insulating speaker wire

[angelo]

I just finished runing my rear sourounds speaker wire through the new molding in my house since the fireplace was in the way along with a brick wall I had to run the speaker wire outside of the house around the fireplace to go to were my receiver would be. So my question is how bad is it that I have regular 14 guage speaker wire outside. do they sell anything that I can wrap around the wire to insulate it better because it seems too late buy new wire my molding is already up and I dont want to take it off to run new wire

 

[Electone]

If you are worried about damaging the wire, you could run it inside electrical conduit to ensure that the outdoor elements won't harm it. I'm pretty sure that temperature doesn't have any effect on signal transmission.

 

[Johnd]

Run it in pvc conduit w/ welded joints or galvanized conduit w/ watertight fittings. It's against code to run exposed wire indoors, then oudoors, than back indoors again.

 

[Swerd]

Run it in pvc conduit w/ welded joints or galvanized conduit w/ watertight fittings. It's against code to run exposed wire indoors, then oudoors, than back indoors again.

If your local code is like where I live, that applies to electrical supply lines (110 volts, 60 Hz) and not to low voltage lines like speaker wire, phone lines, or doorbell wire.

Is your speaker wire insulated with clear plastic? After exposure to sunlight, PVC will become brittle and crack, exposing it to water. Outdoor grade PVC wire is sold - it is usually black or dark brown - with additives that make the PVC resistant to damage from UV light. So you should use outdoor grade wire, or run the conduit as Johnd suggests.

 

[ehurnie]

I would buy the pipe that electricians use to run wires through that go from inside the house to the electrical box. They are grey I believe. Use a table saw, if you have one, to cut the pipe down the center. This way you have a c channel instead of a pipe. By doing this you can now cover the wires and bracket the pipe to the wall then caulk the crack where the pipe meets the wall. Now you don't have to pull the wire that is already run to place it through the pipe.