Unpopular opinion: cable sleeves look worse than exposed wires

I was at a friend's place last week and saw his "perfect" desk setup with all cables run through black nylon sleeves. Found out from a cable modding forum that those sleeves actually trap heat and can degrade your wire insulation faster over time. Has anyone else noticed their cables running warmer inside those sleeves?

2 comments

2 Comments

chen.james7d ago

Man that's hilarious because people spend so much money on those things thinking they're making their setup look clean. But honestly your friend's setup probably looks like a robot threw up spaghetti inside a trash bag anyway. Those sleeves never lay flat and always look janky after a week when the cables settle weird. And yeah I've felt my power brick get noticeably warm inside one of those mesh tubes so you're not wrong about the heat thing. Exposed cables at least let the wires breathe and you can actually see if something's getting crispy before it melts on you.

clairem387d ago

Last year I ran eight feet of cable sleeve for my home theater setup and actually liked how it turned out. @chen.james, I hear you on the heat thing but I think a lot depends on what gauge wire you're using and how tight you bundle things. I used a split loom instead of mesh and left some slack inside, never felt any warmth even with my subwoofer cable running alongside power cords. The sleeve kept everything tidy behind my console and stopped the dog from chewing on loose wires, which was the main reason I did it.