Direct burial bonding connectors?

[wgipe]

Good morning! I'm building an 18x36 liner pool with steel sides. Started calling around to find DB rated connectors for the #8 CU bonding wire, and I'm shocked (ha!) that no one really knows anything about it at the electrical supply houses. I did some searching here, but don't see a whole lot of conclusive advice, so thought I'd ask the question directly - what is the best way to make the bonding connections for the runners off of the loop to the various components (upper/lower corners, ladder, basketball hoop sleeve, etc.)? I see that there are C taps and split nut connectors, which are about $6 a piece, and I need about 25. Perhaps I need to just quit whining and buy those, but thought it was worth a post to see if there is a way to get them in bulk or perhaps a more reasonable option that I'm not finding. Thanks in advance for your help!

Wes

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Unless you have a good crimping tool for the C-taps that can apply the rated compression force, I’d probably use split-nut connectors since those can tightened with standard wrenches. Do you need to coat and seal every connection? I’ve never seen that done before with pools so I doubt it. Will your local building department be doing a final electrical inspection? That’s usually when the bonding gets looked at by code enforcement.

The other option is to cadweld copper wires but that’s really only done for large diameter copper wiring in remote locations where you want to ensure a fused copper-to-copper bond. Kind of overkill for a pool.

 

[wgipe]

Unless you have a good crimping tool for the C-taps that can apply the rated compression force, I’d probably use split-nut connectors since those can tightened with standard wrenches. Do you need to coat and seal every connection? I’ve never seen that done before with pools so I doubt it. Will your local building department be doing a final electrical inspection? That’s usually when the bonding gets looked at by code enforcement.

The other option is to cadweld copper wires but that’s really only done for large diameter copper wiring in remote locations where you want to ensure a fused copper-to-copper bond. Kind of overkill for a pool.

I should have mentioned that I do have a source to borrow the proper crimp tool. Sounds like that's the way I should go. I will probably go ahead and coat the connections just because I'm obsessive about that kind of stuff, and if $10 and a few minutes now prevents corrosion, etc. down the road, I would kick myself... Thanks for the help!