Welding cables are made to be industrially tough no bullshit effective conductors, it's their natural environment. They're also cost effective as they are sold in huge volumes. Go the welding cables!!
I've been a car audio installer since 1985 and have always told customers to use welding cable. It can move a lot of current instantly, somewhat pliable, less expensive, true gauge, but just doesn't look as good. Now days the looks can be fixed with some nylon covering with heat shrink on the ends. Now days we have cable that isn't even copper or even the right gauge. I would trust welding cable more than a lot of the crap that is out on the market these days.
As a welder, welding cable is designed for heat and wear resistance. It is also a clean low resistance conductor. Like you were saying the terminations are the most important part of the wire.
i was going to say the same thing, 1000 degree slag balls hitting you all the time need to be able to take the heat, audio wire is more resistant to friction but is not designed to handle that kind of heat. if you have installed it correctly you shouldn't have issues either way.
I have 4/0 welding cable running from alternator through my engine bay to the rear for over a year ..it works perfect..people bitching about the flexibility 🤦🏾♂️ it works perfectly fine for car audio..
I have always used walmart on cheap installs. I have used welding cable,sky high,rockville,rockford,kicker,stinger,cadence,boss, DB. I have had zero problems with any of it when installed with some common sense. Obviously route away from anything hot or sharp. Secure the wire so it doesn't rub,use wire loom when needed,don't overly bend the wire in a sharp radius. Keep in mind that the cheaper brands are smaller then advertised. The CCA can't handle the current the OFC wire can. You follow this info and you will be fine no matter the wire you use.
Welding cable usually has EDPM rubber jacket that is resistant to temperature extremes and remains flexible. Perfect for car audio. Been using it for years and saving $ over "car audio wire".
This is a cool video I've used welding cable for 4 years as ground cable but I'm going to upgrade the rest of my system to it! And yes as far as the thought of heating abrasion was that it's arc welding cable so heat shouldn't be a problem and they're pretty resilient but your test proved my thoughts
Very very good job at this. I love the way you approached it. I used the amazon stranded audio #4 Gauge wire. I have a degree in electronics and thought it would be fine for a Renogy 3000-watt inverter. OMG, I cannot believe I did that. I could not figure out why the inverter would not work with the audio cables using thin strands that would not allow enough current to pass. Lesson learned. I believe changing the wire out will allow the inverter to work properly and not shut down when the batteries are at full charge. TBD
Here is test ypu can do that will really test out the cable. Take 10ft from the leading brands you use and hook them up to a stick welder. Then using 3/16 or 7/64 7018 @ 200amps, weld some stringers on some scrap 1/2" or 3/4" stock. That should really put that cable to the test for heat and amp draw.
Hello from the high desert of New Mexico USA 🇺🇸. Thank you for your test of those cables. Here is a tip FYI look into a brand called Temco. Keep up the good work and stay safe and charged
I’m a welder of 30 years also a builder of car audio from the get go I’ve always used it a lot if you have any doubt about chaffing I’ve run it inside heater hose but for the price and if you’ve been around welders and cable you see it drug through the mud muck and grime it will lay in mud or wet ground and dry it out so it builds it’s own heat up from working and see cutting torches used spraying sparks all over it and hears you a way to test it hook up the same length of each one to power and ground them out see witch one burns the insulation off 1st and all the way up till the last one . Also for running it inside the vehicle and not under on the frame but also HEATER HOSE the water from the motor going through there is over 220 degrees and you can get welding cable in all kinda different colors and great job man I like that you use welding cable and I’m glad you stand behind what you know works and believe in it wise shopper getting better quality supply’s that are tougher and lose less current yeah welding cable been along time coming that some one made this video now watch welding cable sky rocket like the rolls of valley aluminum rubber covered stuff did some years back someone figured it was close enough to use it for sound deadner so yeah it went up to we’re it better to use sound damping material cause it’s cut in bigger peaces also find in junk yards or on old junk cars there are rubber mounts for the a/c radiator the ones I look for are rubber in the middle and a threaded stud out each end I use them to mount my amps this way they have a shock absorber if you have a lot of bass I’ve seen connections in solder come lose boards crack other things that had to be from the vibration so every thing you can think of if it could fix the problem and don’t cost a lot might just be one of the next best thing keep bumping my fellow bass heads!
