# Can I make a room so steamy/moist that electrical outlets become a hazard?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-a-room-so-steamy-moist-that-electrical-outlets-become-a-hazard/483425>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 28, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-a-room-so-steamy-moist-that-electrical-outlets-become-a-hazard/483425 "2009-01-28T19:48:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-a-room-so-steamy-moist-that-electrical-outlets-become-a-hazard/483425/21 "2009-01-29T17:39:45Z")

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When I had my submersible well pump professionally replaced last year, I was amazed at how they did the wiring. The pump is a cylinder maybe 3" in diameter and 30" long, with a pipe fitting, a ring for mounting a rope, and an electrical cable consisting of three stranded conductors with separate insulation and a rubber jacket over the whole thing, like a typical power tool line cord.

They slid about 3" of heat shrink tubing over the wire, used crimped connectors to tie each conductor to one of the 3 wires in my dirty old Romex cable, moved the heat shrink over the connectors and heated it till it shrunk.

This connection is now under 140 feet of water and, I guess, is supposed to stay dry for 20 years.

I would have thought it was way harder to make the connection reliable.

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**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-a-room-so-steamy-moist-that-electrical-outlets-become-a-hazard/483425/22 "2009-01-29T18:37:03Z")

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> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#):
>
> Is there? I have no idea. But you’re right…although “has the sniffles” is putting it mildly. More like “my cat is so stuffed up she can’t even breathe out of her nose and has to resort to breathing out of her mouth”, heh.
> 
> She just seems to have more difficultly breathing more and more but the vet said all you can do is:
> 
> 1. Give it time and
> 2. Create a steam room using a shower since that helps.

When my cat had similar breathing problems, it turned out she was having an asthma attack (we didn’t previously know she was asthmatic) and needed a steroid (prednisone?, prednisolone?, something like that) to alleviate it. I’m sure your vet knows what’s going on certainly better than I do, but if your cat has trouble breathing (especially open-mouth breathing) for much longer get her a chest x-ray or something. Ignore me if she really has a lot of obvious snot and boogers dripping all over the place 🙂

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**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-make-a-room-so-steamy-moist-that-electrical-outlets-become-a-hazard/483425/23 "2009-01-29T19:32:12Z")

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Yeah, don’t worry about electrical issues.

Worry about mold, mildew, and rotting out wallboard, insulation and studs.

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