How to Use Heat Shrink Tubing

If you’re new to heat shrink tubing, choosing the right tubing can be a bit tricky.  Heat shrink tubing comes in many different sizes, different shrink ratios, and there are many different types that offer unique characteristics.  The first thing to know is that heat shrink tubing sizes are listed in a before shrinking size.  So measure what it is you need the heat shrink to fit over and make sure you choose a size larger a little larger than that. To make sure our heat shrink tubing would fit over the iPhone cable and the connector at the end of the cable, we chose a 3/8 of an inch heat shrink tubing for this example.

The next thing to know, is the shrink ratio.  Shrink ratio measures the difference between the size of the tubing before and after it shrinks.  For example, we chose to use a 3 to 1, (usually written in ratio form as 3:1), heat shrink tubing on the iPhone cord, which means the tubing starts 3 times larger than what it shrinks down to.    We offer heat shrink tubing in 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, and 6:1 shrink ratios.

The last thing to be aware of when selecting your heat shrink tubing are any additional special qualities or characteristics that you might need.  For example, there are diesel and fluid resistant types of heat shrink out there, as well as heat shrink that is UV resistant.  For the iPhone cord we chose to use an adhesive lined heat shrink tubing that will make sure the heat shrink glues itself in place.