PVC or silicone wire for heaters

[sagitt]

which do you prefere?

[sluckey]

Neither. My preference is Polytetrafluoroethylene.

[sagitt]

I have used silicone wire,PVC is not designed for high-voltage applications,so I guess someone uses for heater wiring...

[Littlewyan]

Heaters aren't high voltage they're high current. Even if you put DC on the heater line the highest I've seen is 50VDC.

The PVC wire Michael at Modulus Amps sells is rated for 600V and 11A. Plenty for most amplifiers.

[sagitt]

heaters are high current?!really?I didnt know that...ok,let me paraphrase my question,what type of wire do you prefere?

[Littlewyan]

I just use PVC myself. You can use Teflon though. Those are the two types that I know about.

[TUBEDUDE]

Teflon insulated silver plated copper. it's conductive enough at thin gauges so I can strip the Teflon at the tube sockets and thread them thru the tube socket eyelets. it's cleaner, leaving more room for me to be sloppy with the other socket connections.

[Phil_S]

Topcoat PVC. It stays where you put it. It doesn't fray when you strip it, so it goes through the pins easliy. It strips very easily.

[martin manning]

I'm with you , Phil. Some people use heavier gauge wire for heaters but I don't worry about it. The only leads carrying the full heater current are the ones from the PT to the first power tube, and the distance to the next one is small. By then the current is greatly reduced.

[Phil_S]

In the most recent build, I used 20AWG PVC topcoat. Funny thing...I had to change my iron tip to the small point to work on the PC boards for the reverb. I did not adequately tighten the set screw, suspecting heat was the culprit. At some point, the hot tip fell on the heater wires between two sockets. I almost stuck my fingers in there to save the wire! But then I thought "smells like chicken." I managed to flick it off with a tool and the damage only looks bad. The insulation is still OK. A perfectionist would have changed the wire. It made me wish I had used Teflon.

[rp]

There's a lot of silicon wire in the EU it seems. It's kind of soft and rubbery, I haven't tried twisting it but I bet it would be annoying and not hold the twist. PVC and teflon love going for a spin with the drill. I don't use PVC cause I'm a putz and solder up a lot of wrong things, so it's teflon for me.