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Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Estimator
If you has to use #4's or #6's for a 20A breaker due to VD what would you use @ the panel and also when you get near the load to step down the wire size to terminate on the breaker and terminals at the device? Splice or terminal box?
 
A splice. Just use one of these.

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I just looked at several breakers and they all give a wire size range but do not specify stranded or solid. I always assumed if they don't say specifically then you can use either stranded or solid no?
The companies that make pin adapters seem to think so otherwise their products would be useless.
 
The companies that make pin adapters seem to think so otherwise their products would be useless.
There is at least one manufacturer pin adapters that understands...their pins are Class B stranded conductor. At one breaker manufacture has a published statement that you cannot not use pin adapters with their breakers no matter what the pin is constructed of.

I have had this discussion with some of the manufacturers and they were shocked when I showed them the product listing standards for most termination for conductors larger than 10AWG that specify only Class B or Class C conductors. They pretty much told me to shut-up.

This is no different than the issue with finely stranded conductors as the same rule applies. Before the code was changed to require terminations for finely stranded conductors, code users ignored the same rule...that is most terminations are only listed for Class B and Class C stranded conductors.
 
they were shocked when I showed them the product listing standards for most termination for conductors larger than 10AWG that specify only Class B or Class C conductors.
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I am not seeing this on the breakers. Is this one of those silly things where that information is incomplete or wrong and I have to look at a more detailed specification document for the full story?
 
I am not seeing this on the breakers. Is this one of those silly things where that information is incomplete or wrong and I have to look at a more detailed specification document for the full story?
Not found anywhere other than the product listing standard, even there, UL 489 references other standards for the terminations. However product listing standards are very much 110.3(B) instructions.

Terminations for larger than 10 AWG are never tested for use with solid conductors because we don't use solid conductors for the larger sizes.

Like I said we had this same issue with finely stranded conductors until the code rule was changed to address those conductors. At some point that will happen for solid pins.
 
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