A name brand (such as TPC, and others) 600-volt welding cable rated at 200 Cent. is as good as you can buy. I have seen this used in high voltage DC motors in industrial applications and have never seen a failure. It is not that much more expensive. And they bend so nicely and stay in position.
It's better all around & much cheaper. I recently got 20ft of 4awg ofc welding cable for $30. The closest equivalent "car audio cable" was $45... If your cables are taking the kind of abrasion he tested, you've got much bigger issues than just your cables.
There is a reason why we build fire trucks with welding cable as main power cable, as well as GXL smaller for ALL runs in our wiring.. (everything from 16 ga.(GXL) to 1ga to 4/0 cable for mains! (welding cable)). It is used ,per NFPA regulations due to burning/flammability resistance! Fire vehicles can have current draws of 300-400+ AMPS DC--just to note.. Bottom line is this: The quality of the installation is "everything"!!!! you cannot run an amp cable n just leave it lay on the exhaust header/manifold!!! Besides, the more heat a wire is exposed to --you must "de-rate" the ampacity of the wire according to temperature.. If your going for "pretty" wire, go with what you want.. but functionality is everything in the "real world"! Juts saying... Good Job on the comparison testing you did!!!!
It cracked because it is made of cast iron that is not ductile and the force was offset in the jaws. If you would have done that in the middle it probably would not have had any issues. If you want an *UBER* vise to replace that with, I highly suggest a Wilton 1700 series or a top of the line Yost. Pricey but I love mine a lot. AWESOME video and I learned a lot. TY!
I'm a welder 10 years in the trade . In rare cases I've ran 500 feet of welding cable with 150 amps coming out the stinger, and I can testify that welding cable may not be the most resilient but when it comes down to power it will get it done. I personally upgraded my truck with the big 3 and guess what ?, all the extra 2&4 gage cable I had sitting around came to good use saving me an easy 100 bucks so for me it's a no brainer when I need thick cables for anything.
Thank you. 💯 🤘Exactly what I needed for my current personal upgrade. I'm going all 1/0 on the big 3 and dual battery install. That shit is expensive when you refuse to use CCA. Sux about your vise.
all right guys, thinking about doing a revised Verison of this subject. What wire brands (on the car audio side of things) would you like to see tested.
You should test some of the car audio wires like Soundbox Connected, Belva, or Knuconcepts. All of these are priced very low on Amazon and i want to see how much power they can handle.
Temco welding cable is a popular brand being used in car audio by some people. On the car audio brand side of things there is the ever popular Sky High Car Audio cables. Nice Reference To AvE Also could you do temp in Fahrenheit as well?
Advice... To keep things on topic as they effect the usage you should test the temperature of the cable when moving a messured amount of current as well as voltage droop and cable resistance. Cable when properly routed should not suffer damage from abrasion, moisture, or heat. CCA cable has a higher resistance thus also heats up more which further increases resistance and also leads to greater voltage droop.
Sorry about your vice buddy! But I'm convinced the welding cable is best by your testing. I used 0 gauge welding cable for my amps and "big three" upgrade about 3 years ago. It's still holding up great.
Welding cable is great for car audio. We were using it in the 1980s. Welding cable is very flexible. Look for stick welding cable leads. It can have thousands of strands.
I like sky high 1/0 ofc, nice thick cable. Welding cable is also great more durable jacket but use 2/0 in welding cable. Buttttttt.... I just learned about gp car audio cable and hands down the best fn cable, only cable on the market that I know of that is sae certified, heat resistant over 200 degrees, very flexible outer jacket ceramic inner lining and they use c10100 grade copper which is the hights purest grade copper. This is just my opinion.
the welding cable is by far the best bang for your buck. I run 4/0 cable on the batteries in my solar set up. Their is also different levels of welding cable. It will hold more amps than any car audio manufactured cable that I know of. In my car audio installations in various vehicles over the last 30 years I've used welding cable and never had a problem. Just heat shrink ends like any normal person would do and your safe from corrosion. The car audio cable today compared to 30 years ago is junk.
