Check yours isnt like this! (EHU cable)

[Mr Plodd]

I was tinkering with the van on the driveway in readiness for a few days away and did the numpty thing in moving it having forgotten the thing was plugged in! So the cable got pulled out of the socket. Plugged back in, no power. Hah! Must have pulled a wire off thinks me, so separated the van end of the cable (short length, made up years ago to connect to the house without have 25m of cable lying around)

Sure enough the positive lead had pulled out of its connection. The insulation looked a bit tired so I thought I would take a few cm off the end to get back to some decent cable.

I kept going back and back and what I found is in the picture 😱 😱
The insulation around the various internal elements was broken in many places! Scary or what?

That cable has now been reduced to very short lengths ready to be recycled.
In view of what I found I thought I would post a picture and suggest perhaps that if your EHU cable is a few years old you might just want to check if its the same!!!

If I hadn't pulled the cable out I would have been totally ignorant of "what lies within"

 

[Andy Norfolk]

Blimey that's a wake up call!!

 

[Dustydog]

Mr Plodd
Have you seen this https://forums.practicalcaravan.com/threads/new-ehu-bollards.70807/page-2

I assume the dangers are the same🙉🙉

 

[Brasso530]

😳😳

 

[Lutz]

I'm a bit surprised at the condition of the cable in the photograph. I'm still using the same EHU cable that I bought for my first caravan almost 35 years ago and it looks nothing like that. The insulation is as supple as ever.

 

[toad a caravan]

Mr Plodd,if your going to replace the cable try and electrical wholesaler/trader, there's a family run one near me that has 2.5mm orange flex,there is a big saving to be had, it's available upto 100mtrs.(plugs and sockets by maypole from europarts )

 

[Mr Plodd]

I'm a bit surprised at the condition of the cable in the photograph. I'm still using the same EHU cable that I bought for my first caravan almost 35 years ago and it looks nothing like that. The insulation is as supple as ever.

So was I Lutz!
The exterior of the cable looked fine, and it was still very supple so nothing to indicate the horrors within.

It was only when I took the plug apart to check if indeed I had pulled one of the wires out (which I had) I spotted that the insulation on the blue wire looked to have a small crack in it where it entered the external sheath. I therefore thought it wise to cut off a few cm of the cable and rewire the plug. As I stripped off the outer insulation I found the individual insulation on each wire simply crumbled away as I progressed alomg it. After going back along the cable for the best part of a metre, and finding what's in the photograph, it was clear to me that the cable was very unsafe and scrap! So I cut it up into short lengths so no-one could be tempted to remove it from the re cycling centre and use it.
As I said, the cable looked totally fine on the outside, hence me starting this thread!!

So open up each end of your EHU cable and look for small cracks in the insulation where it enters the external sheath. If you see any yours could be the same as mine inside.
I now have a new cable.