pigtailing aluminum wiring

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M

monkey

Senior Member
Location
Arizona
Re: pigtailing aluminum wiring

Wayne,
I thought about using the Al/Cu devices, but there are still issues with that solution. First, it does not take care of connections at hardwired appliances and fixtures. Secondly, at least according to CPSC publication #516,
CO/ALP
wiring devices have failed in laboratory tests when connected to
aluminum wire typical of that installed in existing homes. The test
conditions simulated actual use conditions; no "overstress" type of
testing was used.
Click to expand...
Pierre,
What is the best way to contact UL?
Brian Winkle
 
G

Guest

Guest
Re: pigtailing aluminum wiring

I'm wondering what's going to happen in 2005 when the Amp COALUM setup goes offline.

Here's one way to contact UL:
http://www.ul.com/contact.html

Pierre might have the Bat Phone :)

Good luck! Keep us posted. This is very interesting to me.

../Wayne C.

[ September 24, 2003, 11:29 PM: Message edited by: awwt ]
 
R

roc

Member
Re: pigtailing aluminum wiring

Pierre ... WOW, that is alot of pigtails on that project! BTW ... did that project have what the CPSC calls "old technology" AL wire?

Are your wrists still worn out from pretwisting the wires? (Ideal indicated they recommend pretwisting and then checking for damage before installing the connector on older AL wire).

Sounds like all the bases were covered on that project. I have heard that sometimes insurance companies do not even want to deal with AL wire, or anything other than the COPALUM connectors. Do they plan on doing any periodic maintenance inspections to check the performance?
 
G

Guest

Guest
Re: pigtailing aluminum wiring

Wow, $163,000 for Wire-Nuts? :)

Let's see that's about twenty Hyundai's.

No quantity discounts?

No kickbacks? I mean rebates?

Did you get a free Starter? jacket?

You are the man, Pierre!

../Wayne C.

[ September 25, 2003, 04:12 AM: Message edited by: awwt ]
 
P

pierre

Senior Member
Location
Westchester County, New York
Re: pigtailing aluminum wiring

The price I mentioned is the 'contractor' price. I was told that the big box store sells them for $2 a pop. I bought them in 1000/ container boxes. Remember thats a box of wirenuts for $1,500, I still laugh at the picture of the owners face when I told him how much the wirenuts were :D .

You can contact UL from the website that Wayne posted, if you are not satisfied with that result, PM me.

I still say take a CLOSE look at the method and pictures that CPSC has on it's website. Unless they have changed it since the last time I was there, you will probably have the same reaction as I did.

I was lucky for two reasons with the large project I worked on. There was not much of a load present on the units I worked on. The wiring was in very good shape. We used strippers and that was the most tedious part of the job. We also pretwisted every connection, and yes I still am 'feeling it'.
One of the hard parts of the job was getting use to 'throwing away' a wirenut if you made a mistake on the first splice and had to add another conductor that was missed. We had to keep very aware of that aspect, and it happened more than once.

Where the Copalum has a distinct advantage is when splicing Al to Al. There is no listed wirenut for that application.

Remember, pre 1983 the red Bcap wire nut was listed for aluminum splices. That is the wirenut we used for the Al to Al connection.

One more thing, in all of the splices, we ran into maybe 75 that were in need of repair. The devices, switches and receptacles, we ran into countless repairs there. We replaced every receptacle and switch and plate in the entire building. Think about how much garbage we generated :eek: :eek: !!!
Pierre

[ September 25, 2003, 07:32 AM: Message edited by: pierre ]
 
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