Vaseline is for other stuff n/m

 

Not sure if vaseline is conductive or not, but I'd rather not find out.

Just stick to dialetic grease (I use pre-filled gel caps).

 

Not sure if vaseline is conductive or not, but I'd rather not find out. It's not.

Just stick to dialetic grease (I use pre-filled gel caps). Yes, those are nice, but the ones I found were 20 for like $14.50 or thereabouts. YIKES!!

10characters

 

The splices are not the place to nickel and dime the system. Bite the bullet and get the grease filled connectors. Then it's done right and you don't have to worry about it anymore. With 20 caps you have enough for a 10 zone system. And for less than $15.00 that's chump change.

The vaseline will conduct, it will possibly leak out if it gets hot enough (not likely) but you are going to have a mess on your hands - literally.

A side note. Back in '89-90 while working for a wholesale dist. in San Antonio, I was involved in the design and development of the Wade Connector, and even gave it a name/part number. WC-014 - Wade Connector 14 ga. About all I got out of it was a bunch of beer drinking with Mr. Wade.

Jerry R

 

Vaseline is for other stuff n/m

This is too dang easy...

 

Never for a customer, but for my own stuff I've taken a wire nut and dripped melted candle wax into it before.

 

Candle wax and Vasoline are very flammable. It's very dangerous to use either. The best to use is Burndy "Penetrox A" compound. (Caution: some other "oxide inhibitor" compounds sold for the purpose are flammable.
Penetrox A is not.

 

Agree completely with jerryrwm.
The off the shelf filled nuts are also designed with end flaps to help seal/prevent leakage.
We are supposed to be professional, which includes costing out the system with all parts involved. The very few dollars shouldn't effect the price to customer much at all.

Do you really want to be seen on the job with a jar of Vasoline dipping your nuts in it?

 

Do you really want to be seen on the job with a jar of Vasoline dipping your nuts in it?

Well, this one takes the cake!

No, we don't want to be like that. But we could probably save QUITE a few dollars by using a cheap box of wirenuts from wherever, and filling them ourselves from a $6 tube of dielectric grease that will probably fill over 100 nuts. After all, that is what the pre-filled ones use, right? That would be somewhere around $12 per hundred, vs. $14 per 20.

 

You're doing one sprinkler system (at your home) and you're kvetching about wire nuts? If you used individual anti-syphon zone valves, the wire connections would be above ground, and plain wire nuts with an electrical-tape overwrap of the whole bundle of of connections would be plenty good enough. As for underground connections on the cheap, just remember that before there was dielectric grease, there was silicone.

 

Okay, $12.00/100 vs. $70.00/100. Figure in your labor, and you're still ahead with the DIY wire nuts for installation costs.

But, is it worth standing around with a tube of grease trying to shove it down into a wire nut so you can thread it onto a couple of wires? And while it might last for a good while this is where the problems may arise.

And we are talking about $14.00 for cryin' out loud! That's chump change when compared to one service call. I know you will probably do the repairs yourself, but somewhere down the road someone else may get called in.

Drop the few extra dollars and have peice of mind.

Jerry

 

For wire splices that are in unflooded full-depth valve boxes, I don't see many electrical problems, and this goes back to systems that pre-date the dielectric wire nuts, and maybe even silicone caulk.

A long-ago telephone conversation with some wire-splice salesman had me offering - "I don't know. In full-depth valve boxes, I haven't seen any problems with plain wire nut connections"

After a pause, the salesman replied, "You're right."

 

Okay, $12.00/100 vs. $70.00/100. Figure in your labor, and you're still ahead with the DIY wire nuts for installation costs.

And we are talking about $14.00 for cryin' out loud! Jerry

I hear you, and if I were in YOUR business, I would feel the same way. But if you could buy gas for $70 a gallon that came with detergent, or $12 a gallon and you had to add the detergent yourself (but the cost was already included), which would you choose?

I can fill a wire nut with silicone or grease in about 10 seconds. That's 70 seconds for my whole system. At $65/hr, I have spent an extra $1.26 on the job, instead of making the owner pay $4.90 for 7 pre-lubed nuts. Now, since you are going to pass on that cost to the customer anyway, why not put the extra $3.64 pure profit in your pocket, and never even mention it to them? If you do two installs per week, that is $378.56 that you just made...

Sure, $14 is nothing in the overall picture, but that half the difference between plastic rotors & SS rotors on my I-20s. Personally, I would rather have the SS shafts than nuts that someone else lubed for me!

 

Kid, this horse was dead before you started beating it.

 

Kid, this horse was dead before you started beating it.

LOL, I can take a hint, at least! I will go with the flow here, since I KNOW none of you would let me exceed 5 FPS...