Talk:Dry contact

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This page should have more information added to it, rather than be deleted.

Is this really what "dry contact" means?[edit]

I've yet to find any reference that defines "dry contact" this way.

Oli Filth 21:09, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Right. [1] says it pretty clearly. A dry contact is one which, when it makes and breaks, has no current. Reed relay, which I mostly wrote, hints at it in the section about ferreed matrix crosspoints. Now I'll take a look and probably replace most the text in this article. Jim.henderson 02:47, 13 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The reference is fair enough, but as is often the case, the term gets used in more than one way, ie with more than one meaning. Its more common to see dry as meaning not wet, ie contacts that are not mercury wetted.

Even more common is to see the word used to mean a bad soldered joint. Tabby (talk) 03:26, 30 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What would be the point of a contact on a relay which does not pass current. Relays are sometimes used so that a small voltage and small current can control a device designed to pass large currents. In electrical switchgear a relay will operate on a low voltage (up to 240v) to switch the contactor which will handle large voltages and currents. Wet contacts are used to try to cut down the arcing associated with large currents. But even on switchgear contacts are used but they have arrangements that switch at high speed or in oxygenless atmospheres or in oil to stop the arcing. --Rodgeratkin (talk) 05:48, 9 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

According to WikiAnswers http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_dry_contact_and_no_volt_contact_in_the_context_of_electrical_engineering&src=ansTT

A dry contact is one that has no prewired electrical conection. Therefore a relay or a reed switch is a dry contact but it is designed to switch currents. --Rodgeratkin (talk) 06:11, 9 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Volt-free contact[edit]

I'm studying the manual for a warm air heater (Johnson & Starley Economaire), that states that an external programmer must have volt-free contacts, and it appears that "dry contact" here refers to the same. Perhaps this article needs at least some extra redirects from "Volt-free contact", "Voltage-free contact" and perhaps "No-volt contact"? --PeterWD (talk) 15:51, 30 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]