hot spot tape or not

[nemo]

both of my neighbours have poly tunnels one put hot spot tape on the galvanized tubing but the other didn't he just smoothed out any rough patch on the tubing both have the polyetene 2 years and both are fine .a friend of mine put lagging used for plumbing on his tubing his plastic is 6 years old
what would be the best option

[pigletwillie]

Either use hot spot tape or lagging. If you leave it on bare metal, the heat will make the plastic very brittle and reduce its life expectancy by a good chunk.

The lagging sounds like a good idea as it will stop the plastic from overheating and rubbing on the pipe.

[Hole Digger]

I've had my anti fog polythene on for 6 yrs now with plumbers pipe wrapping around the framework, it has started to breakdown in places but so has the polythene in places e.g. where birds have perched on top of hoops and had a pecking session.