Chemical Resistant Wiring by Tire Motor Solenoids?

[mjwalsh]

Our tire-motor solenoid control area with its wire terminals close to the chemical tubing is in the process of getting ready to be redone.

Do any of you have a source for a few feet of THHN 18 gauge wire or similar chemical resistant wire (lets say red & white color)???

Do you think it is kind of silly for us to insist upon using a tougher more resistant strand wire just in case a future chemical leak would happen & we did not catch it quick enough. The terminals would be the most vulnerable ... but it would be nice if the wires would at least be not hurt at all. It seems like the wire inside of multi wire cable is not as good as individual stranded 18 ga THHN.

 

[Kramerwv]

Grainger?

 

[OurTown]

You could use tinned wire so it doesn't corrode inside where exposed at the terminal ends. I'm not sure how chemical resistant different insulations are though.

 

[David Rolf]

I use aircraft wire when I need maximum protection. It's Mil-W-22759. I have plenty on hand since we use it for our aircraft cockpit installations. You can buy from a place called Aircraft Spruce. https://www.aircraftspruce.com. Maybe overkill but it works.

 

[MEP001]

The most chemical resistant insulation will be regular THHN wire. You can buy it by the foot in many colors at big-box hardware stores. I've been buying 100 feet at a time of 19 conductor 18 gauge tinned wire and strip it apart, which comes out much cheaper by the foot than buying spools of 500 feet of hookup wire, but it's a massive pain in the ass separating the strands. Tinned wire is a good bit more resistant to corrosion than bare copper, but it will still corrode, as will the terminals. For that reason, I prefer to make connections inside a plastic project box on a terminal strip. Wires enter/exit at the bottom to prevent water/chemical entry.

I got an estimate from colewire.com - they quoted only $62 per thousand feet of plain color wire, $75 with a stripe. This is the same wire that's used on Dixmor timer harnesses which I've seen seen almost 30 years old and holds up really well. At those prices it's also cheaper than separating the 19 conductor stuff.

 

[mjwalsh]

Thanks for the replies. I will check out David's aircraft supplier link & colewire.com.

I will say this we try to make sure that our hookup wire, terminals, quick disconnects & even fuses are rated for at least 300V even in low voltage applications. I just would rather not have "low voltage spec general wiring whatever" on standby having less usefulness IMHO. Alarm jacketed wire could be an exception because of a possible cost factor.

A few minutes ago ... I examined the original existing wire on the tire/motor module from Specialty Equip Manufacturing. It is TEW rated wiring. The following link has some pro & con info about tinned vs non tinned (MTW vs TEW). https://www.awcwire.com/producttoc.aspx?id=1028-1283-1284

Since we have taken on some revisions of our car wash coin box wiring & laundry equipment control areas our goto supplier (lotsa of colors) for up to 300V hookup wire has been this Chicago area outfit: About Remington Industries, Inc. | Remington Industries. BTW we invested in special somewhat spendy crimpers for JST & other brands of quick disconnects. Thankfully, Dan K from GinSan steered us to some key info about 22ga required wire JST connections technicalities.

 

[New Washdog]

I use awcwire.com

 

[Nuphoenix]

Check out https://www.wireandcableyourway.com/