Anyone ever see AL entrance cable conductor undersized AWG from the factory??

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newservice

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Got some SE cable the other day, Kingwire 3 wire Aluminium , and one of the two insulated conductors was visibly smaller than the other, though both were supposed to be 2/0. Noticed it after I cut it down in the meter housing, a bit late. Sure enough it seemed like a burnt wire, it was discoloured.. a brownish tint when you cut the insulation back, and it was compressed tightly, the strands were stuck together, it was noticeably smaller than the other insulated conductor. - Anyone ever see this on supposed brand new wire?
Guy at the counter said "nah, its just extruded that way when they made it, or it's just the way it's cut." .but no..it was like that the whole 50' I bought. Another counter guy was more concerned and took my sample with him.
AWG goes by diameter, right?
 
Never seen that. Pics would have been great. Worst I've seen is coax with flat spots and out of roundness, and the braids visibly compressed and damaged in spots. I believe it was Carol brand cable from a BB store.

Sounds like someone loaded up a wrong spool at the factory to make the triplex.
 
Well, it goes by area, which is proportional​ to diameter squared for a constant wire geometry.
Normal stranded has a larger diameter than solid for same area. But stranded can also be "compact" with the strands compressed to fit with less or no air space. That is common for aluminum wires.

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As Digger stated it cold be that one conductor is compact and the other isn't. Photo's available?
 
Allright, I left the prime example with the supply house. I should be able to come up with a pic, am still on this job.
 
OK finally got the pics. You can see if you look enough the red striped CC conductor appears smaller than the other. Also the wire itself appears tinted a bronzish color . Both have 19 smaller strands. Myself and my witness here both say the one is smaller than the other diameter wise. :thumbsdown:
 

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Hard to tell from the pics, but one does indeed look slightly smaller. Not by much, but slightly undersized by 1/2 to 1 gauge. Could be that the black is larger. How do both these conductors compare to known normal SEU cable?
 
I agree one looks slightly smaller, and that would concern me a little about quality control of that manufacturer.

I used to wire a lot of marinas and I found that the copper conductors of one manufacturer of type W cable (I think it was #2) were slightly smaller than another. I called the manufacturer rep and he said he would look into it. Got back to me and said their wire was fine. Well, I know for a fact that they had less copper than General did.
 
oldsparky52 said:
I agree one looks slightly smaller, and that would concern me a little about quality control of that manufacturer.

I used to wire a lot of marinas and I found that the copper conductors of one manufacturer of type W cable (I think it was #2) were slightly smaller than another. I called the manufacturer rep and he said he would look into it. Got back to me and said their wire was fine. Well, I know for a fact that they had less copper than General did.
Click to expand...

Honestly, with a tacky name like "Kingwire" I don't expect stellar quality like Cerro, Southwire, General Cable, Okonite, and Encore.
 
It appears there is more space between the strands and the larger one than in the smaller one. Smaller one it looks like they've been compacted together deliberately. Might be they used compact conductor for one of them for some reason. I don't think I would be all that worried about it the strands look to be the same size and it appears there's the same number of them.
 
I believe you!

I have a piece of what is listed as 4/0 Al SEU that has what appears to be 2/0 conductors and 1/2 the bare conductors that should be under the jacket.:eek:hmy:

Ill have to get a picture of it. It was a few years ago but it's in my shop.

shananagans shall not be tolerated in this line of business.
 
Here we go,IMG_0031.jpgIMG_0032.jpg

I count 14 conductors for the neutral and phase conductors have 19 conductors.
I have to admit those phase conductors were compacted beyond belief and that it could be 4/0 (can't remember how many of what gauge makes up 4/0) but definatly not the neutral as listed on the jacket.
 
Just for poops and snickers I grabbed another piece of 4/0 SEU to compare to. Happens to be made by same manufacturer and both are compact conductors. You decide, Believe It Or NotIMG_0033.jpgIMG_0034.jpg
 
I suppose you could deliberately make 4/0 SEU with a full sized neutral and also with a reduced neutral and just not distinguish the two properly by the time it gets to the distributor.

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