Finally caved on fiber fusion splicing after my boss showed me the failure rates

I used to be all about mechanical splices for fiber jobs because they were faster and I had a system down. But my boss sat me down last Tuesday with a spreadsheet showing our callbacks over the last 6 months. Turns out mechanical splices had a 15% failure rate in our area near the coast, mostly from moisture getting in over time. He showed me how fusion splices were basically zero failures, even on the wet runs we do in Seattle. I spent a weekend practicing with the fusion splicer he lent me, and now I get why everyone with experience pushes for them. The upfront cost is higher but the time saved on rework makes up for it quick. Has anyone else found certain jobs where mechanical still makes more sense though?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_clark1mo ago

Felt that spreadsheet shame myself once. Boss showed me my splice failures and I wanted to crawl under the truck.

umabailey1mo ago

That spreadsheet shame is brutal. My boss did the same thing to me a couple years back and I thought I was gonna die. He had charts and everything showing my mechanical splices were failing at almost double the rate of the rest of the crew. Turns out the humidity near the water was killing them way faster than I realized. Once I switched to fusion for anything outside or in basements the callbacks dropped to almost nothing. I still use mechanicals for quick inside jobs where the drop is gonna stay dry forever, but anything exposed to weather gets fused now. No way Im sitting through another meeting with a pie chart of my failures.