New 3 conductor NMB

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CIECO

Senior Member
Has anyone used or seen a new 3 conductor NMB that is not twisted. I have a customer who telling me about it but in checking the manufactures web sites I do not see any thing. Just wondering if any one has seen it.
 

acrwc10

Master Code Professional
Location
CA
Occupation
Building inspector
Seen it haven't used it yet. Some of the guys here have. only difference is it's flat.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
CIECO said:
Has anyone used or seen a new 3 conductor NMB that is not twisted. I have a customer who telling me about it but in checking the manufactures web sites I do not see any thing. Just wondering if any one has seen it.

A few manufacturers make it and I have heard good and bad. Personally I have not had a problem with it and I like it. Much easier to strip.
 

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
al hildenbrand said:
How do you strip it?
I usually use a knife to start it and go around the sheathing to score it. It just pulls off easily. I also have used the ideal tool and squeeze very gently around the perimeter to score the jacket and then slide it off. I have also done the round cable this way but the jacket slides more easily on the flat.

45-246.jpg
 

Bill Annett

Senior Member
Location
Wheeling, WV
Occupation
Retired ( 2020 ) City Electrical inspector
This might seem a bit strange, but I think they did it to save money. In my mind a 250 foot roll of twisted conductors would use more copper than a roll of straight conductors. I would have no idea how much more lenght you would gain if you would untwist the single conductors of the nm cable.
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Location
Iowegia
billisa67 said:
This might seem a bit strange, but I think they did it to save money. In my mind a 250 foot roll of twisted conductors would use more copper than a roll of straight conductors. I would have no idea how much more lenght you would gain if you would untwist the single conductors of the nm cable.

Which raises the question: Is the 250' the total length of the cable, or the amount of copper used to produce it?

In other words, did it start out as 250' of individual wires, and when made into a cable, it ends up being, say, 245'?
 

CIECO

Senior Member
I do not know how much copper you are saving But you do skip a step in manufacturing I just saw the old post sorry I brought it up again. I am looking to by a roll and have it UPS to me any idear where I can get it.
 

kornbln

Senior Member
480sparky said:
Which raises the question: Is the 250' the total length of the cable, or the amount of copper used to produce it?

In other words, did it start out as 250' of individual wires, and when made into a cable, it ends up being, say, 245'?


I imagine the end result needs to be a 250' roll. You buy a roll of wire, you expect it to be that length otherwise you'll come up short.

Or is it like the hard drive manufacturers who sell us "500GB" hard drives where a GB is 1000MB and not 1024?
 

mdshunk

Senior Member
Location
Right here.
That "flat" 3-wire sucks. It's not completely flat. It's lumpy. The conductors overlap here and there inside the jacket. It's not dead flat like 3-wire UF is. It's really hard to do a neat job with that new so-called "flat" 3-wire NM cable. I hate the stuff. Plus, it's got one of those stupid furry strings inside that gets caught all over stuff like a spider's web from hell. Very difficult to sweep up.
 

peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
CIECO said:
Not by me. By the way the 250' is done at packaging. Who is manufactureing this wire.

All the wire manufacturers are making the 3 conductor cable flat now. (Well, it's not really flat the way it actually comes out.)
 

CIECO

Senior Member
NY must be a tuff market because I have never seen it and I asked in a couple of supply houses and looked in the big stores and they look at me like I am nuts.
 

mdshunk

Senior Member
Location
Right here.
CIECO said:
NY must be a tuff market because I have never seen it and I asked in a couple of supply houses and looked in the big stores and they look at me like I am nuts.
Don't look too hard. When it shows up, you're not going to like it much, I believe.
 

frankft2000

Senior Member
Location
Maine
I've gotten the flat 12/3. I like the round better because it always looks good, now with the flat wire it takes more labor to get the same (or close) good looking job.
 

CIECO

Senior Member
I took a ride to the big blue store and got a 25' of 12/3 and 14/3 boy does that look like crap.
 
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