I could and put the coil in the tub while I laid the wire so it wouldn’t get tangled at my feet. The last 10 feet were very springy so I’m glad I had some extra tape to hold it down.Mark your floor about before each bend in 3″ increments (I just used a pencil). My method was to mark on alternating sides of the tape measure which helped indicate which direction the wire was going which helped me verify my layout.Their picture shows taping the tip of each bend, I chose to tape each side prior to the bend, this helped maintain spacing and provided more support. I went along securing each end but skipped reinforcing the middle of each section. This way if I needed to make an adjustment I wouldn’t be doing as much rework (or wasting more tape). Plus your eye will pickup spacing discrepencies much better against a large pattern than focusing only on one or two rows.Overall it took less than 90 minutes to clean the room, mark everything out (my engineers mind laid out 4 different layouts before it was satisfied), and install all the cable.Small rework is easy, pull up a couple pieces of tape which will no longer adhere to the floor, move what you need to move, and add new tape. Significant rework is a major PITA. For some stupid reason I thought I had bought the 60 sqft cable and was too aggressive on my original rows so I didn’t have enough to heat the watercloset. I could have loosened my spacing to gain another 5sqft to heat the area in front of the toilet but after trying to adjust the first 3 rows I figured it wasn’t worth all the work and the risk of running out of tape (since they were tiling first thing the next morning and the hardware stores were already closed).This is where I realized using mats would have been such a better idea. I could have laid them out and realized my mistake before securing them to the floor. You can’t do that with cable because it won’t hold its shape unless secured to the floor.In Use:Weren’t you reading?! I’m not living in the house yet and won’t write a review until I’ve used it for a bit. Check back in the Spring.Rating: 5/5I rate a product based on what it is supposed to be, in this case the Cable Set provides all the flexibility needed to fit any unique room with odd shapes. Installation was easy for both the electrical and the cable mat set. I give it 5/5 stars for those aspects. The thermostat has its own reviews so go read those reviews there.