I had a ground connection fail on a huge automated welding machine I was running and the insulation on the ground cable caught on fire. The connector, which was a huge copper twist connector melted and the cable melted in half. I spoke to the manufacturer and they said they quit using those connectors and now hard wire the ground wire in the machine. That was exciting.
Re: the heat test. The one downside to the welding cable is that the burnt crust is virtually the same colour as the cable itself. So, when you inspect it, it would be harder to see a heat issue than the blue or red cable whose discolouration is obvious. Last time I did this, I covered the portion of the welding cable visible in the engine bay with an extra layer of colourful (red) heat shrink tubing.
Brian Evans i'm thinking about doing that in the future of the time in this video I didn't have for lengths of any of this wire so I was not in the position to go out and buy a new Kit of each
Donkey breath = your name sounds like a strain of weed lmfao cool name Anyway -I did a test awhile back & also am redoing 1... I need to use welding cable in my next 1!
This is why you use welding cable.. because its pure copper cable. CCA should be fucking illegal, it is horrible for everything. Power, data, signals.. copper clad aluminum is disgusting to use!
You cannot measure voltage drop on 14ft of wire. You can find charts that tell you what size wire to use for the current needed thats dependent on the length of wire. But the lengths are like 50ft and higher
Welding cable is truely reliable for car audio cable, for resistance, for flexibility and for durability. But the thickness of insulator makes difficulty while mounting in the car Greetings from Indonesia
TEMco is my go to welding/battery cable manufacturer. The ONLY competition that welding cable wounldnt win is possibly in the looks department, id rather have my current going to my amps than pretty jackets on my wire. For my money and piece of mind, its weld wire. Specifically TEMco brand. TEMco is the best price and flexible and it looks good imo. Im a welder and have been for 25 years. Ive seen what weld cable can stand up to, its insane. I like that the specs are listed right on the jacket of all certified weld cable. It has to be so you know what it can handle. With most all car audio brands of wire, its anyones guess, 😂. Most people i know also run weld cable after learning over time what the better choice is. Who would choose pretty looks over performance? Thats what it comes down to😊
i prefer welding cable, its more flexible, and safer to use in an engine bay application, i even build battery cables out of welding cable due to its capability for handling HIGH current and safely handling high temps, after all welding cable is designed to work in hostile environments with high temperatures and the real risk of abrasion and nicks, thanks for the vid, good info
Who ever told you that welding cable will melt in an engine compartment or that it's not as tough, obviously doesnt know anything about welding and is 100% wrong about welding wire
Welding cable is designed for caring very high current and amperage. It's far more Superior than 90% of the stuff out there marketed for car audio I have been using welding cable since the 90s and have had zero issues with it
You should have run electrical stress tests, like over amping the wire, voltage drops like Brian said, resistance per ft with a good meter, and maybe a little EMI testing. That would have given a more complete battery.
Just a word of advice when tightening anything up like the 2 plates and weld cable with impact gun.......Don't EVER rest your fingers over the gap in the top of the 2 plates when putting so much force on them when you are doing the bolts up! If for some reason one of your bolts breaks (maybe forgetting to use high tensile) all that force will have to go somewhere and closing that gap so fast that it will at the very least take a chunk out of any bits of your skin that are unlucky enough to get in the gap! I always got taught, learn by your mistakes, but trust me, if there is any i can save other people from doing, this would definitely be one of them!
Wasn't surprised when the vice broke.. next time distribute the clamping force evenly on the middle of the vice. You shouldn't ever use that much torque when tightening something that's not placed in the midlle. Your vice seems to be casted and therefore broke because it twisted under the immense pressure. Anyways just a tip😊
they also make tinned welding / battery / marine cable.. it's better that standard welding cable because it's tinned and will not corrode and is used on boats, but still better priced than car audio wire
This test was slightly extreme on the heat imo. I can understand in the engine bay. I have the Knu Konceptz Kollossess OFC in my car. I like it. Engine bay I put some extra protection on it near the engine. Other than that been great wire for me.
