# Hand taped stress cone vs. kits



## Big John

This is anecdotal, but I've run into a couple of companies that said they would actually warranty hand-taped stress cones for the life of the cable, whereas they were only willing to warranty the kits based on the manufacturers recommendations.

It appears to me that cable termination is a dying art. I often see guys installing splice kits who have little or no training, whereas it used to be that a good cable splicer would have a whole lot of time under his belt before going into the field.


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## JW Splicer

Really? That's interesting, I ask because the IBEW is still pushing taped cones and Lead wiping in some of the classes. I think it is definitely an art in itself. I'm curious as to why there is so much emphasis on tape and pilc? It seems that kits are all that is used, at least in my area. Less training, less time, and money, but normally less is less, right? Lifetime of a cable now is what expected 20yrs? Some 30 or 40? Kit is generally around 10 yrs warranty? I'm assuming?


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## JW Splicer

Also ncscb has a taped certification, and a kit certification? I guess I'm just under the impression that tape is dead, maybe in other areas it's still around?


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## don_resqcapt19

After incorrect cable prep issues, voids in the dielectric are one of the biggest causes of termination failure. I would expect that voids are more likely in a taped termination than in a hot or cold shrink termination.


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## JW Splicer

Exactly, which is why I wonder why anyone would ever use tape unless it was an emergency? A truck full of tape will get the job done without having to know size or type or voltage or class...


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## FaultCurrent

Lead wiped joints are some of the most durable connections out there, some have been in service for 50-75 years. And there are a ****eload of hand taped terminations still going strong. It is a question of workmanship. A properly built hand splice will last forever. But it is time and labor intensive. That's why we have premolded terminations now, to save money, not because they are better. I have observed far more failures in the Raychem stuff than in hand taped terminations.


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## Mshea

In the hands of an experienced splicer taped is good but for we that have never had regular experience we get much better results from the modern kits. So for expereince splicers hand taping is still outliving kits but for inexperienced tapers, Kits are better. that means it depends on who is doing the termination.


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## don_resqcapt19

FaultCurrent said:


> Lead wiped joints are some of the most durable connections out there, some have been in service for 50-75 years. And there are a ****eload of hand taped terminations still going strong. It is a question of workmanship. A properly built hand splice will last forever. But it is time and labor intensive. That's why we have premolded terminations now, to save money, not because they are better. I have observed far more failures in the Raychem stuff than in hand taped terminations.


One of the issues with the hot or cold shrink terminations is the fact that anyone who knows hot to read can install them. Often they don't have the training to do them correctly and they fail. I would expect most of the failures of the premolded terminations is not of the termination itself, but because of poor installation practices. 

There are not a lot of guys left who can still make a lead wiped joint. I have talked to some engineers who say that a lead jacket is the only waterproof jacket that has ever been made...everything else is just water resistant.


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## Frizratz

don_resqcapt19 said:


> ... I have talked to some engineers who say that a lead jacket is the only waterproof jacket that has ever been made...everything else is just water resistant.


Thats not really true.
I've seen transformers and splice points in underground vaults and open pits, full to the brim with water, 35 Kv, with load break elbows that did not fail. I seen it more than once.

My experience with hand taped stress cones stops at 5 Kv.
I don't think you can even get kits for anything lower than 15 Kv these days. 
Hand made stress cones do take time and patience. 
and as stated previously, the kits are faster, cheaper and they have a pretty good reliability record.


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## don_resqcapt19

Frizratz said:


> Thats not really true.
> I've seen transformers and splice points in underground vaults and open pits, full to the brim with water, 35 Kv, with load break elbows that did not fail. I seen it more than once.
> 
> My experience with hand taped stress cones stops at 5 Kv.
> I don't think you can even get kits for anything lower than 15 Kv these days.
> Hand made stress cones do take time and patience.
> and as stated previously, the kits are faster, cheaper and they have a pretty good reliability record.


The are talking over long time. The lead is much less permeable than any of the non-metallic jackets.


