Solder Seal

[guitarzan]

Hi,
Has anyone used those Solder Seal Wire Connectors? It's a connector that has solder in the middle and you stick the wire ends into each end of the connector then use a heat gun which shrinks the tubing and melting the solder producing a water proof butt joint. I don't want to use them if they fail. So anyone ever use them and how did they preform?

Thank you
Frank

[aj1500]

I have used them, they work pretty good once you get used to the amount of heat to make them work. I had good luck with smaller wires like 18 or smaller. the bigger wires are a bit more frustrating.
as far as failing,, NOPE,, if you melt the solder well and get it sealed up good it is there to stay. I found a small hand held torch or good turbo lighter is the best thing to use because you can keep the heat more pin pointed to where you want it. but an open flame is not always welcome in all areas

[guitarzan]

Hi aj1500,
Good I'm glad that they work well. The last thing that I wanted was to do some wire work and have it come apart. Now no need to flux the ends of the wires...right? I'll practice before I do the real McCoy.

Thanks aj

Frank

[aj1500]

flux never hurts, I don't recall if it has flux built in or not. However I never fluxed the work I did when using them and never had a issue

[guitarzan]

I'm not going to use any flux and just follow the directions.

Thanks again aj1500

[1goldwingnut]

Reviews I have read say it doesn't work so well on 14 guage and thicker. Needs more solder. A little flux sure can't hurt to make sure the solder flows nice.

[guitarzan]

Hi,
What if I tin the wires, I'd have to use very small amount of soldier but maybe if I just rubbed a small amount of flux would be better. I wonder if that would be enough? I know that a little flux goes a long way but I don't want to take a chance on messing up the seal of the shrink tubing part of the connector. Anyone's thoughts please.

Thank you
Frank

[1goldwingnut]

I would very lightly flux it but not tin it but that's me

[CrystalPistol]

So you use an open flame and because of shrink wrap, you can't see the final joint? That don't sound good to me? I think I'll stick with my Kester Rosin Core and Weller Junior and then slide shrink wrap in place if I'm using it, use a heat gun to shrink that (or a match if not near flamables) … maybe add a top layer of a Super 33 tape too.

[guitarzan]

Thanks guys,
I'm going to practice a couple of times using a heat gun and see if it works and if it doesn't work I'll solder and shrink wrap.

As always thank you all

Frank

[minimac]

The shrink tubing is clear so you can see the soldered joint. I’ve been using these for a couple of years and they work well. They come in different sizes for different ga.wiring.You can get a kit of 200, in a couple of different sizes at Wally World for under$20.

[guitarzan]

Hi minimac,
Thank you for the information I appreciate it Sir.

Frank

[Solo So Long]

A couple of comments:

First, it is no problem putting heat shrink on a standard uninsulated crimp connector, and this needs a lot less heat than melting solder does. Even easier is using an insulated crimp connector, then shoving a little Shoe Goo into the open ends after the crimp.

Second, soldering the joint then slipping heat shrink over it eliminates having to guess whether the joint is properly done. If you are already bringing a heat source for the insulation, how much harder to bring one to make the joint in the first place? And this is a lot cheaper than any other solution, without costing much more time and trouble.

[guitarzan]

Hi,
I'm out in the garage now messing around with matches, heat gun, soldering gun. I just want to make sure that when this is done, it's done. Thank you for taking the time to give me some ideas.

Thank you
Frank

A couple of comments:

First, it is no problem putting heat shrink on a standard uninsulated crimp connector, and this needs a lot less heat than melting solder does. Even easier is using an insulated crimp connector, then shoving a little Shoe Goo into the open ends after the crimp.

Second, soldering the joint then slipping heat shrink over it eliminates having to guess whether the joint is properly done. If you are already bringing a heat source for the insulation, how much harder to bring one to make the joint in the first place? And this is a lot cheaper than any other solution, without costing much more time and trouble.

[MikeB]

Try as I might, I have not gotten these things to work to my satisfaction. I just threw out a box of 150 pieces. I tried two different heat guns and a micro torch and nothing I tried worked satisfactorily.

The solder would melt like it was supposed to but did not flow into the wires like it should. I tried a little flux on the wires before inserting them into the butt splice but then the flux would gas out and make the shrink tube bubble. The shrink tube at one point ruptured and solder oozed out of the rupture. No matter what I tried, and I have tried multiple times, it would never make an acceptable electrical connection.

As a communications technician and a journey level maintenance technician, I have made thousands of quality solder joints and know what they are supposed to look like before, during and after the process. I have to say, using these solder seal butt connectors yield the worst example of a good connection I have ever seen. you would be better of just using a crimp type butt splice.

With the time it takes and tools needed to attempt to make these little things work, a much more acceptable connection can be made in less time using the conventional solder and shrink tube method.

