Customer Reviews

15A Power Pole Connectors (4 Black, 4 Red) Anderson-Sermos

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Anderson Power Poles have become *the* standard DC connector used in Amateur Radio in the US, to the point where most emergency organizations specify them to facilitate interoperability. They are strong, reliable, genderless, easy to wire, and easy to reuse. The contacts' ability to handle amperage is limited primarily by the wire size they will accept, i.e., they will safely handle more amps (from surges or whatever) without self-destructing. The contact area is actually the same for the 15, 30, and 45 amp contacts. The contacts are self-wiping and rated to over 100,000 cycles.

The housings slide together in a variety of ways to form connector blocks as needed. The resulting blocks may be left as-is, pinned, cable-tied, glued, or fastened together using special Anderson clips. Most recommend strongly against using pins as they can fall out given enough vibration. Note also that some dealers substitute standard roll pins for the Anderson spiral pins. Anderson's bite into the plastic and hold better, but can still fall out. If you glue, use a drop of superglue between the housings (Anderson's recommendation) or model cement.

It is better to crimp than solder the contacts. While it is perfectly possible to solder the contacts, any solder on the contact face lowers the connect/disconnect cycle rating, as can overheating the contact. Solder can also interfere with the contact to housing fit. Finally, as these connectors are generally used with stranded wire, soldering forms a failure point where the flexible wire meets the stiff, soldered wire and connector. UL requires soldered Power Pole connectors to use a strain relief as a result.

You can use a plier-type crimp tool, like GB or Klein - both available at the big box home centers, but a die-type tool works far better. The GB will work on the 30 amp contacts, but crushes the 15s and won't work at all on the 45s. The Klein does better, but still won't do the 45s. The 45s must be crimped properly, even if subsequently soldered, as these are ear-type contacts, and the ears have to be crimped INTO the wire.

Anderson sells a crimp tool, but it's several hundred dollars. The best tool on the market for the money is the ratcheting West Mountain crimp tool specifically made for Power Pole contacts, and costs about $50. It produces an aerospace quality crimp and can be adjusted to produce crimps within a few thousands of a given specification. It can be purchased at any ham radio store or website. It handles the 15s, 30s, and 45s on a single die.

These are THE standard in 12 electronic power connection. "Red right, tongue top" when you wire them up, and you can connect anything to anything and be assured of correct polarity. Strange that this item is in the "toy" department.

Buying such small quantities is an expensive way to do it though. And if buying, you should strongly consider getting the ultrasonically welded red/black pairs which make it nearly impossible to mess up.

Bags of 25 welded pairs are available on the 'net elsewhere.....

why would anyone want to buy 4 powerpoles for 9 bucks when you can buy a pack of 25 for 19 dollars..
at several dealers.... google it................. yes anderson power poles are great...nn6aa

These connectors are really versatile. They carry an amazing about of current for their size due to their silver plating and can be joined together in many ways due to their case design. If you are using the crimp tool made for these connectors, the connection is mechanically and electronically secure while they save considerable installation time. They can disconnect and reconnect without much degradation in connectivity throughout many cycles.

Fast service from Draganfly. Ordered 08/18/10 (p.m.), rcvd 08/23/10.
Happy Ham hr! Pleased with service & product.

73,

N7DMA

No, it's not a toy.
I first became aware of this product over 30 years ago.
It was great then, it's great now.
Solid reliable connections for field use.
I use them for astronomy equipment run off battery power packs.