Comparison of the pros and cons of glass insulators and porcelain insulators: A glass insulator is an insulator made of glass, referred to as a glass insulator; currently, tempered glass insulators are widely used in lines. Porcelain insulators are made of electrical ceramics.

Porcelain insulators appeared earlier and are simple in process, but they don't have the so-called advantage of being resistant to contamination. Actually, on-site, porcelain insulators can also get quite dirty. The advantage of glass insulators over porcelain insulators is that they don’t require zero-value testing; zero-value glass insulators will self-explode. Glass insulators have good electromechanical performance, with better tensile strength, electrical breakdown resistance, vibration fatigue resistance, arc burn resistance, and thermal shock resistance than porcelain insulators.

Unlike porcelain insulators, glass insulators can self-eliminate through zero-value self-explosion, making defects easy to identify without the need for insulation testing. The self-explosion rate is usually higher in the first three years, which is the opposite of porcelain insulators. Decades of operation and test data show that tempered glass insulators have long-term stable electromechanical performance and a longer service life.

Porcelain insulators have good insulation performance, resistance to weather changes, heat resistance, and flexible assembly, and are widely used in various voltage levels of lines. Disc-type porcelain insulators are crushable; they are made by cementing porcelain parts and metal parts with different physical and chemical properties. Over time, under the effects of electric fields, mechanical loads, and natural elements like sun, wind, rain, snow, and fog, they gradually degrade, posing a threat to the safe operation of the power grid.