Can water wick thru a conductor??

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Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Originally posted by physis:
Edit: That reminds me Bob, did you notice that someone has allowed you a free pass to add another post in that thread without having to accept responsibility for it? :D
Click to expand...
Yes and I have a mesage for them. :D
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

cool-smiley-008.gif
Alright boyz, spread out, woyd haz it da goon weez lukin fer's hidein out sumwhere's round ear.
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Jim,
No. Those look like the bell ends used to make it easier to put the connecton on fine stranded wire like type W or DLO. The ones we used had the end of lug belled (skirt) out large enough to go over the conductor insulation for about 1.5". I thought that they were made by Burndy, but I couldn't find them in their catalog.
Don
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Absolutely!

ALL insulated stranded conductors will act as a water hose unless the factory installed a strand blocked compound. Pirelli makes Strandseal(R) conductors just for this situation.

As long as the elevation of your service switch terminals is lower than where the wires are it the transformer, the laws of gravity and hydraulics will prevail. God going after stuuf with a pressure washer makes it worse!

Please see my post under 2008 NEC changes in regard to 230.54 revision. In fact, I am going to save this topic on my hard drive for ammunition. Thanks everybody.

[ April 10, 2005, 03:45 AM: Message edited by: mc5w ]
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Have you considered Meggering the conductors? I've seen this several times. Unfortunately on at least two occasions the conductors were damaged in the U/G conduit. One we re pulled and on the other, the building owner waited too long.
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

In my opinion, Al's second post is the correct way to attack this problem. Normally we use compression connectors so it is unlikely that water will wick past it anyway. :D
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Charlie,
The ones I found with water were compression connectors, but they were vertical, and there was nothing below the connector body to keep the water from running between the strands. There wasn't much exposed conductor between the bottom of the connector and the insulation, but over a period of years the spaces between the strands filled up with water. It didn't cause any problems, because it couldn't get out at the switch gear end because of the tape that was used.
Don
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Water can do strange things and allot of damage.We were sent a warranty call that turned out to be an extra to cap off a floor bon in a residensce(By the way it was retro fitted)
Anyway got there the carpet was in the drive way and jack hammers going wild.Walked in there were 2 ftx 2 ft holes everywhere and no dirt under the slab.What had happened was the cpvc had blistered and sprung a leak under the slab washing out all the compacted dirt.Nobody was wise until the water bubbled up through the floor box,soaking everything :eek: I disconnected the box feed got my signatures on the E.W.O. and got out as the structrual engineers decended on this poor womans house.
Foot note breaker held,gives mr reason to think they should be gfci protected if in a slab and that is considered underground and a wet location
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

hmmmm it kinda is an outdoor receptacle isnt it ?

Sure glad i am not that plumber handing this bill to my insurance company
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Beware that a lot of compression connectors have an inspection hole that can let water into the strand core. Not likely to pass but crimping is not necessarily perfect. If you have one of those bogus range taking crimpers that put 4 dents in the connector water will get through.

Over at International Exposition Center in Cleveland, Ohio the Home and Garden Show gets lots of water into the floor boxes with soil salts in the water. The outlets in the boxes do not burn up until we deenergize, pump out the water and topsoil, and then reenergize.

Also, removing insulation from the bottom of the drip loop will work but you would need to cover it with a gutter tap cover.

[ April 12, 2005, 03:32 AM: Message edited by: mc5w ]
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Hey thanks a bunch everyone. We're going to install the shrouded connectors once I can schedule the dreaded outage. So far the silicone has worked--but not sure for how long. Still not sure why this decided to happen on these two wires only, and not the phase conductors or similar installations. This is on the University of Florida campus and I've made it a point when driving around to look at similar installations. This setup seems pretty standard--pole mounted transformers, conductors terminated up, no connectors just straight into drip loop too weatherhead, then off to a panel somewhere. Out here there is no POCO, all is handled in house. The high voltage crew who handles these types of things everyday had never seen anything like it so it's definitely not a common problem around here. Maybe that transformer is just at exactly the wrong distance between the bermuda triangle and Jimmy Hoffa's hidden grave or something :confused: ???
regards,
Scott
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

:D

I like the theoretical postulation of potential local influence. . . ;)

On a more mundane note, I am curious what the crew will discover about the individual cables, as they apply the new shrounded connectors. I suspect that just the right combination of surface tension and capillary space exists in the conductors. And, I suspect, that the neutral conductors came off a different spool than the phase conductors.
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

I think it's just a matter of a continuous opening through the wire. I'm betting the conductors are not very new.
 
Re: Can water wick thru a conductor??

Come to think of it, there have been some instances where a meter socket and meter have filled with water. Go over to www.themeterguy.com . You will have to join the tailboard to access the topic.

This seems to happen with round die cast ring type meter sockets. If somebody stuffed the exiting conduit or cable with duct sealant and did not drill a drain hole in the socket and the sealing ring is particularly tight, it can happen.

I have had this happen with outdoor branch circuits.
 
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