Water wicking in electrical harness 1

[Dorf]

What's the possibility of water wicking through an 18", 20 ga copper cunductor? If moisture is found in my encapsulated housing with the wire running into it, I'm wondering if I need to also look into the "sealed" connector which houses the wire and terminal.

 

[Comcokid]

There are wires made in which the stranded wires have been encapulated to reduce wicking issues. Additonally, water resistant/water proof connectors apply seals both before and after the crimp termination as water can travel inside the insulation.

I once worked at company connected with the marine industry. They found the capillary action of water in the typical 16 AWG vinyl stranded wire could travel about 30" per minute in a horizontal direction. The water could also travel vertically a good distance also (I don't recall exactly but it was on the order of 1 to 3 feet).

 

[itsmoked]

The answer is definitively YES! Water will travel down encapsulated wires.

The way they stop gases from doing this (which of course works well for liquids) is to remove the insulation where the wire enters the potting so the potting actually adheres to the copper wire not the wire jacket.

You could possibly do this in stages so that the wire and jacket enter the potting compound but immediately the jacket ends and just the wire continues thru the potting on into the device.