Re: Extra Hard Service Cord
Going by the
wire coding, type S, SO, SOW and SOOW cable is Extra Hard Service Cable.
Could have an "E" in it right after the "S" also, I would tend to avoid it as plastic cable tends to melt should it touch by accident a lighting
fixture in causing a short,
fixture(s) going out during a show
fed by it, and the destruction of that length of cable.
Also, I normally avoid... forget if CE for compliance or in general Euro cable even if SOOW. Extra Hard Service
cord is suposted to have an extra amount of outer
jacket insulation to the conductors. Seen many many instances especially on the larger 8/5 sizes where the twisting of the cable was not proper and that Euro style applied as if sprayed on outer
jacket to the cable, was much less in
thickness than it should be. This to the extent of mis-cast that you can see
thru the outer
jacket to what inner
conductor is showing
thru. In addition to this, Euro compliant cable is harder to strip and easier in an outer
jacket cut to go all the way
thru to the condctor.
Euro cable is applied to the twisted conductors, normal classic SO cable has an outer jacke that's pulled
thru the inner conductors and has jute or other materials as filler in use to keep the cable round. Cheaper to do the Euro cable and more common these days given this. If SOOW Euro, it's at least better than SEOOW Euro compliant cable but not by much. Over ten years of some of the stuff in my inventory... sure a lot of it has lasted... just a question of being harder to properly install the plugs on, and in the case of the plastic version of the thick rubberized cable, just takes one mistake.
(Long story about surface area in contact with the heat and what happens to rubberized material verses plastic when it touches the heat. Both SE and S are rated for the same temperature, end result though, if it's burning and loosing it's
dielectric strength to that surface area touching a
fixture - but still round in only a small surface contact, that's a lot different than melting and the conductors also burning their way into the heat source before they short to the
fixture or each other.)
SJ type cable has similar types of Euro verses domestic making, this in addition to SJT type grade that's mostly the same as SJE type cable for all intensive purposes. SJ type cable by code (and others are better on it than I,) is rated for strapping to a
truss and or pipe for support. Other than that, not for cable drops or floor use, and it assumes not a class 1A theater I believe the term is, where it has to be type S / Extra Hard Service.
After that, while type S - best as SOOW is much heavier, you can consider it's service life double that of type SJOOW cabe no matter what the circumstance. Figure that into the overall cost of buying it.