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How To Select A Quality Wire

Selecting a quality wire is the critical first step in ensuring that you don’t have a wire or cable fail on your commercial project. A failed wire can wreak havoc on a project through costly repairs, prolonged downtime and delays, or worse yet a ruined industry reputation! Following these few simple tips in this article will go a long way in selecting a quality wire.

There are three key areas to consider when selecting a wire for your industrial or commercial project to ensure high quality:

Capabilities of Supplier

There are many suppliers of wires and cable, so it’s hard to tell who’s an expert and who’s simply a retailer, passing off product for a quick profit. One telltale sign of a retailer that may not have the expertise you need is that they have a very limited selection of products and brands. An expert that carries quality materials is more likely to have varying products and brands that have different strengths depending on the required application. A “one size fits all” approach should tell you to find another supplier!

Total Cost

Finding the least expensive wire possible is almost a guaranteed way to have costly quality control issues during your project. Notice how this section refers to “total cost” rather than simply “wire cost”? There are several cost areas to consider when choosing a quality wire that all add to the total cost. Always ensure you ask about the total costs of the wiring project, as there may be additional fees associated with some suppliers.

It’s also important that you understand what supplier you are dealing with. Do they have a name in the industry? How many years have they been operating? What are the brands they carry? These are all critical questions to get answered when looking at total costs; in some cases you may be paying slightly more, however in return you are gaining years of additional expertise on your side.

Experience & Past Projects

You wouldn’t hire an employee without due diligence of checking references, so why wouldn’t you check out past projects of a potential supplier? Knowing who that supplier has worked with in the past, in what capacity, and how, can give you a clear picture about how the supplier operates. Are they involved with companies that you’ve never heard of, or are relatively regarded as low quality? Chances are the products that particular supplier carries are not of a high quality.

Where possible, especially in the telecom and traffic industries, try and get out to physical locations where the supplier’s products are already used in the field. Seeing a product in the field will give you a clear indication of the level of quality that the supplier is capable of supplying to you.

Next Steps

Your next steps in choosing a high quality wire is to contact the various supplier companies and further inquiring about the product they can supply. We encourage you to get in touch with us during this process, as we’d be more than happy to show you how an industry leading supplier can support your projects.