Wet Romex Usable?

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I have seen nm cable buried in the ground for over 20 years without a problem. Perhaps underground isn't wet enough.

For those of you who are thinking--- no I don't condone this but it is a fact. I have seen it in more places than one.
 
wbalsam1 said:
Water on the outside of the cable wouldn't have a deletirious effect, IMHO, just those conditions where the paper jacket surrounding the egc was wetted.....:smile:
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thats the way i look at it too.before i got a truck with a cover on the bed i carried my wire in the back.before i used any of it in a house i inspected the roll for nicks and cut off the ends till i got dry paper.i know not a perfect way but you got to do it,
 
My gosh!

My gosh!

How many hits will this thread get? We have gone so far as to make George change his avatar and offer kleenex and condolences.
Speaking just for water, non-salt flood water, there are too many angles on this. Mildew? You need oxygen to produce mildew. Paper saturation? How much of the horizontal or vertical wire was subjected? Corrosion? How often is the grounding electrode actually used? The more it is used, the more oxidization will occur.
Take a 100ft. roll of NM-B, submerge it in 3ft. of water for a week. Pull her out, strip back the conductors and throw 1000V from each conductor to the grounding conductor. What did you see? Let it sit there for a year in the tub or on the ground and stick a 1000 on her. What do you see? H*ll, hi-pot it with some real juice for all this subject cares. What do you see?
Would I personally like to re-use COMPLETELY saturated NM after a flood? Nooooooooo, not personally. But time over cost, I can see it permissible.
It is not much different to me than one ground rod or two, but *I* MAKE that call! It's my project, my signature, MY CALL.
How often do you consider the bare grounder a current carrying conductor?
Tomatoe, Tomatow. It's the contractors call. We are all entitled to our own opinion, and *** bless this forum for it. I guess my point on this is you really can't say one person is right, and the other is completely wrong no matter what side of the rink you stand on.
Ground up, ground down?
Is a switch an outlet?
I never saw either one, but I can only imagine. The OP isn't working for you, so let's not lose any sleep, or get into a peeing match.
 
76nemo said:
How often is the grounding electrode actually used? The more it is used, the more oxidization will occur.
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What? :-?

The OP isn't working for you, so let's not lose any sleep, or get into a peeing match.
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"Hunt Stevenson: Afterwards we have a few beers and piss for distance."
"Kazihiro: For us it's accuracy." ~ Gung Ho
 
wbalsam1 said:
Pardon me, but I was taught that water has 1 part hydrogen and 2 parts oxygen......:grin:
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Agree. This matter has too many angles. Just my opinion, and it's not worth much.
Please accept that. I am not an expert in anything except claiming I am a dummy. It was just my PO.
 
76nemo said:
Agree. This matter has too many angles. Just my opinion, and it's not worth much.
Please accept that. I am not an expert in anything except claiming I am a dummy. It was just my PO.
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peterd has a great opinion, another taped wirenut discussion. I got hammered with opinions on that, but that is O.K.. Other peoples insights help me ponder on what "I" may be wrong or right with.

It's just personal preference.
 
Is NM allowed in a wet location? The NEC says no. Sure you could, and probably do use it in wet locations that does't make it ok. I didn't bond a metal box to the grounding conductor when using PVC years ago and it never had any problems, does that make it ok?
 
The Iceman said:
Is NM allowed in a wet location? The NEC says no. Sure you could, and probably do use it in wet locations that does't make it ok. I didn't bond a metal box to the grounding conductor when using PVC years ago and it never had any problems, does that make it ok?
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This is going too far! How can you consider a flooded scenario as a "wet" location? It's a one time scenario, give me a code quote for that!
 
I did.

I did.

I have wired a store on a flood plane. I covered all of the undercarriage in GFCI protection. This was not considered a "wet" location in the inspectors eyes. Just the possiblity. I did not have to follow any code that I did not perform to originally.
Now,.....????????
 
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Update

Update

this has become a long thread and i think some are jumping to last page or dont get what the discusion is.Its "NOT" if you can use nmb in a wet location.It "IS" if it gets wet is it usable.:grin:
 
this is kind of a desk jockey electrician against the working electrician deal. If you have wired more than a couple houses you have installed nm that has been wet. In the real world it happens and it doesn't hurt a thing. Water pipes are copper for krimenies sake.
 
sbrn33 said:
this is kind of a desk jockey electrician against the working electrician deal. If you have wired more than a couple houses you have installed nm that has been wet. In the real world it happens and it doesn't hurt a thing. Water pipes are copper for krimenies sake.
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Lets see 30 plus years working in the trade, and out of thousands of homes, not once wired a house that the nm got wet. there are however, installation crews out there that would let it happen, the real question is are they electricians?

The general work produced in home wiring, has been reduced to a production labor standard not a craftsman standard. where they had pride in their work.

Installing cable that was open in the back of a pick-up should tell the hole story of what kind of a craftsman they are.
 
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sbrn33 said:
this is kind of a desk jockey electrician against the working electrician deal. If you have wired more than a couple houses you have installed nm that has been wet. In the real world it happens and it doesn't hurt a thing. Water pipes are copper for krimenies sake.
Click to expand...

Lets see 35 plus years working in the trade, and out of thousands of homes, not once wired a house that the nm got wet. there are however, installation crews out there that would let it happen, the real question is are they electricians?
 
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