I have an 800 amp service that has water in the service conductors. Parallel copper 500 KCM before compacted wire. IE there are little spaces between each strand which over the last 40 years have filled with rain water. Recently we had the utility remake the terminations but the tails from the pole mounted transformers just let water funnel into the bolted connections where by capillary action, a little head pressure the drip in one end translates to a drip at the other end. The wires have been in the pipe a long time and the water has been flowing for a few years hence the need to replace the guts in the switch. The conductors have been ringed and there are adequate drip loops but once a drip gets into the conductor its partner is displaced and comes out at the terminals of the main switch.
My question is this, How do we keep the drips out? I an contemplating a sealed hypress lug that is used to reduce the terminal size or even a cadweld connection. This is becoming a common problem and the utility has had a few problems with water getting into the wire, especially the non compressed wire of days gone by.
I have thought of solder, can't get it to stick to the oxides, Epoxy or sealant injected down the wire, etc.
This is way beyond what a notch on the insulation can help since the water is inside the wire.
The utility conductors literally funnel the water into the taped connections and water transfers inside the tape from 1 conductor to the next. The difference in height is about 10 feet from the top of the main switch to the terminations at the utility. Changing the wire is a last option as I am sure these can't be pulled out so a new service raceway and conductors would have to be installed at a multi thousand dollar cost.
Any solution has to be OK'd by the utility engineers.
