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- I'm currently doing an outside lighting job,
and of course,
moisture getting into your electrical connections
is something that you just cannot afford to let happen.
So, in this video we're going to have a look
at the Storm gland from SWA.
I'm going to be using this clever little gland
to give us an IP68 connection
into this adaptable box from Wiska,
which I've also shot a video on,
so please feel free to check that out.
Now, the first thing you'll notice about this gland
is that at first glance it appears
to be almost entirely made out of plastic,
which may give you one or two reservations
about connecting the armoring to this,
either as a CPC or bonding it.
However, when we start opening it up
we find most of the familiar parts
that we'd normally see in an armored cable gland in there.
You've got this front bit here,
the gland body, if you like,
with this plastic nut around the outside,
and at the back of the gland body
you've got this cone-shaped part here.
I suppose technically I should call that a frustum,
but I don't want anyone to take my lunch money.
Even that part is quite interesting,
because on an indoor gland,
this part is normally nailed with that diamond-like pattern
to provide a solid mechanical and electrical connection,
and on a regular outdoor gland, it would be smooth,
but we've kind of got a bit of a halfway house here with...
I guess you'd call this a ribbed texture.
Now, with an outdoor gland,
you have the additional clamping ring,
and that's present here also.
Now, if that does come out of the back bit of the gland,
just make sure that it goes on
to the cable the right way around.
It's got an internal taper here
that needs to match the taper on the gland body
in order to clamp on to the armoring tightly.
So far so normal.
We know how to terminate an armored cable.
But this gland is all about keeping the moisture out,
so how is it achieving that?
Well, the trick that has to be way of achieved
is to look at where the moisture can get in,
and then prevent that from happening.
So, moisture is potentially going to get in
where the gland meets the box.
So, there's a rubber washer here that you can see
that's going to stop that from happening
when this gets tightened up on to the box,
but it's also going to get in
where the body nut meets the gland body.
Now, this one must have represented an engineering challenge
because this nut doesn't get tightened up
to a specific distance inside here and then sit on a seal.
It will tighten up to different extents
depending on the size of cable you're installing
and the thickness of the armorings.
But it still needs to be sealed
no matter how far in it's gone to clamp
on to those armorings.
Now, for that reason, if you look carefully,
you can see that the seal is in the form of this O-ring.
It's not on the end of the nut,
but rather it sits in a groove here just back from the end,
and once you get that to a certain tightness,
you can feel it just kind of tighten up
as you get to a certain position here,
and that's not the nut clamping
on to the armorings, obviously,
it's the O-ring sealing up the gland,
and you can tell that there's still room to go,
because you can keep going with that.
So, it's sealed, but it can be cranked up
to the right tightness to allow
for the varying sizes of armorings.
I'm a little bit lost in admiration for that.
I think that's fantastic. So, I've said the goal with this
is to keep the moisture out.
The final place that it could get in
is along the outer sheath where it enters the gland.
Now, this next bit reminds me kind of
of a compression joint in plumbing.
You'll sometimes see people lashing loads of PTFE tape
around the threads of the joint,
not realizing that it's actually the olive
that keeps the water where it belongs.
Well, it's similar here.
It's not the threads that will keep the water out,
it's another O-ring,
this time mounted inside the outer seal nut,
and when you tighten it up,
it just compresses on to this part here,
and then seals up around the outer sheath.
So, there it is.
All the parts engineered to keep water out.
Absolutely brilliant.
Let's have a look at how it installs.
Okay, so let's start.
Getting this done.
A little scoring on that.
Let's get the outer sheath off there with the Stanley.
Get that one done.
Get rid of these.
Now,
there is always, always
one.
There it is.
Probably several on this one now I've said that.
So, we'll get those off.
There we go, nearly there.
Last little bundle.
There we go.
Just that last little one that just needs a little more
encouragement there.
Be careful, of course, not to damage
the inner sheath.
Okay.
Always like to get rid of this bit first,
just to go ahead and score that.
Don't run into the inner conduit to that,
because we're gonna destroy it.
Just wipe that off like so,
and then it's just a matter of putting the gland on there.
Okay, so we'll take this into its
component parts,
and then we'll get this bit put in here
like so,
and because I'm using the earth bar
from Wiska on this one,
go and check out the video that I made on that as well.
It's quite an interesting one.
Whether you can use this earth bar
on the smaller version of this box,
whether that's possible.
No spoilers here.
You'll have to go and watch the video to find out,
so let's just get that tightened up.
There we go, that's going in nicely.
Probably going by hand now.
There we go.
Okay, so now you can see
that first seal coming into play.
That's going to
tighten up on the outside of the box
and just prevent any moisture coming in.
Now, at this point, because I don't want to damage
the plastic threads in the box,
I like to do the fixing screw
on this earth bar at this point
so that holds that nice and tightly now
and stops that from spinning any further,
and also gives a good connection on to
the brass of the armored cable going there.
Okay, so we'll get the outer part put on,
and the clamping rings inside there as well,
and then I'll just need to take off
just a little bit of this outer sheath,
just 15 mil thereabouts.
Half an inch if you're tuning in from the past.
There we go,
and then just remove that from the outside.
There we go.
Okay, so now it's just a matter of
getting this inside the
gland now,
so I'll just get that around.
Of course, I'll color these up with the right
colors when the time comes,
give that a twist just to splay out the arm rends.
It's just a matter of just bringing your thing up,
making sure that's up as far as it'll go,
and then we just tighten that bit in.
You can see the seal going in there now,
so that's nice and tight on there,
and then you just tighten that bit up.
No problem.
That's just a funny little sensation, actually,
because it kind of gets tight as the seal goes in,
but of course, that is not
the full measure of its tightness.
There we go.
Then we'll just get that cranked up
all the way on that.
And then it's just a matter of doing up this bottom one,
seal that bottom one in.
So, we're about where we need to be with that,
which is good.
There we go,
and
that looks to me
like a job in the town.
There, lovely.
Very good.
And of course, there's no shroud required either,
which is a lovely effect, so that looks pretty good.
So that, I think, looks pretty cool.
Just make sure that's nice and straight coming up the ways,
and that's that made off,
so I think that's a really good armored cable gland.
That is a brilliant bit of kit,
rated at IP68, well-engineered,
and some really clever little tricks in there
to keep the water from getting in,
and looks, I think, a lot better
than the traditional outdoor gland
with the shroud all messed up and distorted
with the end inaccurately cut off.
I think it's fair to say that this
is not just a storm in a teacup.
Thanks very much for watching.
Seriously?
Storm in a teacup?
Who writes this stuff?
Honestly.
I'll be in my trailer.
Yes.
Yes, I'm in the van.
(motor sound)
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