"because i said so." is how i am going to end the sentence.

Adding..

The reason i added to this thread today was so i could complete this blog post :

[Link: wiremunky.com]

Not really, because there's more to it. Intially you asked if it was illegal to use it within a wall. It is, (illegal), but not just because of the CL designation. The jacket/insulation was not designed for the stresses it would endure during installation. It's not made for pulling. There's no need to even get into the CL classifications.

You did however expand the usage into inceiling/plenum installations later on in the thread. At this point you need to deal with the lack of plenum rating, (as previously stated), plus what I've already mentioned about the stresses of installation.

The bottom line is... copper is copper. The difference is the insulation. Zip cord is meant to be free air, laid in place, and free of mechanical hazards. Not concealed, or pulled into place, or be near the cutting edges of a 'T' bar ceiling.

So simply put, without digging through and pulling from multiple online sources... It's insulation isn't rated for that use

I've tried to dig Stamp, but unfortunately "zip cord" seems to be just slang for "parallel cable", and/or a "cable that can have it's conductors easily split from one another".

Nothing that gives any detail to the jacket construction to which I can reference to my code book. Although PVC does seem to be the common demoninator in the descriptions I have found.

I plan on going to a hardware store tomorrow to get some keys cut. I'll see if I can pull some info off a bulk reel.

I have always called it lamp cord. I picked up the term zipcord the day I started this thread. It's actually spt-2 16 awg. I can't remember off hand and I'm using my iPhone so I'm 2 lazy to look but I think there's also a spt-1 cable.

You read my mind because I was going to do the same thing
tomorrow. Ace is about a 20 minute walk from my place.

"You can't install lamp cord aka ZipCord in walls or ceilings" UNLESS "it is listed as being resistant to the spread of fire."

Of course then it wouldn't be zipcord would it.

Some guy who knows 'better' than anybody else decided that due to the minor likelihood that some cables under extreme circumstances might possibly be slightly more dangerous due to dubious research and possible flawed statistics that he would pass these regulations.

Dont flame me too hard. There are millions of miles of zip/lamp/unsheathed speaker cord installed in exactly such locations all around the world. If we were to believe the doomsday cults around here every building containing these products should be a smouldering pile of ash minutes after the systems are powered on for the first time.

My opinion. If you need to use fire rated cables to get an electrical pass on a job, then just do it. If it really makes a difference in the long run, I doubt it.

So, Ozzie, which codes are legitimate?

Do you want to write your own code book, based on your personal limited experience? Or do you want to rely on a book modified over the last 100 years by engineers, electricians, and other installers?

I was only making a comical comment to a thread which should have died pages ago by finishing Stamp's saying.
There is code. Use it, abide by it. You cant do this work properly without it.
But dont fool yourselves by thinking every job not done with CL whatever rated cable is a death trap because its just not true. I said before there are millions of installations done using twin sheathed flex and whatever was lying around. If the building is already on fire there are heaps of flammable and toxic items in the rest of the construction and a few metres (feet) of lamp cord speaker cable isn't going to make a big difference if any to a fire outcome.
I recently had a fire break out in a commercial venue right next to the equipment rack. The heat was intense enough to start melting the aluminium rack and all of the conduits nearby and the handles on the fridges. The A/C ducting has so far been removed for 10 or 15 metres past the hot spot but all of my cables, charred and damaged as they are have not had any extra length burned except for right next to the heat source. Both the CL rated RG6 and the non rated speaker wires look exactly the same. (these are not in the wall or ceiling) If anything the conduits nearby did a great job of fanning the flames.
As a matter of fact to reinforce Ernie's comments earlier there are holes between this area and the one next door with holes drilled through easily twice the diameter of the wires and not one flame escaped outside of this room.
Yes code is good and it helps protect the masses. Dangerous wiring practices should be avoided. If I had one length of zip cord in the van, a 100 mile drive and nothing else to use, if the cord was otherwise the right guage then I would use it. So would most people here.

Neuronads,
It's nice to see that I'm not the only one who asks questions like that, questions that push hard to have the askee really address an issue. When I do that, then post at ip, they say I'm bringing my attitude.


Next time you've got a question about something happening at AVS, maybe you should ask it at AVS.

I've known it as zip cord since the eighties. But I've also heard tie wraps called zip ties, and even P ties by car installers. The ties look like a letter P when half tight, but they look even more like a Greek rho and nobody calls them rho ties....

SPT-2 is thicker insulation than the usual lamp cord. When I was tasked with building sound room demo systems from scratch for a hi fi store, I looked around and chose 16-2 SPT-2 as it had thick insulation and the usual store speaker wire at that time was 18 gauge. Voila, 16-2 SPT-2 bigger, thicker, manlier. FWIW, this was when Noel Lee was only a Little Monster and hadn't grown up to be the Monster we know today.

If you look at the wire used on your average home 100 watt lamp, you'll see 18-2 SPT-1. SPT-2 is thicker insulation, that's all.



If you do some arithmetic, you come up with the fact that 100 watts into 8 ohms is 28.28 volts, so Class 2 is easily defined as 100 watts of amplifer output into 8 ohms with a bit of rounding up.


What's strange about this is that the current of 100 watts, 28.28 volts at 8 ohms, is 3.5 amps, but as soon as you exceed 30 volts the current has to be 0.005 amps, which is 0.15 watts, or less. Watch those transients!

And miss out on all these pages of half answers? No way!

I just spent 6 minutes 37 seconds of my life reading this thread. Could I have a refund please?

The term zip cord has been around for decades. Wanna know why? Just look at the cable. It pulls apart just like a zipper. They haven't found a need though to zip it back together so once unzipped it is exposed for all the world to see.

Another reason it is not approved for plenum use is that with forced airflow, over many years the insulation dries out,becomes brittle and can fall off the wire(conductors) if disturbed. This can happen in free air as well but the process is accelerated in pressurized moving air, whether positive or negative pressure.

This was discussed with a certified materials testing engineer many moons ago in a service call I made to the National Bureau of Standards in MD.to rework a conference room sound system.

Damn!

I have always heard and called it "Lamp Wire"