Choice for shielded BS8436 cables

[pc1966]

Looking to use the BS8436 style of shielded cables in place of SWA for some cable (indoor and outdoor) that is not RCD protected so it benefits from the protection against penetration that the conductive layer provides. Just looking for any advice/recommendation of which manufacturer to go for, so far have seen:

• Flexishield (claim to be the original)
• Doncaster "Multiuse" cable
• AEI "Protec" cable

Over to you folks...

 

[davesparks]

I will only use flexshield these days, it is the best in my experience.
I have used a couple of other brands, BATT being the most memorable for being nasty to work with. It was physically a lot bigger than the equivalent flexshield with a lot of airspace inside the cable so that it would just kink at the slightest opportunity.

I've found flexshield a lot nicer to work with, the physical size is smaller with no big airspaces inside the cable and a much smoother sheath that is easier to pull in and strip.

 

[Pennywise]

We use exclusively Flexishield, great stuff very durable and easy ish to strip though it is a pain doing a couple of meters of it at the DB, wear gloves and use a dismantling tool to score it around and break it off in 200mm or less chunks and a little quarter turn of the wrist also bare in mind what type of breaker your going to use think from memory its only rated for max 20Amps on a C type and 40Amps on a B type, happy to be corrected if wrong. Obviously with the added shealth and the cpc being the same size as the line conductors your Zs reading are amazing and should fall within the max Zs readings for the B types.

 

[pc1966]

Thanks for the thumbs-up for Flexishield, it was my first choice (from another recommendation)!

The circuits are going to be 32A B or 20A C so that fits, the 4mm size is more so it can do a couple of long radials for outdoor 13A sockets as well as a few UPS feeds on 20A.