Aluminum pigtail questions.

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markebenson

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Have a house with all alumunum wiring. I know what i need for pigtailing the devices. I assume a similar method is used for panel feed? Would this need to be done in the meter can?

Thx
 
markebenson said:
Have a house with all alumunum wiring. I know what i need for pigtailing the devices. I assume a similar method is used for panel feed? Would this need to be done in the meter can?

Thx
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Check it. Older Al seems to be softer than the new alloys but if it checks ok with a thermal scan or FOP, it’s optional. They do make the crimp on pins or pigtails for that purpose. Might be easier to just run new Cu if the runs are short and LBs big enough.
 
My nephew just bought a house with some AL wiring. (If only they'd asked me beforehand.) AHJ is Denver.

Now a fellow EE here owned a AL wire house (~Levitttown) so I know the basics.
I've been reading here and Inspectapedia and CPSC and ...

He's got one bid from a contractor promoting AlumiComm & mentioning Purple wirenuts.
I thought that only the COPALUM route was approved.

I see little about pigtailing at the PB; is that SOP as well? (Much less flexing there; easy to retorque.)

Enlightenment welcomed
 
I can tell you what I would do if it was my own house:

Turn off the main, tighten every screw terminal, and check wirenuts for snugness.

Now that the wires have flattened under screw heads, the contact area will be greater and should last another 50 years.
 
Open Neutral said:
My nephew just bought a house with some AL wiring. (If only they'd asked me beforehand.) AHJ is Denver.

Now a fellow EE here owned a AL wire house (~Levitttown) so I know the basics.
I've been reading here and Inspectapedia and CPSC and ...

He's got one bid from a contractor promoting AlumiComm & mentioning Purple wirenuts.
I thought that only the COPALUM route was approved.

I see little about pigtailing at the PB; is that SOP as well? (Much less flexing there; easy to retorque.)

Enlightenment welcomed
Click to expand...
Pigtailing a piece of copper to a piece of aluminum is wrong, even with the famous purple Wirenuts, which are little more than a special colored Wirenut filled with flammable oxide inhibitor.
If pigtailing must be done it should be done with something like an approved “Polaris” type connector where the different expansion and contraction Rates of aluminum vs cooper doesn’t matter as they are under different terminations
 
So a Polaris is a flavor of AlumiComm? I'm less impressed with them; if I was building such first the setscrews would be TorX heads. And I'd require a 0.25" drive torque wrench be used.

The CPSC rated the COPALUM as best. I know how well a similar technology gas-tight connection, the WECO 66 punchdown, holds up over time.
 
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