Actually it's better off to be short. The Ditek gets installed as close as possible to the building ground and the cable on the protected side needs to be longer than the unprotected side or ground connection.mikefamig said:Thanks,I wish I knew about that six months ago! Now the cable is too short or I would add that to the system.
Interesting about the protected side needing to be longer than outside and it's a deal breaker for me. What is the logic behind that?DELInstallations said:Actually it's better off to be short. The Ditek gets installed as close as possible to the building ground and the cable on the protected side needs to be longer than the unprotected side or ground connection.
I'll leave the LB unless I have trouble with it. AS you know, I have had trouble with crimping the B connectors with a plier. I didn't strip the wires though and will try that the next time.DELInstallations said:Change the LB to a 4X4 box or 6X6 box.
I usually use B-connectors properly installed....as good as a soldered connection.
I looked around Ebay for a tool but wasn't clear what the tool looks like. How do you identify it? Anyone recommend a good one?Neurorad said:Yeah, but you use a $250 crimper, for 'proper' installation.
What kind of problems is teh gel filled cable known to cause? I couldn't see any downside to using it when I was choosing a cable to use and I tend to lean towards overkill when I'm installing something as permanent as that. I want the installation to outlive me.Work2Play said:Smart man - there are limited use cases for Gel filled - but many of them will cause more problems than they'll solve. A spool of ToughCable L2 will be more than adequate for most outdoor installs - burial or UV exposed. Also the amount of in-building burial grade cable should be limited. Here it's 50' max in commercial space but I can't guess at what it would be for residential.
Well that horse is out of the barn, the gel filled cable is staying there until it fails. I just soldered the splice and may add a surge suppressor in the future. Can you show me a link to a polyphaser suppressor that works for this?Work2Play said:Also Gel in vertical runs will pool over time - so if one end is higher than the other it's been known to ooze out one end over time causing quite a mess and shorting out equipment. It's also quite nasty to work with (that's why it's called Icky-Pick). If you have to use it, you should come out into a surge suppressor that's grounded at the building entrance then switch to something cleaner for the interior of the building - I use PolyPhaser a lot for this transition.
If you have this inside of conduit - it's easy to pull a new one in 20 years if you needed to - more than likely because of changes in technology, not in the cable no longer working. I try never to use the Gel Filled personally and I do a ton of outdoor wiring.
RALRAL said:I think this is the type of Ditek surge protector that DEL is referring to.
http://www.ditekcorp.com/Docs/ProdGuides/LVLP%20Series%20Datasheet.pdf