Playing with MC connectors and USE-2 [RE-wrenches]

[Bill Brooks]

Dean,

Thanks for the update. Sounds like you have hungry rats in Vermont--what are
you feeding them that they have to resort to romex for food? ;-)

Anyway, I guess that means I still have no takers on chewed USE cable. I
feel pretty confident on this one because I have spoken to several utility
engineers, and they have never seen any USE chewed by varmits.

So, the moral of the story is: if you want to protect your wire from
varmits, don't use LFNC, use USE-2 or something with a steel metal jacket.

Bill.

-----Original Message-----
From: Dean T. Newberry [mailto:deant at dcn.org]
Sent: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 10:37 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: Playing with MC connectors and USE-2 [RE-wrenches]


Hi Bill,

Just a note on this rat experience in East Randolph VT, the wire which
was chewed up was household romex, which was used to replace the knob
and tube his grandfather had run. The knob and tube was still functional
after 50 years, The romex lasted only about 3 years before the rats made
it unservicable. The electrician replaced it with BX cable, and ran all
emt on his new stick frame house. I mostly wired barns and stables, and
ran everything in emt. For PV on barns around here, I use rigid for the
riser and if appropriate use a weatherhead to drop the USE2 to the panels.

cul  deant

Bill Brooks wrote:

>Frank,
>
>You prove my point. Rats can chew through FNC and THWN wire, but they will
>not chew on USE-2 because of the chemical in the insulation. Dean says that
>he has evidence of damage if the installer was using bare hands. If this is
>the case, it would be an important discovery and be another good reason to
>wear gloves.
>
>Bill.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Frank Fowler [mailto:cpae1 at direcway.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 4:32 PM
>To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
>Subject: Re: Playing with MC connectors and USE-2 [RE-wrenches]
>
>
>Still looking for a picture of a piece of USE-2 cable eaten by a critter. I
>have actually heard of rodents gnawing on the aluminum frame and leaving
the
>conductor alone. The stuff has a nasty compound in it for the express
>purpose of keeping critters away. I'm willing to change my view on this,
but
>I think the whole critter issue is a red herring.
>
>I have no pics of it, but had a rat chew through Carlon FNC right through
to
>the conductors. I was always under the impression that no critters would
>mess with this stuff!!!!!!!
>SUNcerely,
>Frank Fowler
>

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