Right place at the right time

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nizak

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Was in the Big Orange box store and noticed they just marked down 1K reels of “white” 14/3 NM cable.

New stock that must have been left over after they started selling the blue.

1K ft- $160.00
1K ft new stock Blue right next to it $521.00

Bought all they had.
 
Little Bill said:
I would have bought every reel they had. What's the purpose of going to blue?
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Same reason 12 gauge is yellow-- easy for the inspectors to verify what type of cable you used. And you, yourself--- "Hey, apprentice! That should be the 'yellow' cable!"
 
Wonder if the blue is a clad. 14-2 clad for use on 10 amp lighting circuits. Or would it be a different voltage rating. Has to be a reason
 
PaulMmn said:
Same reason 12 gauge is yellow-- easy for the inspectors to verify what type of cable you used. And you, yourself--- "Hey, apprentice! That should be the 'yellow' cable!"
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#14 is already white. That's also different than yellow, wouldn't you think? There is no code rule for the color of NM cable!
 
Is it a Canadian thing? The only place I found any info on blue romex is Canada. It appears to make it easier for inspectors to identify arc fault circuits.
 
Actually, I think the scrap value exceeds what I paid for it.

Been selling sheathed NM cable scrap for $2 /lb.
Little Bill said:
I would have bought every reel they had. What's the purpose of going to blue?
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Tulsa Electrician said:
Wonder if the blue is a clad. 14-2 clad for use on 10 amp lighting circuits. Or would it be a different voltage rating. Has to be a reason
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Blue has been available in my area for at least 2 years. To my knowledge there’s nothing different except the color.

600V Solid Cu.

I’m just waiting for an inspector to tell me that the white is no longer acceptable, only blue for easy identification. I could see some type of BS coming from it.
 
That's odd. Cerrowire started color coding 14-3 as blue and 12-3 as purple, but the 14-2 is still white.
 
CoolWill said:
That's odd. Cerrowire started color coding 14-3 as blue and 12-3 as purple, but the 14-2 is still white.
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I will see if I can find some that it exposed that I could get a name off of it. The only exposed is in the cellar laundry room which is very small, but the panel is in there as well.
 
I think it is maybe to help differentiate at a glance the three wire cables since they are flat instead of round anymore.

12-3 is usually somewhat easy but flat 14-3 is a little hard to differentiate from some older 12-2 with white sheath.
 
kwired said:
I think it is maybe to help differentiate at a glance the three wire cables since they are flat instead of round anymore.

12-3 is usually somewhat easy but flat 14-3 is a little hard to differentiate from some older 12-2 with white sheath.
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Why does NM cable need to be identifiable just by sight?
 
I don’t know about the easier inspections angle, the only code violation I can think of at the top of my head is making sure there is a neutral at your 3 ways. But during a rough inspection it seems like it would be easy enough to just look in the box. It’s been a while since I wired a house so feel free to educate me. I do see it being helpful while pulling wire with an apprentice or figuring out where you left off if you haven’t been on a job in a while.
 
nizak said:
Why does NM cable need to be identifiable just by sight?
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It is not an NEC requirement.

20 some years ago one manufacturer started doing this and the rest of the them eventually decided to follow.

This purple and blue twist is probably similar and started with one manufacturer and others likely will or already have followed.
 
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