I wasted my time and money trying to make these things work for me and I cannot recommend them to anyone. Maybe I am inept and not doing something right but for my money, there is not better way to make a solder connection than using conventional methods.

[minimac]

I wasted my time and money trying to make these things work for me and I cannot recommend them to anyone. Maybe I am inept and not doing something right but for my money, there is not better way to make a solder connection than using conventional methods.

First, it is no problem putting heat shrink on a standard uninsulated crimp connector, and this needs a lot less heat than melting solder does. Even easier is using an insulated crimp connector, then shoving a little Shoe Goo into the open ends after the crimp.

Second, soldering the joint then slipping heat shrink over it eliminates having to guess whether the joint is properly done. If you are already bringing a heat source for the insulation, how much harder to bring one to make the joint in the first place? And this is a lot cheaper than any other solution, without costing much more time and trouble.

The solder is a very low temp melt solder-you can melt it with very low heat/flame. It doesn't take much. You pass the wire ends(stripped) from either end THROUGH the spot where the solder is. It doesn't have to "flow"' anywhere, just melt. When the solder melts, it encases the two wires together in the solder. There is no need to slide any tubing-disturbing the joint- over anything, as the whole thing is covered by the clear shrink tubing. There is also no need to flux, as that will disrupt the sealing of the shrink tubing. It couldn't be easier to make tight, watertight joints. If you can't accomplish it, you're simply not doing it right.

[dingdong]

I watched a couple of videos on youtube about using this product. Conclusion: I won't be using this. I would use a standard butt connector before using this. My preference is still standard solder and a soldering iron with heat shrink. Seems however that wire size makes a difference in performance. The smaller wire sizes worked better. There was almost no "flow" with larger diameter wire. No flow into the wire strands equals bad connection. (cold solder joint). jmho

[guitarzan]

I really want to thank you all for taking the time to give me all the advice and I've been reading all this and I'm going to go with the soldering iron and shrink tubing.

Thank you all again I really appreciate the sharing of the information and your personal experiences.

Frank

[Solo So Long]

The solder is a very low temp melt solder-you can melt it with very low heat/flame. It doesn't take much. You pass the wire ends(stripped) from either end THROUGH the spot where the solder is. It doesn't have to "flow"' anywhere, just melt. When the solder melts, it encases the two wires together in the solder. There is no need to slide any tubing-disturbing the joint- over anything, as the whole thing is covered by the clear shrink tubing. There is also no need to flux, as that will disrupt the sealing of the shrink tubing. It couldn't be easier to make tight, watertight joints. If you can't accomplish it, you're simply not doing it right.

The two reasons to solder a joint are A), to make the joint gastight, and B), to reinforce the physical connection. A good crimp joint is gastight and secure. Low-temp solder, not so much. If low-temp solder was as good as normal solder, it would would be STANDARD for manufacturing, rather than using such things as heat sinks. After all, heat transfer into components is a far greater danger than at a joint of a couple of wires.

If the solder doesn't flow into the joint, that's a cold-solder joint and will fail.

Any joint that would be "disturbed" by sliding heat-shrink over it is a bad joint already.

[minimac]

Watch and decide if it suits your purposes. It's good, and it's so easy a caveman could do it. They don't become brittle, either.

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[Solo So Long]

I don't see any improvement here over the other ways.

I don't like low-temp solder, I've seen it fail a few times. OTOH, these come from NTE, which is a reliable name in electronic connectors.

[minimac]

I would hesitate to use them on wires heavier than 14ga., but I have never had any failures. For people that aren't experienced with a lot of soldering, it is cheap, easy, and just about foolproof. No flux needed. Someone that doesn't know better invariably will use too much flux, too much heat, too much solder, or not keep the heat source moving. Don't forget we're looking at small diameter wires here, and probably not a lot of working space. I sure don't want to be using a torch around other wires or all that plastic. I have seen many crimps fail, mostly because of improper sizing and/or operator error, but they're still failures.

[Sadanorakman]

Boy you've taken me back!
30 years ago, I was undergoing my apprenticeship with a defence company called Racal. They made high-tech radar and display equipment for military use.
We used these type of solder-sleeve connectors back then, including some fancy BNC connectors that you just heat-gunned straight onto the end of your prepared coax. I can't say that the ones you can buy on the high street today are made to the strict requirements of the ones we used back then, but those made for a very good joint.
The video in this thread shows in my opinion, a good solid joint being formed, although he should have avoided using bare fingers to twist the wires together, as it's a good way to contaminate the joint with the oils from your skin.
I like the way these heat-shrink connectors make a seal with the wire's insulation, as the colour-coded rings at either end are like a hot-melt adhesive.