How to Install an Eavestrough Heater

Installation Process

• 1

  Measure the length of your roof edge where ice dams have been a problem, plus the length of the nearby downspout. Multiply the length figure by 4 to find the length of heating cable you need. You'll need 20 feet of cable for each 5 feet of roof edge, plus sufficient clips and spacers.

• 2

  Clean debris from the eavestroughs and downspouts. Use the file to smooth sharp or jagged edges. Uncoil the heating cable and lay it out along the roof edge. Don’t twist, cut or damage the cable. Start laying heating cable at the end closest to your grounded electric outlet.

• 3

  Use the putty knife to gently lift shingles at the end of the second and third rows and insert a shingle clip at the end of each row. Lift the shingles at the bottom corner of the roof and insert a third shingle clip. Start the cable installation by clipping the corded cable end to the two end clips.

• 4

  Take one C-shaped cable spacer and attach it to the shingle clip at the roof corner. The cable spacer has a hook at each end. Thread the cable through each of the spacer hooks, forming a drip loop below the shingle clip and spacer. Leave 2 inches between the drip loop and the eavestrough bottom. Use the pliers to gently close the spacer’s hooks over the cable.

• 5

  At the third row of shingles, measure 9 inches from the roof edge, lift a shingle and install a shingle clip. Install additional clips along that shingle row, spaced 15 inches apart. Starting from the bottom corner, install shingle clips along the bottom edge 15 inches apart. Install a cable spacer in each bottom-edge shingle clip.

• 6

  Stretch the cable up from the bottom corner clip to the third-row shingle clip and secure it, then go down to the next shingle clip at the bottom edge. Thread the cable through the cable spacer’s hooks to form a drip loop and tighten the spacer. Repeat the up-and-down installation to form a triangular pattern along the roof edge.

• 7

  Run the cable back through the eavestrough to the starting end. Tie the weighted string to the cable end, drop the weight through the downspout and use the string to pull the cable end down the spout. Lift the eavestrough cable up from the eavestrough bottom by attaching one end of a cable spacer to each drip loop along the roof edge, threading the eavestrough cable through the other end and clamping the spacer ends.