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## Big John

don_resqcapt19 said:


> ...I would expect most of the failures of the premolded terminations is not of the termination itself, but because of poor installation practices....


 All the ones I've seen fail have ultimately been installation error, and some of them are fantastically basic, like the installer not understanding that he had to cut back the semiconductor layer.

As far as lead goes, the polymer insulators are designed to be submersible but even the best of them will tree and fail eventually. The extruded lead is basically like putting it in a waterproof pipe that won't ever oxidize. The only risk of failure comes from abuse.


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## JW Splicer

I've seen some guys do some horrible work with a razor knife, cut through and damage every layer... Sometimes those guys keep me really busy! Haha


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## MXer774

Big John said:


> All the ones I've seen fail have ultimately been installation error, and some of them are fantastically basic, like the installer not understanding that he had to cut back the semiconductor layer.
> 
> I had a situation where a fellow contractor I used to work for got in over his training level. A bypass (single phase) 7200v from xfmr to xfmr had ground faulted from old age. He was fortunate enough to just pull out the old and in with the new 15kv cable. Unfortunately this guy didn't have the knowledge on properly terminating medium voltage cables. He didn't remove semicon nor clean the inner insulation. Got a call from him and gave him a hand. Had he read the instructions on the kit I think he could have got it. Lol


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## dtmartin408

I work for a utility that has 100 year old lead cable still in the ground. We also have a ton of cable splicers that do nothing but splice lead cable all day and build potheads. We are slowly but surely doing cable upgrades and changing over to poly cable but, it is failing before we can get it into the ground. Bottom line is that lead cable is expensive, takes very skilled craftsmen to splice, and if done right will last nearly forever. Poly cable is cheap, almost anybody can splice it, and if your lucky you'll get 20 years out of it.


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## JW Splicer

So kind of an update, I'm at a utility as of now, we do a lot of hand tape for 3 way and 4 way splices. Everything else is heat shrink or modular. We still have a little bit of lead in the network, but we replace it or transition splice to poly. Lead lasts forever, but people don't. The utility moved away from lead due to the hazards associated with the work. Molten lead, fumes, and ergo issues. Lead lasts forever until you mess with it and fatigue the sheath. I hope to do a lead wipe before I kick though, it's on my bucket list!


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## don_resqcapt19

JW Splicer said:


> ...I hope to do a lead wipe before I kick though, it's on my bucket list!


A long time after most cities had forbidden the use of lead water piping, Chicago still required it. The connections required a wiped lead joint. Many times, if there was not an electrician that could wipe the lead on a cable joint, they had a plumber do it.

The only lead cable I ever worked with was 3 conductor, 15kV, 750kcmil, paper wrapped, oil filled. I think it weighed ~ 15 pounds a foot. 

I was a second year apprentice (1974) and on the pulling crew. When it came time to do the joints, the cable splicers wouldn't even let anyone see what they were doing. They want to keep the number of people who could do that type of work as limited as possible


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## JW Splicer

don_resqcapt19 said:


> A long time after most cities had forbidden the use of lead water piping, Chicago still required it. The connections required a wiped lead joint. Many times, if there was not an electrician that could wipe the lead on a cable joint, they had a plumber do it.
> 
> The only lead cable I ever worked with was 3 conductor, 15kV, 750kcmil, paper wrapped, oil filled. I think it weighed ~ 15 pounds a foot.
> 
> I was a second year apprentice (1974) and on the pulling crew. When it came time to do the joints, the cable splicers wouldn't even let anyone see what they were doing. They want to keep the number of people who could do that type of work as limited as possible


It's still a part of our "training" here. We have very little lead left in the system. I know ConEd is planning to have all lead out by 2020. It's going the way of the dodo it seems. 

As a side note, every splicer I met before becoming one, was very secretive and would only let JWs help them, and that was only when there wasn't any other splicer on the job. I got the run around more than once on how to prep and clean cable, test for dead, ground etc. keep em confused and you keep your job. I had a great JW teach me a lot and have loved splicing since.


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