In another thread some Heat n Seal butt splices were mentioned while discussing dealing with oxidized speaker wire ends outdoors.

It got me thinking about making speaker wire splices in a spot where the cable would be exposed to the elements or buried.

In the past I have had good success soldering the splice, covering in silicon, and heat shrinking tube over the silicon while still soft. I've done this on many speaker connections and also on my Invisible Fence buried cable and have never had a connection go bad. (My original Invisible Fence installer used regular old wire nuts for some under ground connections.)

Here are a couple of options for water proof connections that aren't permanent, although I'm not sure I'd want to bury them:

[Link: switchcraft.com]

[Link: amazon.ca]

What would you do for a 70 volt system where you had a single run of direct burial cable and had to splice in speakers that have a pigtail? Make the splice in a PVC box and seal the entry into the box?

Thanks,

Craig

With the PVC box I was thinking of its use for something like the application pictured below. This is a screen shot from the manual for some Jamo landscape speakers. They can be configured for either 8 ohm or 70 volt, depending on what you do with the 5 wires in the pigtail. That's a lot of mess to just have buried in the dirt. The manual is like a piece of IKEA furniture. No suporting text. That's what got me searching for the water proof wire nuts, but wire nuts just give me the heebeejeebees. The kits has 8 satellites, so lots of connections to go wrong.

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NEAR sells a burial enclosure with a built-in screw-terminal splice point that I have been using for about 2 years. It’s a pain in the ass to put together, but I took it and literally submerged it in water for an hour and it didn’t leak.

[Link: nearspeakers.com]

That Near box looks good.

I've used the King wire nuts for quite a long time.

You can spend $0.50 per connection, or $50, and anything in between. How much time and money you want to invest in this is up to you.

Lots of waterproof and weatherproof commercially available splice options.

[Link: google.com]

I like the idea of burying a box for each, slightly more reliable than waterproof wirenuts.

I think Wago Lever Locks would work well for this, buried in a box. The boxes are probably going to be the most expensive aspect of this project.


Looks like Wago offers IP66 splices boxes, probably overkill.
[Link: element14.com]


I don't see that Wagobox in the US, nevermind on that one.

I like the Wago box, but not the idea of burying it. I have a friend who does landscaping and one day, he called to ask me if I could look at a cable that was cut by one of his guys. The location of the cable made absolutely no sense until I thought about who laid it- Time Warner. You and I might think that a cable coming down a pole might be buried in a straight line to the house where the demarc box was mounted but eau contraire! It went out toward a fence and back toward the demarc.

Since it was RG-11, I found a waterproof UHF splice kit and some big heat shrink tubing with heat-activated sealant. AFAIK, it's still working and that was close to ten years ago.

For speaker wires, I would find a way to terminate inside of an enclosure, even if it's a short section of PVC conduit with the proper fittings to allow re-making the connections in the event that water enters. I would use Heat N Seal butt splices or solder and self-sealing heat shrink tubing. I'm not a huge fan of wire nuts when stranded wire is involved.

I guess you've already covered this one, but do you nee a burial enclosure, where we have had issues in the pass with this we have made the connection in a IP rated box and placed the box on a wooden spike at the back of the flower bed about 300mm off the ground.

This is what i was going to suggest you do in the other thread. Solder/Heat shrink / Silicone.

Normally you cant do much about oxi-rotted cables so just trim it back a little/strip/solder. Thats about as good as you can get it IMO.

Blazing Products BLS10. The brown colored one. These come included with Terra Speakers. They work perfect for 70 volt pigtail connections because you can get three wires in each one. Gel filled, accept 12 gauge, they are NOT small. I believe they made them special for Kichler landscaping lights. I have trouble sourcing them, but when I find them I usually buy 50 of them. I generally use Terra Speakers so I dint need extras often, but, usually at the beginning of the run.

Srink tube, vinyl electrical tape, rubber electrical tape and 3M Scotchkote FD; in that order, is your friend.

Shrink tube each splice wire and the entire cable. Vinyl electrical tape, each wrap is 1/2 over the previous wrap. Rubber electrical tape, 1/2 wrap over each other. Then “paint” 3M Scotchkote on the outside.

KOT

Im actually specing Terra for my first time in an outdoor system I'm starting. Their literature stays they come with Conxall connectors. Unless I read wrong. Regardless perhaps you can answer a question for me. Do they come with both the male and female sides of the connector or just one, leaving the user tonsuplky the other half. I know that may sound odd but from what I've seen the Conxall connectors are sold in halves.

Thanks. Craig.

I don't necessarily need a burial enclosure and I preffer to leave any junctions I make accessible for sure but I just wanted to know what others were doing when burying connections. I'm thinking more along the lines of the take offs for a 70 v speaker on a single long run of cable.

The gardens I'm working with don't have a lot of good shrubbery to cover an exposed box. They would be noticeable and ugly. If I leave them exposed I'll put them on the back of the post I mount the speaker on. They'll be close to ground level.

I have not used the conxall, only the pigtail versions. Do a you tube search for Terra Speakers... I think you will find video of each connect type / version.

I will. Thanks very much.

I have used these.

[Link: voltlighting.com]