Difference in solid versus stranded

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Thanks all. The answers were helpful. We have been pulling a Hospital here an we have been using 10awg wire stranded. Some long pulls. The sprinkler guy asked me the question. I was not sure but the next day gave him a more concise answer. Thanks for the help. An your knowledge.?

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iwire said:
All typical 15, 20 and 30 amp receptacles, switches etc are listed for stranded.

You can even get Wago style push in connectors for stranded.

I still find solid faster to terminate.
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Thanks for pointing that out as I only have used solid. I strip my soid of sufficient length long enough to around the screw. I use my needle nose to form a loop placing the loop underr the screw in a CW direction, using th es tip of the needlenose to close/tighten the looparoung the screw such that the wire is trsped around the screwand tigten the screw. With stranded wire I have found it difficult to feel comfortable with getting alll of the stranding secured.
Breaker teminals are covered under UL486 which tests for temp rise, pul test, etc based upon specific wire sizes and a specific torque. Then the terminal/lug is used as part of a UL489 listed assembly. It would be interesting to know how the screw terminals are listed for use with stranded wire, that is what wiring procedure is to be used for the listing.
The electrician buys the device and sees that stranded is acceptable and uses his experience to termnate the strandard wire. But, what procedure was used to obtain the UL listing when dealing with the stranding. I'm not so sure evey installer uses the same techniques based upon what UL has accepted.
 
ActionDave said:
I learned on here that there are some switches that are not.

I agree that solid is faster/easier to terminate. I still like stranded better.

It's a Ford vs. Chevy argument for sure, however, just finished pulling gobs of 16AWG stranded today.....sooooo nice..... was able to pull the wire through some LB's from the other side of the room. Could not have done that with solid.
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I like your Ford vs Chevy reference which is very often what drives a person's identity, that is what they stand for, being opinionated. But it can be helpful to listen to their point of view and the reason why.
 
A plant I worked on was built in the 60’s, aluminium was far cheaper than copper. Like any plant vibration was a problem. After 20 years in service compression terminations were getting to be a pain. Solid conductors were fracturing at the termination followed by overheating and inevitable failure.

Give me stranded any day.
 
I work more stranded than solid because I mostly work on controls. We have disallowed the use of solid wire with motors. I don't believe it is a
good practice to join solid to stranded in a peckerhead. And pretty much all motors come with stranded leads. Maybe I'm wrong on this but
I tend to mistrust wire nut connections that join the 2 types.
 
Aleman said:
I work more stranded than solid because I mostly work on controls. We have disallowed the use of solid wire with motors. I don't believe it is a
good practice to join solid to stranded in a peckerhead. And pretty much all motors come with stranded leads. Maybe I'm wrong on this but
I tend to mistrust wire nut connections that join the 2 types.
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When you refer to using stranded wire for motor connections does this also include Hypalon? Panel builders just love the stuff because of its flexibility for power wiring. But, the wire must be terminated with crimp on terminals and then bolted to the device. I have an overhead crane and elevator controls panel builder burn up both breakers and contactors because it was misused, frying the terminations while under load letting the smoke out.

I think that you would be using class B, C, and D standing.you're probably using 19 strand.. Common stranded wire is 7, 19, and 37 strand with 61 strand reserved for the real big stuff which most UL486 listed terminals are listed with.
Terminals are commonly UL486 listed which basically covers temp rise and pull tests for a given wire.
 
templdl said:
When you refer to using stranded wire for motor connections does this also include Hypalon? Panel builders just love the stuff because of its flexibility for power wiring. But, the wire must be terminated with crimp on terminals and then bolted to the device. I have an overhead crane and elevator controls panel builder burn up both breakers and contactors because it was misused, frying the terminations while under load letting the smoke out.

I think that you would be using class B, C, and D standing.you're probably using 19 strand.. Common stranded wire is 7, 19, and 37 strand with 61 strand reserved for the real big stuff which most UL486 listed terminals are listed with.
Terminals are commonly UL486 listed which basically covers temp rise and pull tests for a given wire.
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That looks like our tri-rated. Up until the introduction of the 17th edition of BS7671 we could solder the terminations solid. Fantastic stuff for panel building

Thanks to the environmentalists the lead content had to be reduced in solder making it brittle. Now only crimped connections can be used.

Tri-rated is OK for up to 105C. It does have a UL number, unfortunately I can’t find what it is.
 
Tony S said:
That looks like our tri-rated. Up until the introduction of the 17th edition of BS7671 we could solder the terminations solid. Fantastic stuff for panel building

Thanks to the environmentalists the lead content had to be reduced in solder making it brittle. Now only crimped connections can be used.

Tri-rated is OK for up to 105C. It does have a UL number, unfortunately I can’t find what it is.
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Regarding solder, Yes, those environmentalists do take the fun out of everything such as dishwasher detergents without phosphate that do a poor job of cleaning dishes.
But, I do have my little stash of #1 spools of 50/50 and a little 40/60.
 
Strange how things get stashed away out of sight.

The lower lead content is causing problems with building PCB’s due to joint failures. The solder becomes more crystalline, therefore brittle.

That’s progress, but I’m not convinced.
 
Wire strippers are not the same, as stranded has a slightly larger OD. A solid wire stripper works but may nick the wire.
I prefer stranded, and for devices I use a non insulated spade lug.
 
I thought that the stranded wire had less resistance for AC because of the reduction in skin effect.
Inductive reactance may scale differently; I have not run the math.
 
GoldDigger said:
I thought that the stranded wire had less resistance for AC because of the reduction in skin effect.
Inductive reactance may scale differently; I have not run the math.
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I do not think skin effect at 60 hz will make a difference in the wire sizes we would use solid for.
 
iwire said:
I do not think skin effect at 60 hz will make a difference in the wire sizes we would use solid for.
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Correct.

At 60hz skin effect does not come into consideration for conductors 250kcmil and smaller. Even at 500kcmil, the adjustment factor is not overly significant.
 
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