Funny Cable

[shedbang]

I've just bought a 25m reel of 2.5mm T&E. It's all BASEC approved, 6242Y, BS6004, but looks like no T&E I've seen before.

The grey outer sheath is sort of in a figure of 8, a bit like big speaker wire. The inner cores are completely normal, but the PVC is not flat on the outside like all other T&E I've ever bought.

Sorry I can't take a photo - I left it at our new house.

Is this normal?

 

[bhm1712]

cant say ive ever seen any like that either so sorry no help im afraid

 

[xr4x4]

In pretty sure I heard somewhere that theres cheap fake copys about.

 

[shedbang]

Well, it came from Toolstation. I'd be surprised if they bought fakes. It certainly looks okay, stamped along the full length, solid core, definitely copper, the PVC insulation actually seems a little thicker than that you would find on 'normal' T&E.

The Chinese can fake an entire Mercedes, so that may mean nothing, but with wire, there's not much to inspect to work out if its genuine. Solid copper, decent insulation and reasonable labelling.

 

[Alarm]

YES there is take a resistance reading.

 

[Christhescott]

Its nothing to worry about, its just supposed to be easier to strip the ends with a set of side cutters thats all. I got some like this a while back from the electric centre, think it was draka cable but can't be sure.

enjoy!

 

[streetlighter]

Ive had some cable with an outer sheath like this before it was of the Prysmian brand and is quite hard to separate the sheath from the inner cores. Theres some poor quality cable knocking around at the moment.

 

[333rocky333]

seen it a few times most screwfix stores are wired in it

 

[shedbang]

YES there is take a resistance reading.

For that, I will be needing tools that I don't possess, and whilst I absolutely bloomin love tools, I am pretty convinced that the Mrs would go nuts if I dropped, ooh, say £500 on a Megger...

I'll be getting a Sparky back in a few weeks to wire up my garage. May as well ask him to run an IR test on the reel, but a bit of googling seems to suggest that this type of cable does exist (Draka).

 

[streetlighter]

You could pick up an old Megger for less than £50 on eBay nobody seems to want single function items anymore.

 

[shedbang]

You could pick up an old Megger for less than £50 on eBay nobody seems to want single function items anymore.

I'm not a Sparky, so beyond testing my new reel, what would I do with it? Actually I can answer that:- I would test every piece of loose wire that I came across, every bit of circuit that I can sensibly access and several other things probably, like wood, and maybe even the children, just to see what happens.

Whilst this might prove an interesting hours diversion (and possibly a trip to hospital), I'm not sure it justifies £50.

And also...part of me, a small but very loud part of me would be saying 'You fool, you need the whole hog, you need multifunction state of the art. Raid her savings. She'll never know'.

And then where would I be?

 

[RF Lighting]

This cable is perfectly fine. It's been around for ages. Pirelli cable used to be like that and I've got a drum of pyrsimmian (or however you spell it) on my van which has the slightly figure of 8 shaped sheath.

Personally I prefer it. It's much easier to stip with a kinfe.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Buy one for her birthday.

Just in case she doesn't like it you'd better buy her an iron as well.

They like that sort of thing.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Tell her it's something to spice up her love life.

 

[Mrdjc]

Does it look like this:

http://web.draka.cz/images/stories/katalog/silove_kabely/cykylo.pdf

Part of the Prysmian group as mentioned above.