What would you use to pigtail copper to aluminum?

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DaveBowden

Senior Member
Location
St Petersburg FL
A customer's house is wired in aluminum romex and she is understandably concerned about it. She asked for my recommendations. I told her we could re-wire her house (very expensive), we could change her devices to alum rated ones, or we could use AL/CU rated wirenuts to pigtail copper to her AL.
Since there are no GFI receptacles rated AL/CU, some pigtailing would still be needed. She also has a lot of dimmers with copper leads on them that need to be connected to the AL romex.
I also explained to her that if we used the AL devices she would need to have us back periodically to retighten the connections.
She opted for the pigtails.
I've used the Ideal AL to Cu rated wire nuts before and have had no problems with them other than their cost being almost $2.50 each. SInce every device will require at least 3 wirenuts, I'm going to have nearly $500 in wirenuts.
Do any of you have another method you prefer or any suggestions for connectors that are better than the wirenuts?
We're getting $25 a device so the cost isn't really a big issue.
 

Joethemechanic

Senior Member
Location
Hazleton Pa
Occupation
Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
With aluminum romex, I always feel like those are short term solutions, and may be money down the drain.

Would you buy a house full of aluminum romex unless there was a significant discount involved? I know I wouldn't. If she ever wants to sell the house that aluminum is going to scare buyers away. In the long term it may be in the best interests of both you and her to do it all over in copper.

If she is somewhat indigent, maybe you can just replace her most heavily loaded circuits with copper for now, and work out some kind of discount rate for when business is slow.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
A customer's house is wired in aluminum romex and she is understandably concerned about it. She asked for my recommendations. I told her we could re-wire her house (very expensive), we could change her devices to alum rated ones, or we could use AL/CU rated wirenuts to pigtail copper to her AL.
Since there are no GFI receptacles rated AL/CU, some pigtailing would still be needed. She also has a lot of dimmers with copper leads on them that need to be connected to the AL romex.
I also explained to her that if we used the AL devices she would need to have us back periodically to retighten the connections.
She opted for the pigtails.
I've used the Ideal AL to Cu rated wire nuts before and have had no problems with them other than their cost being almost $2.50 each. SInce every device will require at least 3 wirenuts, I'm going to have nearly $500 in wirenuts.
Do any of you have another method you prefer or any suggestions for connectors that are better than the wirenuts?
We're getting $25 a device so the cost isn't really a big issue.

tyco makes a crimper that is an approved method, but it's 'spensive... and you have to lease it, and get certified,
anda... anda... and purpipple wire nuts are prolly what you are gonna end up with.

i've had them melt as well..... just a puddle of purpipple plastic in the botttom of the jbox.

#14 stranded thhn to the devices takes the spring load off the connections somewhat,
and if it's a 15 amp device, that's all ya need.

i took a photo with the phone camera of every box before i closed it up.... in case there
was any questions later....
 

renosteinke

Senior Member
Location
NE Arkansas
I've used those "King" connectors, and they work quite well. Be advised, though....

... That the ground wire will probably break as you remove the devices; and,

... That the boxes won;t be large enough for the connectors and a GFCI. (I used Wiremold extension boxes)
 

DaveBowden

Senior Member
Location
St Petersburg FL
If I go with the Alumcon connectors a box of 100 is $311 dollars - even more than the purple wire nuts, so yes it is still going to be expensive.
The problem with a complete rewire is the house is a typical Florida house. Slab on grade with no basement and a third of the house is space created by enclosing the original back porch - all flat deck roofing with no crawl space. The drywall repair would be another major expense on top of the rewire cost. Even the main part of the house under trusses is a hip roof with no space above any of the exterior walls due to the pitch of the roof.
Add to that the fact that the owner plans on selling within the next ten years and it makes it hard for her to justify spending $20,000 on a rewire.
If it were mine I'd probably rewire it. (I probably wouldn't have bought it to begin with.)
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
I am inclined to think that whatever bad things were likely to happen probably would have happened.

There is not really a good fix for this problem, short of a gut job.

The age of the house suggests that it is likely going to need a gut job in the next decade or so anyway. I might be incliend to defer any work until then.
 

DaveBowden

Senior Member
Location
St Petersburg FL
Just curious - what do you think the life expectancy is for an electrical installation?
Back when I was running a service department for a large EC and had to do an inspection report on a motel for a potential buyer, my boss told me to figure a 40 year life on the wiring.
This house on this thread was built in the early 70's - about 40 years ago.
 

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
Use the Purple as the least expensive , then the alumiconn, or the rewire. Only the rewire is a permanent solution.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Just curious - what do you think the life expectancy is for an electrical installation?
Back when I was running a service department for a large EC and had to do an inspection report on a motel for a potential buyer, my boss told me to figure a 40 year life on the wiring.
This house on this thread was built in the early 70's - about 40 years ago.

What about wiring installed in 1930's and even earlier that is still in operation today?

It really depends on how well it was installed as well as maintained. If left alone some things last a long time. When people add on to existing and do so incorrectly they cause problems that may deteriorate the existing even faster.
 
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