Had an electrician chew me out for using zip ties on alarm cables in his panel last Thursday

He told me I was making his job harder for the next guy and handed me a roll of velcro strips, and now I never touch the stuff near mains wiring anymore anyone else run into a sparky with strong opinions on cable management?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaret_lane5d agoOG Member

You mentioned "the next guy" and that's exactly what gets me. I once had an electrician tell me that zip ties on alarm wires are like putting handcuffs on a fire escape. He said it with such passion I thought he was gonna throw my roll of zip ties in the trash right there. Then he went on a ten minute rant about how velcro lets you trace wires without cutting anything and how he once spent three hours untangling some poor soul's zip tied rat's nest. Now I keep a little baggy of velcro strips in my tool pouch and hand them out like candy whenever I see someone reaching for zip ties.

roberts.diana5d ago

Wait, are we really gonna act like zip ties don't have their place though? @margaret_lane I get your electrician's passion (and honestly, velcro is the nicer move for sure) but sometimes you just need that permanent, can't-slip grip. Like, I've seen velcro strips get loose on outdoor conduit after a few rainstorms, and suddenly you're tracing a mess anyway. But yeah, for anything indoors where a future person might need to swap a wire, zip ties are a straight up jerk move. Mostly I just keep a flush cutter on me so I can clip the bad ones without leaving a sharp little stab point for the next guy's fingers.