Triplex splice - hard to believe !!!

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goldstar

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
We've all seen situations where homeowners do their own electrical work and make a mess of things. Some are easily correctable and some are just plain wrong and dangerous. Just after Hurricane Sandy I was asked by a customer to come out and repair their electrical service. A tree branch had come down and pulled the triplex off the house. So, I passed by just after the storm, took a quick look (the cable was about 20' up) and told them that as long as they still had power I'd be back as soon as I could. Well, this weekend was the first chance I had to get back. It was difficult to put a ladder up against the house because of all the trees and shrubbery but I managed to get up there only to find this !!!

Splicedtriplex003.jpg


So, at first I thought it was an easy fix until I looked up toward the house a bit further and found this home made splice :

Splicedtriplex002.jpg


Believe it or not these people have been in this house for 12 years and have never done any upgrades. The basement was finished prior to them buying the house. When I went down to the basement I found everything completely finished with sheet-rocked walls and ceilings. There was a small door in the corner where the breaker panel should be. I opened the door only to find a 200 amp Challenger panel with barely enough room to open the panel cover. No inspection stickers anywhere. I came to the realization that the previous owners had the work done without permits and electrical done by some hack that obviously didn't know how to splice triplex cable. I'm sure he didn't realize how dangerous this was.

Long story short I had to have the POCO come out and repair the cable. They had to back the bucket truck up over the walkway and into the shrub bed in order to get the bucket in place. It was stretched to the limits (both height & length) with no our-riggers on this particular truck.
 
Must be tinned copper conductors?

If it were aluminum I doubt it lasts 12 weeks (maybe even days if loaded heavy enough) let alone 12 years.
 
kwired said:
Must be tinned copper conductors?

If it were aluminum I doubt it lasts 12 weeks (maybe even days if loaded heavy enough) let alone 12 years.
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Nope, that looks like #2 AL service triplex
 
Art

Art

Notice on the middle leg.

Some of the strands of wire were trimmed off because they did not fit under the wire nut, that fell off after being meticulously taped on. Its the attention to detail that makes this a real piece of work.
 
Hv&Lv said:
Nope, that looks like #2 AL service triplex
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really, the H taps look like AL triplex in and (likely) conductors from the SE cable in the background out.

And the splices with no extra devices appear to be on the SE cable conductors to me, look at how finely stranded the neutral is compared to typical ACSR like where you can see both in the first photo.
 
kwired said:
really, the H taps look like AL triplex in and (likely) conductors from the SE cable in the background out.

And the splices with no extra devices appear to be on the SE cable conductors to me, look at how finely stranded the neutral is compared to typical ACSR like where you can see both in the first photo.
Click to expand...
You are correct. These splices were between the crimps the POCO installed and the service head. So it was 2/0 SEU to 2/0 SEU. As I mentioned previously, the previous homeowner obviously had work done with no permits although, even if it were inspected, I don't think an inspector would have picked up on this. When I looked up some 20' from the ground it seemed like it was put together with split bolt bugs. I didn't realize how bad it was until I put a ladder up there and saw the mess. I'd be willing to bet that whoever did this figured there was no strain on the wire seeing as how it was in the drip loop section.
 
goldstar said:
You are correct. These splices were between the crimps the POCO installed and the service head. So it was 2/0 SEU to 2/0 SEU. As I mentioned previously, the previous homeowner obviously had work done with no permits although, even if it were inspected, I don't think an inspector would have picked up on this. When I looked up some 20' from the ground it seemed like it was put together with split bolt bugs. I didn't realize how bad it was until I put a ladder up there and saw the mess. I'd be willing to bet that whoever did this figured there was no strain on the wire seeing as how it was in the drip loop section.
Click to expand...

since they look silverish - Are they tinned copper conductors? I can't imagine aluminum lasting 12 years, even if lightly loaded.
 
kwired said:
since they look silverish - Are they tinned copper conductors? I can't imagine aluminum lasting 12 years, even if lightly loaded.
Click to expand...
They were all aluminum. Remember, when I first looked at this it was after a storm and the triplex had pulled away from the house. Believe it or not, this might have been a slightly better splice than the condition I saw it in when I got there.
 
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