How To Repair Underground Electrical Wire Insulation

Sometimes wire insulation gets damaged. The wire will notwithstanding work, only exposed metal increases the take chances of short circuit, electrical shock, or fifty-fifty fire. When you come across damaged insulation, you really need to fix it. Here's how to repair wire insulation.

Repair wire insulation with electrical tape

repair damaged wire insulation

The quick and muddied fix to repair damaged wire insulation is to merely wrap it in electrical tape. It works, but it looks bad and eventually that tape will fall off and then yous'll need to fix information technology again.

The easiest and cheapest selection is to just wrap some vinyl electrical tape effectually the damaged insulation to shore it upwardly. This works, merely it doesn't wait professional. Then again, who's ever going to await there?

To me, the bigger downside besides appearance is that the adhesive will deteriorate over time and the record will fall off. It will accept years for that to happen, but it'south non something anyone competent would consider a permanent repair. I'd rather do a permanent repair unless I only demand a temporary fix to get through an emergency.

If yous employ electric tape to repair wire insulation, be sure to come dorsum and replace information technology with a more than permanent set up before you forget most it.

Repair wire insulation with liquid electrical record

Abode improvement stores sell a polymer compound they telephone call liquid electrical record. Brush it onto the exposed wire, and it will bail with the surviving insulation and harden into a rubbery mass. It yields a more than permanent repair, and if you lot're careful, it looks more professional also. The downside is the price, simply a bottle of liquid electrical tape will do a big number of small repair jobs.

Repair wire insulation with heat compress tubing

repair damaged wire insulation

In this photo, I repaired damaged wire insulation with oestrus shrink tubing rather than wrapping it with electrical tape. It'due south a more permanent repair.

The well-nigh professional repair for wire insulation involves heat shrink tubing. Every bit long as you can disconnect one stop of the wire, y'all can merely sideslip a piece of tube over the wire, reconnect the other end, then apply a heat to the tube with a heat gun or fifty-fifty a common hair dryer. The tube will shrink downwards and grip tightly onto whatever remains underneath. You tin can expect a package of assorted heat shrink tubing to cost around $iv.

You may take to de-solder and re-solder some wire to utilize this method. Here's some advice on soldering.

Replace the ability plug

If the impairment happens to be close to the plug and you don't listen shortening the cable a chip, you can just cut off the wire near the plug, and so replace the plug to solve the problem. All you need is a gear up of wire strippers/cutters, a screwdriver, and a replacement power plug, which won't cost you much more than a couple of dollars.

Cutting off the wire as close to the damage as you can with a pair of wire cutters. Strip off about a half-inch of insulation from both wires, and then twist the copper strands together nice and tight.

Disassemble the replacement plug, then thread the two wires through the hole in the plug. There are 2 screws inside. Bend each wire into a U shape, and loop one wire over one of the screws and the other wire over the other. Cinch the U shape closed, then tighten the screws. Slide the protective plate over the end of the plug. And that's information technology.

Outright replacement

If the insulation is besides far gone, information technology might exist cheaper and/or easier to but supersede the wire altogether with new wire. This may involve soldering, but read my piece on soldering I linked to above. It'south non as hard as information technology sounds.