Plenum Rated J-hooks, excellent product.

At Ramcorp Wire & Cable we like to stay current on the accessories that make a contractor's job easier. Today's find: plenum-rated J-hooks. They speed up cable installation in air-handling spaces while staying compliant with NFPA 262 flame and smoke requirements for plenum-rated cabling. If you're picking out cable for the same run, you can browse the full plenum selection at ramcorpwire.com.

How to save money installing Speakers, you know where to get the wire. He he he.

Installing recessed speakers is a lot easier than one might think — especially if your home was pre-wired with speaker cable during construction. It also gives you a cleaner, more finished look than running surface speakers and visible cord. If your home isn't pre-wired, no problem: speaker cable can be retrofitted through walls with a little patience. The video below is one of the better speaker-install walkthroughs we've seen. The only addition we'd make: use caution when cutting drywall so you don't nick any electrical wires hidden behind it. An insulated drywall cutter is cheap insurance against accidental contact with live circuits. A quick gauge guide: 16 AWG handles most runs under 50 feet, 14 AWG is the safer choice over 50 feet, and 12 AWG is the standard for long runs (100+ feet) or high-power systems. If you need help picking the right gauge, email sales@ramcorpwire.com or browse Ramcorp's audio cable selection.

Thermostat Wire & Cable for HVAC installation Explained

Thermostat wire is one of the simpler specs in low-voltage cable: it comes in 20, 18, and 16 AWG, with two common jacket constructions — plenum-rated CMP for return-air spaces and standard PVC for everything else. Conductor counts run from 2 to 8+ depending on the HVAC system (heat-only is usually 2-wire, heat-pump and zoned systems often need 6-8). The full Ramcorp lineup is split between the thermostat cable section and our PVC cable shop. That said, what trips most installs isn't the cable spec — it's the prep work. In the video below, an HVAC contractor walks through the pre-installation checks that prevent the kind of failures that can damage equipment downstream. Worth a few minutes whether you're a homeowner doing a swap or a contractor onboarding a new tech. For NEC compliance, remember that thermostat cable in any plenum space (drop ceilings used for return air, air-handling chases, etc.) must be CMP-rated per NFPA 90A — running CL2 or CL3 PVC cable in those spaces is a code violation. The plenum-rated lineup is over here. When in doubt, default to plenum and check the local AHJ.

The video below has a contractor walking through tips on pulling electrical wire — useful whether you're running building wire, communication cable, or shop-floor tray cable. The walkthrough shows several cable types side by side, including Ramcorp's tray cable shop products. One thing worth flagging if you're pulling a mix: smaller-gauge cables (18/2, 18/4, 16/2, 14/2 — the kinds you'd find in fire-alarm, control, and plenum runs) are far easier to over-stress than 12/2 building wire. The thinner conductors stretch first, the lighter jackets scuff or crack, and the damage often isn't visible from the outside. ICEA recommends a maximum pulling tension of 0.008 lbf per circular mil for copper conductors as a starting point — if you're at the limit, step up the conduit size, add cable lube on the long sections, or split the pull. Most pull failures aren't dramatic snaps; they're cracked jackets and stretched shields that pass install inspection and fail months later. The full plenum-cable lineup is at ramcorpwire.com.

Great video on terminating Fiber Optic cable ready for Direct Burial

This video walks through tips on preparing direct-burial cables for installation. It was produced by the Fiber Optic Association — the same standards body behind the CFOT certification — so the techniques apply equally to direct-burial fiber-optic and armored copper runs. Direct-burial armored cables are well suited to underground installations without conduit. The trade-off is the armor itself, which can be tricky to strip cleanly. The walkthrough below shows a couple of time-saving techniques. Two extra tips beyond what the video covers:

• Run a tracer wire alongside any non-metallic direct-burial run — a 12 or 14 AWG copper conductor (insulated, color-coded per local utility convention) terminated at both ends to a marker post. Makes the cable findable years later when no one remembers where it went.
• Bed the run in clean sand or fine soil. Sharp rock against the jacket is the slow-failure mode that nobody plans for. NEC Article 300.5 covers minimum burial depths (18 inches for direct-burial UF, 24 inches under driveways) — verify the local AHJ requirement before backfill.

The full fiber-optic catalog at Ramcorp, including direct-burial-rated runs, is here. Tracer wire and direct-burial copper are available through Ramcorp Wire & Cable.

How to Install Irrigation & Invisible Pet Fence Wire

We've been getting requests for instructions on installing RamcorpWire invisible pet-fence wire. The video below from the manufacturer walks through installation with a small trenching machine — if you're only doing one yard, your local tool rental likely has the same machine for the day. A few notes from our side:

• Pet-fence wire and tracer wire are the same product in our catalog — single-conductor insulated copper, available in 12, 14, 16, and 18 AWG. It's listed under Ramcorp's tracer-wire category; the gauge you want depends on loop length. Rule of thumb: 18 AWG for yards under half an acre, 16 AWG up to 2 acres, 14 AWG up to 5 acres, 12 AWG for anything bigger or where soil is highly resistive.
• We stock continuous put-ups up to 2,500 feet, so most residential perimeters can be done splice-free. Splices in buried pet-fence wire are the #1 cause of failure 2–3 years in — water gets into the splice, the copper oxidizes, the signal drops out.
• Bury the loop 3–6 inches deep. Going deeper than about 6 inches starts to attenuate the signal at the collar.

Safety: consult a professional installer if you're not confident, and follow your local codes and ordinances. Before any digging, call 811 or your local Call Before You Dig center to flag underground utilities. It's free and takes a few business days.