Jacket color for /4 and /2/2 coming?

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

steven765

Member
Location
NY/NH
Occupation
engineer
Now that we have the rainbow of colors for /2 and /3 wires. Anyone seen any mention if they're going to add different colors for /4 wires and /2/2? The one that really needs to be highlighted is the Copper-CladAl, That stuff scares me. You know in 20 years we're going to be ripping it all out when one manufacturer doesn't get the cladding just right and a few houses burn.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
steven765 said:
Now that we have the rainbow of colors for /2 and /3 wires. Anyone seen any mention if they're going to add different colors for /4 wires and /2/2? The one that really needs to be highlighted is the Copper-CladAl, That stuff scares me. You know in 20 years we're going to be ripping it all out when one manufacturer doesn't get the cladding just right and a few houses burn.
Click to expand...
What maybe is more scary is DIY work with this stuff. If it is available at big box and is less cost you can bet many will select it, and the already don't know how to properly select and install straight copper conductors.
 
steven765 said:
Now that we have the rainbow of colors for /2 and /3 wires. Anyone seen any mention if they're going to add different colors for /4 wires and /2/2? The one that really needs to be highlighted is the Copper-CladAl, That stuff scares me. You know in 20 years we're going to be ripping it all out when one manufacturer doesn't get the cladding just right and a few houses burn.
Click to expand...

The color is to identify the wire size not the number of conductors. I can't imagine what that would be like....totally confusing.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
The color is to identify the wire size not the number of conductors. I can't imagine what that would be like....totally confusing.
Click to expand...
It can do both. Cerrowire now does it:

White: 14-2
Blue: 14-3
Yellow: 12-2
Purple: 12-3
Orange: 10-2
 
I have seen the Cerro NM colors in HD but never buy cable from HD. My primary supplier is mostly Encore for NM followed by CME then Cerro.

I just looked at Southwire and Cerro and they now have the same colors as Cerro. I guess I'll be seeing it soon as inventory gets replaced.
 
I am color blind anyhow.

But I just ran into my first piece of Copper Clad ever. My sister has a ranch built in the 60s. I wired an addition they did back in the mid 80s. At that time her husband was in the hospital and the builders were just starting. One of the first things they did was rip out a through the wall AC unit and block up the hole in the wall.

My BIL was concerned they would pull out the AC and leave a live wire in the wall, so he asked me to take care of it as the addition wasn't ready for wiring.

Found the circuit and disconnected it at the panel and cut the wire short so it couldn't be reconnected. At the other end the builder left it curled up and pushed up into the joist in the basement. I couldn't get near it (too much stuff to move) to cut it so I left it.

About a month ago she asked me to look at a wire in the cellar it had fallen down from the joist. I said yeah that was the old ac wire and I cut it off. Looking at the jacket it was copper clad #10
 
Eddie702 said:
I am color blind anyhow.

But I just ran into my first piece of Copper Clad ever. My sister has a ranch built in the 60s. I wired an addition they did back in the mid 80s. At that time her husband was in the hospital and the builders were just starting. One of the first things they did was rip out a through the wall AC unit and block up the hole in the wall.

My BIL was concerned they would pull out the AC and leave a live wire in the wall, so he asked me to take care of it as the addition wasn't ready for wiring.

Found the circuit and disconnected it at the panel and cut the wire short so it couldn't be reconnected. At the other end the builder left it curled up and pushed up into the joist in the basement. I couldn't get near it (too much stuff to move) to cut it so I left it.

About a month ago she asked me to look at a wire in the cellar it had fallen down from the joist. I said yeah that was the old ac wire and I cut it off. Looking at the jacket it was copper clad #10
Click to expand...

They started making it again but I am not sold on it.
 
So being color blind funny story. In 72" I was going to a Community College. They got me and another student summer jobs at a factory in Stamford, CT 2 hours away. So, we would drive down Monday morning early and stay in this dump of a rooming house all week and drive home Friday night. We were wiring control panels in a factory. Worked with an old timer that showed me what to do.

After a couple of weeks, they gave me some of my own panels to wire. After getting all the components mounted we would get a spool of #14 white wire and do all the neutrals done first. So, i did that and was about done with that panel after a day or so and the boss came over to take a look and ask me how it was going. I said ok. He looked at the panel and said, "what's with all the pink wire".

I had wired all the neutrals with pink wire. Looked white to me until I held a white wire next to it.

I told him I would rip it out and fix it, but he told me to leave it
 
Eddie702 said:
So being color blind funny story. In 72" I was going to a Community College. They got me and another student summer jobs at a factory in Stamford, CT 2 hours away. So, we would drive down Monday morning early and stay in this dump of a rooming house all week and drive home Friday night. We were wiring control panels in a factory. Worked with an old timer that showed me what to do.

After a couple of weeks, they gave me some of my own panels to wire. After getting all the components mounted we would get a spool of #14 white wire and do all the neutrals done first. So, i did that and was about done with that panel after a day or so and the boss came over to take a look and ask me how it was going. I said ok. He looked at the panel and said, "what's with all the pink wire".

I had wired all the neutrals with pink wire. Looked white to me until I held a white wire next to it.

I told him I would rip it out and fix it, but he told me to leave it
Click to expand...
Most people are color blind with certain colors not across the board.
 
For me it is white and pink, red and brown, yellow and white. It depends on how dark the shades of color are. Sometimes I can't tell them apart especially white and pink. But if i put a white and pink next to each other the difference is obvious but when apart it's a struggle
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top