Where do my heat trace self-assessment answers go?

Nowhere. The assessment runs entirely in your browser and your selections are held for that browser session only. Nothing reaches Patriot Thermal Controls unless you use the email link and send the results yourself.

What happens after booking a freeze protection discovery call?

A short conversation first — what the system is, what is driving the timing, and whether the work is worth your time. If a site walkdown makes sense, it is scheduled around your operations.

Can I share my heat trace self-assessment results with a colleague?

Yes. The email link writes the flagged items into a plain message that can be forwarded to whoever owns the documentation, the budget, or the audit response.

Home›Resources›Self-Assessment

Eight Checks That Tell You Where Your Heat Trace Stands

Mission-Ready Freeze Protection.

Two minutes, no form. Check what’s true of your system, read what the pattern means, and hand the list to whoever owns the documentation.

SHT SA-01·SYSTEM HEALTH SELF-ASSESSMENT·REF 14,593 CIRCUITS ON RECORD

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14,593Circuits on Record

65+Facilities in the Record

$34M+Documented Project Value

30+Years Team Experience

01System Assessment

8 Signs Your Heat Trace System Is Overdue for an Inspection

Any one of these is a reason to schedule a professional review before cold season. Multiple flags together are a liability exposure — not a deferred maintenance item.

Check what is true of your system — the read updates as you go

01 No Megger Test Records on File If you can’t find the last test date, you don’t know the current condition of your circuits. Degradation is invisible until it fails. 02 Never Tested Since Installation Heat trace cable degrades silently over years of thermal cycling. No news isn’t good news — it’s an unknown your facility is absorbing as risk. 03 Visible Cable Damage or Missing End Seals Cuts, abraded jacketing, or missing end seal caps allow moisture into the cable. What looks like a minor physical issue becomes a ground fault at the worst possible time. 04 Thermostat Setpoints Nobody Can Explain If the field team doesn’t know why setpoints are what they are, there’s a real chance they’re wrong — circuits calling for heat too late, or running continuously when they shouldn’t be. 05 Missing or Incomplete As-Built Drawings Without circuit documentation, a single fault can cost a technician hours to diagnose. Drawings that should take minutes to read become days of field tracing. 06 Insulation With Staining, Moisture, or Open Seams Wet insulation provides no thermal protection and traps moisture against the pipe. The corrosion developing underneath is invisible until the system is opened — often years after it starts. 07 A Prior Freeze Event With No Root Cause on Record If it happened once without a full documented analysis, the conditions that caused it still exist. Unresolved freeze events repeat — usually during the next severe cold weather event. 08 Panel Schedule That Doesn’t Match the Field Documentation drift is one of the most common findings on systems older than five years. When the panel schedule and the actual installed system diverge, every future repair and inspection is guesswork.

0 of 8 flagged

Nothing checked yet. Work down the list. Check every statement that’s true of your system — the count and the read update as you go.

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Email me my results

This runs in your browser. Nothing you check here is sent to Patriot unless you email it yourself.

02Meter vs. Eyeball

What you can check yourself — and what needs a meter

Half of this list you can walk down on a Tuesday with a flashlight and a copy of the panel schedule. The other half is a number, taken at the circuit, written down with a date on it.

No instruments required

What you can walk down yourself

End seals and terminations — caps present and sealed, junction boxes closed, no crushed or abraded cable where it leaves the pipe.
Insulation and jacketing — staining, open seams, crushed sections, missing bands, water tracks below a penetration.
Labels against the schedule — does the breaker legend match what is actually on the pipe, circuit by circuit?
Controllers and alarms — setpoints written down somewhere, and an alarm history nobody has been silently clearing.
The paper — the date on the last test record, and whether the as-built reflects the system you have now.

Instruments and a load required

What has to be measured

Insulation resistance — megohms per circuit, recorded with a date. This is the number that shows a cable degrading years before it fails.
Continuity and circuit resistance — read against the cable’s nameplate, not against a memory of what it should be.
Ground-fault behavior — tested at the breaker rather than assumed because nothing has tripped.
Amp draw under load — compared to design. A circuit pulling well under nameplate is frequently heating nothing at all.
Setpoint verification at the sensor — what the pipe sees, which is not always what the controller face says.

From the field

A walkdown covers the first column and tells you where to look. An audit produces the second column — per circuit, dated, photographed, and written into a record you can hand to an auditor, an insurer, or the next person in your chair. Patriot is vendor-neutral on cable: there is no brand to sell, so the findings are your system’s condition rather than a quote in disguise.

03Take It With You

The checklist and the guide behind it

One page of boxes an auditor asks to see, and the guide that explains each one. Print them, mark what you can and cannot check, and bring the notes to the call.

Documentation Checklist · PDF

Freeze-Protection Documentation Checklist

Nine boxes a regional auditor asks to see — records, testing, ownership — on one page, formatted to forward to whoever owns compliance at your plant.

Download the checklist

Documentation Guide · PDF

EOP-012 Documentation Guide

The three asks in detail — what counts as documented evidence, the way auditors actually read it, and what a thin record leaves you holding.

Download the guide

04Questions

About this assessment

Where do my answers go?

Nowhere. The assessment runs entirely in your browser and your selections are held for this browser session only. Nothing reaches Patriot unless you use Email me my results and send it yourself.

How many flags is normal?

There is no normal, and the count matters less than which flags cluster. Missing test records plus a panel schedule that no longer matches the field is the pattern to watch: together they mean nobody can state the present condition of a single circuit — which is the same position a freeze event or an audit finding leaves you in.

What happens after I book a call?

A short conversation first — what the system is, what is driving the timing, and whether this is worth your time. If it isn’t, we’ll say so. If a site walkdown makes sense, it gets scheduled around your operations, not ours.

Can I send this to someone else?

Yes — that is what the email link is for. It writes your flagged items into a plain message you can forward to whoever owns the documentation, the budget, or the audit response.

05Where most plants start

Find out where your
system actually stands

A walkdown is the fastest way to learn what your freeze protection — and the paper trail behind it — is actually carrying into this winter. Vendor-neutral, scheduled around your operations, and if you’re in good shape, that’s exactly what we’ll tell you.