Friday, October 19, 2012

Outside plant cable, single armored or double armored?

The most popular Cat3 telephone cable for underground direct burial installations is your PE89 constructed cable. You might of also looked into the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Electrical Administration (REA) specification for filled telephone cables with expanded insulation to make sure you had what you're looking for.

Let's take a look at a PE89 Aluminum Single Armored Cable from our YouTube Channel



Now let's look at a PE89 (CACSP) Double Armored Cable.



As you can tell these cables are the exact same except the armoring. In section 9.3 of the REA specification a double armored cable is labeled as a (CACSP) for coated aluminum coated steel polyethylene cable.

When might you consider a double armored cable? On a personal level, I believe that the single armor is more then sufficient to support rodents from getting to this cable. The jacket alone is very durable and my hat goes off to the rodent that chewed through that!


Most of our direct burial cable sales are with a single armored but you might want to spend some time researching the installation area for what kinds of rodents are around and if it's a more populated rodent living area.


You might want to check out the North American Rodents Action Plan for more information.

It might not be a bad idea to also install a double armored cable where it may be submerged in depths of 40 feet or more. Here are some additional tips to consider for underwater installations.
    


I hope we've shed some light on this commonly asked question. Now it's time to figure out what you're more comfortable with, single or double. Wish it was as easy as deciding single or double from In-N-Out burger.


Questions? Don't hesitate to leave them below.

"By Mercy Salinas"

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