Guide · Storage
Storing cable to protect the insulation
Cable loses value in storage far more often than it loses value in service. Most of the damage is preventable with a position, a cover and a date on a tag.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Storing cable to protect insulation
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Lot details
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.
What actually damages a jacket
Sunlight comes first. Ultraviolet light attacks PVC and cross-linked polyethylene alike, and a black jacket resists it for longer without being immune to it. Water comes second: it wicks along strands, sits inside the wrap and corrodes copper where nobody can see it. Ozone from welding equipment, motors and switchgear cracks rubber and elastomer jackets on reels stored nearby. Heat from a roof, a furnace or a steam line ages insulation years in a single summer.
Rodents are the fourth. A reel kept in a barn, a shed or a yard with feed nearby will be chewed, usually at the flange edge where the wrap is tightest and the jacket sits proud.
Stand it, block it, keep it off the dirt
A reel belongs on its flange edge, never flat on the cable. Lying on its side, the whole weight of the wrap rests on the outer layer, and the bottom of that wrap takes a set that turns up later as a flat spot in a bend. Chock both sides so it cannot roll, and block the flange if the ground falls away.
Get it off the ground on dunnage or a pallet so water drains rather than pooling under the wrap. Do not stack wooden reels on their sides to save floor space, and do not stack at all beyond what the flanges will carry. A crushed flange makes the reel hard to lift and impossible to wind.
Indoor, covered yard, open yard
Indoors, dry and out of light is the standard to aim at. A covered yard is acceptable for a season if the reel is off the ground, wrapped, and not sitting in a drain line or under a roof edge where water lands. An open yard is a countdown, and the count runs faster in the snow belt and along the river, where meltwater can stand around a reel for weeks.
If a reel has spent two winters outside, describe it that way and let a buyer price it. The alternative, describing it as stored indoors because it was indoors for the first year, is the kind of detail that gets found and then colors everything else on the manifest.
Seal the ends, wrap, then desiccant
Seal the cut ends before anything else, with a taped cap or a heat-shrink cap that goes over the jacket as well as the conductor. Moisture enters at the end and travels, so an open end on a stored reel is a slow leak into the whole length.
Then wrap the reel in stretch film with the ends sealed inside, and put desiccant in the wrap for cable that has to stay dry, particularly control and instrumentation cable with tape or foil screens. Never wrap a wet reel. That traps the water against the jacket and creates exactly the condition the wrap was meant to prevent.
How long is too long
There is no single answer, because it depends on construction and on storage rather than on a calendar. A jacketed 600 volt cable in a dry rack indoors holds for years and loses almost nothing. The same cable in an open yard through two winters is a recovery lot, and the copper inside may still be perfect while the jacket is not.
The practical rule is to date the reel when it arrives and write the storage location on the tag. When somebody asks how long it has been there, a date and a location answer the question, and an honest answer is worth more than a hopeful one.
Related pages
Adjacent cities, wire families and regional briefs.
Other seller guides
All guides- Reading a reel tagWhat the tag carries and what a missing one costs
- Estimating footage by weightWhen the reel scale is the only measurement you have
- Copper versus aluminium valueTwo metals, two sets of facts
- Preparing a surplus manifestThe line items a buyer can actually price
- Photographing a reelSix photographs that answer most questions
- Medium voltage cable safetyIsolation, grounding and handling before removal
Questions sellers ask
Can cable be stored outdoors if it is wrapped?
For a season, on dunnage, out of standing water and away from a roof edge, yes. Wrapping slows the damage rather than stopping it, because UV still reaches the film and condensation still forms inside it. Treat outdoor storage as a countdown and put a date on the tag so the next person knows where the count stands.
Does a reel lying on its side really damage the cable?
Over time, yes. The outer layer carries the weight of the whole wrap and takes a permanent set, which shows up as a flat or oval section when the cable is pulled. Standing the reel on its flange spreads that load through the drum instead, which is what the reel was built for.
What causes cracking on a jacket that was never installed?
Usually ozone or UV rather than age alone. Cable stored beside welders, near running motors or under a skylight will craze on the surface within a few years. Crazing that reaches the conductor insulation is a breach, and on medium voltage it takes the reel out of reusable stock.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Storing cable to protect insulation
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Second look at the lot
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.