BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Can I use Solid wire for rewiring sailboat if not WHY?

wrote:

On Thu, 27 May 2004 19:03:47 -0500, dazed and confuzed
wrote:

QLW wrote:
I usually solder connector on my boat and have never found this to fail.
I've never see this done but the manufacturers so there must be some
negative reason but I've not found it.

Cost of assembly. It gets the boat out of the door, and it works long
enough to last until the end of the warranty.

Power wires should NEVER be soldered. It's against NEC and NFPA code
for good reason. It's not safe.

The National Electrical Code is for structures and even then is not
universally applicable. It is not the code followed in Chicago for
instance. Also different countries in the world have different codes.
You cannot just state that everything that is against a specific code
is unsafe and should not be allowed without looking at what the code
is meant to cover.

National Fire Protection Association codes are meant to protect
structures against fire damage and loss. They are consensus standards
and are not the ultimate in fire protection other than for buildings.

OSHA took the NFPA standards (consensus standards) and some of the NEC
and made them into regulatory standards for protection of workers.
Some of them do not do that and make no sense in that context. So
again - you cannot just apply standards without knowing where the
standards have come from and what their purpose is. Some standards
are absolutely minimum standards.

So maybe wires should not be soldered because it 'isn't safe', but you
can't determine whether it is safe or not just by citing the
standards. You have to know the reason and logic (if any) behind the
standards. Conflicting standards can often be cited and in this case
ABYC standards (note - these standards are FOR BOATS) say, or have
said in the past, that soldering wires is not unsafe.

grandma Rosalie