In article ,
says...

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:54:09 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:18:27 -0500, wrote:

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

If you don't fill that heat shrink with silicone first, there is
nothing to keep the water out. Heat shrink is far from water proof.

===

Understood, but the better grades of heat shrink have glue inside
which melts and seals things up.

http://www.google.com/products?q=glue+filled+heat+shrink+tubing&hl=en

I have used heat shrink with silicone in it for years over a soldered
connection. The wirenut thing was just an experiment but I have to say
it does work, with the advantage that you can open up and restore the
connection if you need to without any special tools. These are in a
water tight box so it is fairly well protected but you can bury these
things in the ground (essentially underwater) with up to 600 volts on
them and a ground fault interrupter will usually hold.

These are not your typical Ideal #74 nuts.


Personally, I just never quibble with a connection that's lasted 25
years. If it fails next year, let me know.
Then I'll tell you what you did wrong.

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:26:11 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:54:09 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:18:27 -0500, wrote:

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

If you don't fill that heat shrink with silicone first, there is
nothing to keep the water out. Heat shrink is far from water proof.

===

Understood, but the better grades of heat shrink have glue inside
which melts and seals things up.

http://www.google.com/products?q=glue+filled+heat+shrink+tubing&hl=en

I have used heat shrink with silicone in it for years over a soldered
connection. The wirenut thing was just an experiment but I have to say
it does work, with the advantage that you can open up and restore the
connection if you need to without any special tools. These are in a
water tight box so it is fairly well protected but you can bury these
things in the ground (essentially underwater) with up to 600 volts on
them and a ground fault interrupter will usually hold.

These are not your typical Ideal #74 nuts.

===

Where do you get them?

Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:07:23 -0500, wrote:

The THWN I used was stranded and I used silicone filled wirenuts where
the lights connected in a water tight box.
===

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

Or liquid electrical tape - that's some good stuff for places where the
tubing isn't an option. I have used both in some cases just because I
have both in my shop.

In article ,
says...

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:54:09 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:18:27 -0500, wrote:

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

If you don't fill that heat shrink with silicone first, there is
nothing to keep the water out. Heat shrink is far from water proof.

===

Understood, but the better grades of heat shrink have glue inside
which melts and seals things up.

http://www.google.com/products?q=glue+filled+heat+shrink+tubing&hl=en

I have used heat shrink with silicone in it for years over a soldered
connection. The wirenut thing was just an experiment but I have to say
it does work, with the advantage that you can open up and restore the
connection if you need to without any special tools. These are in a
water tight box so it is fairly well protected but you can bury these
things in the ground (essentially underwater) with up to 600 volts on
them and a ground fault interrupter will usually hold.

These are not your typical Ideal #74 nuts.

Sure, they use those same wirenuts buried, without conduit!

In article ,
says...

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:26:11 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:54:09 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:18:27 -0500, wrote:

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

If you don't fill that heat shrink with silicone first, there is
nothing to keep the water out. Heat shrink is far from water proof.

===

Understood, but the better grades of heat shrink have glue inside
which melts and seals things up.

http://www.google.com/products?q=glue+filled+heat+shrink+tubing&hl=en

I have used heat shrink with silicone in it for years over a soldered
connection. The wirenut thing was just an experiment but I have to say
it does work, with the advantage that you can open up and restore the
connection if you need to without any special tools. These are in a
water tight box so it is fairly well protected but you can bury these
things in the ground (essentially underwater) with up to 600 volts on
them and a ground fault interrupter will usually hold.

These are not your typical Ideal #74 nuts.

===

Where do you get them?

My Home Depot has them. Look in the low voltage area.

wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 21:48:18 -0500,
wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:07:23 -0500, wrote:

The THWN I used was stranded and I used silicone filled wirenuts where
the lights connected in a water tight box.
===

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

Or liquid electrical tape - that's some good stuff for places where the
tubing isn't an option. I have used both in some cases just because I
have both in my shop.
I have seen guys using that liquid tape inside if shrink tube,
shrinking it down while the tape stuff was still wet
That would be even better!

wrote in message ...

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:07:13 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

On Jan 19, 3:43 pm, wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:53:44 -0500, A boater wrote:
On 1/19/2012 2:51 PM, A boater wrote:
On 1/18/2012 9:00 PM, jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:44:47 -0500, "
wrote:

Actually I just bought 2 spools of 25' ANCOR 16 AWG wire for
$28...the
dude talked me into it. I also bought a motor to replace the one in
the bilge pump housing @ $34.

I found the bilge motor for 28 online and the marine wire for, $32

Is marine wire worth paying the extra expence?

Is the wire you bought tinned?

JPS
All you want to know about Ancor marine grade wire.
Hope this helps

Oops, A link would help.
http://www.marinco.com/brand/ancor

I wired my running lights with garden variety #12 THWN but the wire is
all in conduit, terminating in water proof boxes. 22 years later it
still looks fine. The terminations were all coated with silicone
grease in burial grade 3M wirenuts. I know it is not all that nautical
sounding and I really did not expect it to hold up but it did.
This is a pontoon boat and they are pretty "wet".

I use regular 'ol wiring for my stuff. I dont' need top-dog wire for
what I do. Now if my boat was going to sit in salt water for a season
at a time or be exposed to the elements year around that would be
different. I look at my boat from an automotive stand point. I take
it out, use it, pull it it out of the lake, drain it, trailer it, and
put it back under roof on the hard until future use.

So I can't see justifying the extra expense to work with higher tinned
wire etc.

