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PSA: I finally stopped using electrical tape for everything after a fire chief talked to me at a job in Nashville
He was inspecting our work behind a new apartment complex and told me tape fails in heat, showed me scorch marks from a previous install. That got me to switch to heat shrink for all my outdoor connections. Anyone else had a close call with tape melting?
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lewis.brian14d ago
36 years of using the right electrical tape outdoors and ive never seen one melt on me. @the_alice is right, it depends on the tape and how you use it.
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felixhenderson13d ago
36 years is a long time but I gotta wonder what kind of conditions you're working in. Out here in the desert sun I've seen the cheap stuff turn into goo in under a season, even the supposedly good outdoor rated stuff gets brittle and cracks after a couple summers baking on a south facing wall. Did that fire chief show you any specific tape brands that were failing, or was it more of a general warning about any tape in high heat situations?
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