What’s The Best Heat Shrink Tubing?

The quick answer:
For general purpose heat shrink tubing, we recommend a polyolefin heat shrink from TE Connectivity, Raychem or Plastronic.

The detailed answer:
As specialists, the immediate response to this question is “For what purpose do you need it?” Then we can begin to narrow down the choices to suit your specific application.

However, when someone asks this question (with no other information provided), they tend to be thinking of general-purpose heat shrink. Otherwise the question would be more detailed as in “What’s the best heat shrink tubing for fuel resistance”.

So, this leads us on to the next question…

What’s the best quality general purpose heat shrink tubing?

For us, this question is still too vague, so we’ll amend it and add a bit more detail:

What’s the best brand for general purpose heat shrink tubing?

Now we have a question we can answer. Using our expertise and years of experience, we have selected the following brands due to their quality and versatility:

• TE Connectivity – This global company has been in manufacturing for over 80 years.
• Raychem – Now owned by TE Connectivity, the brand was founded in 1957 and was also the inventor of heat shrink tubing (which means they should know a thing or two about it). Raychem is a recognised and respected brand, particularly for heat shrink.
• Plastronic – For full transparency, you should know that we began working with this brand in 1992 and co-own it with TE Connectivity

There are of course other manufacturers and brands. Our recommendation is to select one of the three above.

What’s the best material for general purpose heat shrink tubing?

Polyolefin is the popular choice. Polyolefins are thermoplastics and the most commonly used plastic of all. According to Plastics Europe, polyolefins can be made from fossil fuels or from renewable resources.

It is very flexible, flame retardant, easy to install and has excellent electrical, chemical and physical properties. Plus it is available in a wide range of colours.

You will also find it in all of our general purpose heat shrink.

Hopefully we have answered your question, one way or another. When you need further information or help in selecting the right heat shrink for your application, please contact us.