Of course your situations may be different than mine. I'm just saying
for my usage I have no problem with a roll of everyday 10 and 12#

The real trick is keeping all the terminations in a dry spot. I have
exactly ZERO splices in any wire. They go from the switch directly to
the load with no tapping along the way. You use a little more wire
that way but if I lose a light, I lose one and I know the two places
where to start looking. Everything is in conduit. Again that is a
pontoon boat thing. The wires run under the deck so they are in a
sealed race


----------------------------------------

Must not really need tinned wire. Bilge pump came without tinned wire, so I
guess it is not needed. :)

wrote in message ...

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:02:56 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:26:11 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:54:09 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:18:27 -0500, wrote:

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

If you don't fill that heat shrink with silicone first, there is
nothing to keep the water out. Heat shrink is far from water proof.

===

Understood, but the better grades of heat shrink have glue inside
which melts and seals things up.

http://www.google.com/products?q=glue+filled+heat+shrink+tubing&hl=en

I have used heat shrink with silicone in it for years over a soldered
connection. The wirenut thing was just an experiment but I have to say
it does work, with the advantage that you can open up and restore the
connection if you need to without any special tools. These are in a
water tight box so it is fairly well protected but you can bury these
things in the ground (essentially underwater) with up to 600 volts on
them and a ground fault interrupter will usually hold.

These are not your typical Ideal #74 nuts.

===

Where do you get them?

I imagine you can get them at Home Depot but I got mine from Graybar.
It is a 3M style skirted wirenut packed with silicone gel. I imagine
you get the same effect with a regular skirted nut and gel from a
tube. I like Dow 111 for stuff like this and also for sealing up
joints in plumbing (what it is sold for.)


----------------------------------------------

couple years ago, my phone system was bad. could hear talk from the 2nd
line. When the repair guy fixed the connectors at the sidewalk he used a
gel pack around the crimped connection. Said worked much better than the
old gel filled wire nuts. Was a bigger baggie of gel, but do not remember
how it was actually installed.

In article ,
says...

wrote in message ...

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:07:13 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

On Jan 19, 3:43 pm, wrote:
On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:53:44 -0500, A boater wrote:
On 1/19/2012 2:51 PM, A boater wrote:
On 1/18/2012 9:00 PM, jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:44:47 -0500, "
wrote:

Actually I just bought 2 spools of 25' ANCOR 16 AWG wire for
$28...the
dude talked me into it. I also bought a motor to replace the one in
the bilge pump housing @ $34.

I found the bilge motor for 28 online and the marine wire for, $32

Is marine wire worth paying the extra expence?

Is the wire you bought tinned?

JPS
All you want to know about Ancor marine grade wire.
Hope this helps

Oops, A link would help.
http://www.marinco.com/brand/ancor

I wired my running lights with garden variety #12 THWN but the wire is
all in conduit, terminating in water proof boxes. 22 years later it
still looks fine. The terminations were all coated with silicone
grease in burial grade 3M wirenuts. I know it is not all that nautical
sounding and I really did not expect it to hold up but it did.
This is a pontoon boat and they are pretty "wet".

I use regular 'ol wiring for my stuff. I dont' need top-dog wire for
what I do. Now if my boat was going to sit in salt water for a season
at a time or be exposed to the elements year around that would be
different. I look at my boat from an automotive stand point. I take
it out, use it, pull it it out of the lake, drain it, trailer it, and
put it back under roof on the hard until future use.

So I can't see justifying the extra expense to work with higher tinned
wire etc.

Of course your situations may be different than mine. I'm just saying
for my usage I have no problem with a roll of everyday 10 and 12#

The real trick is keeping all the terminations in a dry spot. I have
exactly ZERO splices in any wire. They go from the switch directly to
the load with no tapping along the way. You use a little more wire
that way but if I lose a light, I lose one and I know the two places
where to start looking. Everything is in conduit. Again that is a
pontoon boat thing. The wires run under the deck so they are in a
sealed race


----------------------------------------

Must not really need tinned wire. Bilge pump came without tinned wire, so I
guess it is not needed. :)

Planed obsolescence? Do these wires go into the bilge pump?

In article ,
says...

wrote in message ...

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:02:56 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:26:11 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:54:09 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:18:27 -0500, wrote:

Rather than using wirenuts I'd recommend crimped butt splices covered
with heat shrink tubing.

If you don't fill that heat shrink with silicone first, there is
nothing to keep the water out. Heat shrink is far from water proof.

===

Understood, but the better grades of heat shrink have glue inside
which melts and seals things up.

http://www.google.com/products?q=glue+filled+heat+shrink+tubing&hl=en

I have used heat shrink with silicone in it for years over a soldered
connection. The wirenut thing was just an experiment but I have to say
it does work, with the advantage that you can open up and restore the
connection if you need to without any special tools. These are in a
water tight box so it is fairly well protected but you can bury these
things in the ground (essentially underwater) with up to 600 volts on
them and a ground fault interrupter will usually hold.

These are not your typical Ideal #74 nuts.

===

Where do you get them?

I imagine you can get them at Home Depot but I got mine from Graybar.
It is a 3M style skirted wirenut packed with silicone gel. I imagine
you get the same effect with a regular skirted nut and gel from a
tube. I like Dow 111 for stuff like this and also for sealing up
joints in plumbing (what it is sold for.)


----------------------------------------------

couple years ago, my phone system was bad. could hear talk from the 2nd
line. When the repair guy fixed the connectors at the sidewalk he used a
gel pack around the crimped connection. Said worked much better than the
old gel filled wire nuts. Was a bigger baggie of gel, but do not remember
how it was actually installed.

Some 40 years ago the phone guy fixed a broken line in my parents
backyard. He reapied the wires by splicing them and then put the splice
into a plastic test tube and then put some stuff into the test tube. The
stuff hardened and then he re-buried the line. Incidentally the line had
enough slack so you could do these splices, it was like the planned on
it failing and knew they needed the slack to do the splices.