as we gear ourselves up for five seconds of summer that's a reference to the weather we
enjoy in the UK by the way not the Australian beet pop combo our thoughts turn to The Great Outdoors
barbecues paddling pools and less enjoyably dodgy and dangerous electrical connections well Wago are
here to help make sure that our connections are as waterproof as possible with the Wago gel box
we've had a look at these in a previous video but there were some elements missing from there
namely the larger sized 1430 range you may also remember that Gary and Gordon were brave enough
and drop these connectors into a bucket of water well we always like to push things further here
at eFIXX in a bucket of water doesn't give us the over one meter immersion test that should be
used for IPX8 so we're going to be testing this connection a little more thoroughly by dropping
it into a water boat but before we get to that let's just clarify a couple of things about the
gel box and what it is and isn't for generally speaking if you want to create an IPX7 or IPX8
connection for joining a cable the traditional method has been to keep moisture from entering
the enclosure at all using glands that seal up around the cable where it enters the enclosure
is one way of achieving this however if the enclosure is in a place where we'll experience
fluctuating temperatures like The Great Outdoors during the change of seasons then slightly warmer
air inside the enclosure and the cooler air outside the enclosure will cause condensation to
form on the inside which could then short out the electrical connections the temperature difference
can also cause the internal pressure of the box to fluctuate pulling fresh air and moisture into
the box allowing for further condensation and this effect can actually draw moisture down the cable
itself between the insulation of the conductor and the outer sheath and no gland will prevent
that from happening so the traditional solution is to fill the enclosure up with some kind of
sealing gel that prevents moisture getting into the connections however this can be time consuming
messy really wasteful because you don't need the whole enclosure protecting from moisture just the
connections and finally it can be difficult to get into the connections in the future for maintenance
Etc so Wago have thought you know inside the box and come up with the Wago gel box it's designed
to house and keep moisture out of the connections but as you can see here the mouth of the box is
designed to clamp around the insulated conductors not the sheath of a cable which means that when
it's installed as per the instructions there'll be a section of conductor with insulation and
no teeth and this needs to then sit inside an enclosure to stay compliant with BS7671
so the gel box provides IPX8 protection to the connections and the enclosure provides
cable retention and protection to the gel box conductors and cable using the gel box removes
the need to flood the box with gel and applies it exactly where it's needed another advantage
to this is that a lot of sealing gels contain silicon whereas here the gel is silicon free and
this allows the gel box to be used in any branch of Industry even those where varnishes paints and
other sensitive products are used such as the automotive industry and combined with its IPX8
rating makes it suitable for bathrooms washing facilities or irrigation systems farms and garden
centers swimming pool areas car parks and charging stations and because unlike those other sealant
gels where two separate materials are combined to cause a reaction and make it set the Silicon free
gel has already reacted so it's fully label free and can be stored indefinitely and critically it
allows the user to easily and cleanly access and reuse the connections at a future date although
it should be noted that if you do open one up to modify connections at a future date a fresh
gel box should be used to ensure the connection remains at IPX8 at this point we'll introduce
the gel boxes that we haven't seen before and these are the 1430 versions of the product which
are suited to contain the larger six millimeter connectors and again come in three sizes the last
digit changes each time to represent the larger size and although I don't think it's intentional
it also corresponds to the number of connectors each one can contain at the most this brings us
to another really important point which is that to guarantee the connection will be IPX8 you need
to follow the guidance from Wago on the type and number of connectors this can contain so
the smallest 1431 can contain either a single two way or three way connector the second size will
hold either two two way connectors or a single five way connector and finally the largest size
will take either three two way connections or two three way connections which when you think these
connectors can take 41 amps of current that's a seriously beefy IPX8 Connection in a remarkably
compact space and of course if your joint can't be serviced by one of these connections you can place
a number of them into an enclosure and achieve the number of connections you need by using different
combinations because the gel box provides the IP protection the enclosure helps you meet the other
requirements of BS7671 it's worth noting that there's no mention here of being able to use
the 2773 series of connectors in these and achieve the ipx8 rating so keep that in mind when making
your choice of gel box the gel enclosures are also approved to VDE when used with the Wago connectors
and they're currently the only manufacturer to guarantee a connection made with their connector
in a gel enclosure other manufacturers shy away from offering this as they make generic parts
and don't know what brand of connectors will be installed in them as different connectors vary in
size accomplishing the correct gel displacement to get the proper IP seal cannot be guaranteed
and they really couldn't be simpler to use you just make the connections to the cable
with your choice of connectors and then place them neatly into the gel box making sure none
of your conductors cross over in the mouth of the box snap it closed and you're good to go
and of course at some indeterminate point in the future you can open it up and access the
connections again really nice and cleanly without tons of sticky residue so let's put
it to the test by volleying into this full water but if we get it down to the bottom of
here that's about a meter deep of course it goes without saying that you mustn't try this at home
as it should really be in an enclosure as well I'm going to stand up here on this decking so
I've got no connection to the literal Earth and then lower that in there and see how it fares
it's like fishing it out again you can see that the connection has survived no protective devices
have tripped and inside the gel box all is dry and well preserved the Wago gel box is an excellent
solution to the need to keep connections dry in difficult circumstances and is sure to come
in handy for applications that we haven't even thought of yet if you've enjoyed this
video you may want to check out one of these videos here thank you very much for watching