OFC wire is oxygen free copper. I knew you were going to break that vise putting a lot of force on it and its only made of cast iron not steel, I done that before on a 4" vise trying to force tighting it down on a car part. I would go with the stinger cable of my choice for car audio i have always used stinger for my car audio projects as it never game me any problems . I don't expect it to catch on fire or try to force burn it thats why when you run any cable in the engine compartment and along the cars interior floor its best to cover it with wire loom or techflex braid as an extra protection against abrasion. On the the blue stinger 4 gauge cable is usually tinned copper, maybe the one you tested isn't but on the Stinger HPM series its tinned silver to protect it from corrosion.
The true test would be to test the voltage drop across say a 10-foot span between the different wires. The difference between welding cable and high quality car audio wire is welding cable is copper wire and car audio wire is either copper or tinned copper. Also car audio wire usually has a lot more strands. The more strands you have in a cable the less resistance in The Wireing which in turn creates more power from your amp. 4 gauge welding cable usually has 370 strands. Stinger Pro Series car audio wire 4 gauge has 1660 strands. That means a less voltage drop from the Stinger wire versus the welding cable
I work as a welder .. and i use welding cable in my system and believe me these cables are really durable. We drag our leads across jagged precast concrette peices all day and they hold up very well of course it is not indestructible but id have to say its really good wire only con is it isnt as flexible but isnt a big problem. They 1/0 can do up to 400amps but welding cable is the way to go!
yes I use a fuse right by the battery 300 amp fuse. and then I have a distribution block with fuses as well u always need to use fuses want to always protect your equipment as well as your self.. I saw a truck burnt down under the hood from a wire burning up and well fuse was too far from battery and the wire before fuse shorted out and caused the truck to catch on fire..
Gavina Reyes yes always better to be safe then sorry .. fuse is also a protection for the amp aswell just get the right rated fuse for ur amp.. ex. 1200 watt rms. 120 amp fuse.. 2000 watt rms 200amp fuse and so on..
I run 2awg welding cable from the front to the back and i use 1awg CCA 3ft runs from the 2nd battery to the amp works just fine for running 3k. The reason for 2awg front run was 1awg was too big for my little chevy sonic.lol
The purpose for the popularity with welding cable in a car audio use is quality and cost 1/0 ofc of Sky High, Rockford, Stinger, Mechman, Certified Bass head, Shok or any other good brand they run from $5-6 a foot as where welding cable being AWG regulated 2/0 welding is the same as 1/0 audio wire so always step up 1 size on welding wire to stay equal to audio wire audio wire is oversized because they are not regulated by AWG standards but 2/0 welding equal to 1/0 audio is less than $2 a foot as far as Silver Tinned wire Silver bein the best conducter out its so small of a difference between OFC n Silver tinned its basically personal preference i run 2/0 Welding cable in my Tahoe n wont use anything else i like it alot n love the cost more not to mention the quality is outstanding i use 4g welding cable for my subs
DonkeysBreath well for "lowest end" It seemed to hold up good. Never used their amp kits, I build my own with welding cable or Pico automotive wire (you should test that! It's about 80$ CAD for 25 feet of 4ga).. but I've used Schoshe speaker wire a LOT and it's been good. Have a Schoshe battery terminal on both my cars and used it on prob 20 client cars. Their dash and integration kits haven't been bad for us either. Never tried any of their amps/speakers tho. They can be hit and miss, they have better products available that Wal-Mart doesn't carry, my distributor unfortunately doesn't carry them any more due to redundancy.
Also, the cheapest kits I can get (not online) are Raptor - we have their bulk, mid and pro series in our warehouse. I've used them on a couple "cheap" builds (read: customer doesn't wanna pay over $100 for wiring hardware) but never tested the quality of the power cable.
You could have probably retested the others you crimped in the vice in the new clamp you produced to get a direct comparison of the welding cable of the rest.
Try the Type M welding cable that has more strands of smaller size. 4/0 has 2.2k wires, type M is around 4-5k! Type M would work great even at extreme frequency where skin effect would be an issue. Welding cable is better because of the insulation, not the copper wire itself.
