28 Dec
2006
28 Dec
'06
10:21 a.m.
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Many many years ago, one of the regular contributors
to Television
magazine described how he'd managed to wreck the casing of a TV set he
had in storage by leaving it with the PVC mains cable coiled up on top
of the polystyrene cabinet. It seems the plasticiser leaches out of the
cable, and attacks the polystyrene. I wouldn't be surprised if it
attacked other plastics.
It's common on old boxed Acorn hardware; I've found a few where the mains
cable has steadily oozed its way through the polystyrene packaging.
Incidentally, if you use expanded polystyrene wall
insulation, this is
why you need to wrap up mains cables in polythene (which isn't
attacked). Otherwise the PVC jacket goes brittle and crumbly...
Interesting, I didn't actually know that - but I got into the habit of putting
the mains cables of aforementioned boxed Acorn stuff into bags as I figured it
would *probably* stop further disintegration (of the packaging; I'm less
worried about the cable as that's easy to replace!)