Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

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Ken Williams

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I recently had a question about the replacement power receptical for a range top for in-home use. I did a search through my NEC2002 code book and thought I would find something on the subject. Where do I find guidance on when,why and how to prepare Au for electrical use.
Thanks in advance, Ken
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Originally posted by Ken Williams:
I recently had a question about the replacement power receptical for a range top for in-home use. I did a search through my NEC2002 code book and thought I would find something on the subject. Where do I find guidance on when,why and how to prepare Au for electrical use.
Thanks in advance, Ken
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Ken the NEC does not require the use of anti oxidation compounds.

Some equipment requires the use of anti oxidation compounds, then by extension IMO 110.3(B) requires us to follow those instructions.

The only place that the NEC even mentions anti oxidation compounds is in 110.14 and then it only says the following;

Materials such as solder, fluxes, inhibitors, and compounds, where employed, shall be suitable for the use and shall be of a type that will not adversely affect the conductors, installation, or equipment.
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Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

ken if i understand you corectly you need to replace your range recep? If this is aluminum wire is there anyway you can repull a copper line? If not make sure your recep is compatible with al wire it should say cu/al on the plug somewheres. after this is achieved put some nolax on your wires some like to use a wire brush for this. I am a little concerned about the wires coming off your range I dont know if you can use copper to plug into a co/al recep that is fed by al
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Aluminum is pretty much all thats used to feed 50 amp range receptacles in this area. This applies to new construction as well as old.

As far as plugging a copper cord into an aluminum fed receptacle there is no issue.

Bob
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Just make sure that the receptacle is listed for use with Alum. as for the cord on the range ot should not matter as southernboys & iwire said. As far as using deox it probably would not hurt but also as mentioned by iwire the lugs that are on the receptacle should be listed for that use as stated in Art.110.14.
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Try the Aluminum association.

http://aluminum.org/

In MY Opinion there is nothing wrong with aluminum conductors. When properly installed.

The Aluminum Association use to publish a book on proper installation of aluminum conductors, basics were wire brush conductors, coat with no-ox and wire brush again, set in connector and torque connection to the recommenced value.
Of course in my house it is all copper.

[ April 09, 2005, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: brian john ]
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Every time that I have hooked up a heavy industrial machine with aluminum the aluminum wire was a 100% success story. The first time was a plastics machine with 60,000 watts of resistance heaters in it. It ran 24/7 except for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My wiring in aluminum ran cooler than than NEC said it should for the ambient temperature and the duty cycle. The duty cycle was 100% for half the heaters and about 95% for the other half during production. Because of rest and luch breaks there was enough cycling to loosen the connections. The copper wiring had amajor breakdown twice during the first 2 months of the machine's life.

I did this installation in October of 1987 right after the price of copper wire doubled. What I did was to clean all the wire strands with #220 silicon carbide paper and goop them up with Ilsco Deox(R). Ilsco Deox(R) had passed the 3 year salt spray test with copper wire on the starter motor on the car. 2 of those years involved commuting from Fairlawn, Ohio ( just west of Akron ) to John Carroll University (just east of Cleveland) On a full time academic schedule.I had read Dr. Jesse Aronstein's early work over at the library and had inherited a 1/2 inch stack of #220 silicon carbide paper from grandfather, so I decided that I could do this in aluminum.

There are some other issues such as overstripping the wire so as to have strand bending space and cutting off the sharp tips before cleaning the strands. For detailed directions go to http://home/earthlink.net/~mc5w/aluminum&copperwiringconnections.txt . Dr. Jesse Aronstein's website is www.inspect-ny.com . As a matter of scientific control he also tested copper to copper wiring connections.

If the aluminum wire is Stabiloy(R), anything that is wrong with it other than undersizing can be fixed with silicon carbide paper, elbow grease, and electrical grease. If it is the soft crap the Reynolds made, you need to replace it. However, Dr. Aronstein has shown that a wire brush is 100% INEFFECTIVE at removing aluminum oxide. You have to use silicon carbide abrasive paper and my own work has shown that garnet paper is alos effective if you use more elbow grease.

[ April 12, 2005, 02:23 AM: Message edited by: mc5w ]
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Be careful how much elbow grease you apply, that would be akin to nicking the wire by decreasing the circular mil area. The new electrical grade aluminum doesn't require inhibiting compound but the old stuff requires the compound with wire brushing. After all that, use a torque wrench or torque screwdriver. The correct type of termination and terminal is essential. :D
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Charlie,

Why doesn't the new grade require anti-oxidant compound? Just curious.

Thanks,
Mark
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

UL doesn't require it and most of the cable manufacturers don't either. It is electrical grade and, apparently, that grade of aluminum doesn't oxidize. You still have to use the proper terminals and torque values.

For what it is worth, we use almost exclusively aluminum conductors and we require our people to use inhibiting compound. We also purchase all of our compression connections preloaded with inhibiting compound. :D
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

I would not skip the antioxidant. I known that Alcan requires it when terminating their aluminum wire or any kind of warranty is void.

All grades of aluminum significantly oxidize without antioxidant unless you are using tin plated aluminum.

There is also a reason why there are 2 antioxidant compounds that are formulated ONLY for use on copper wire and copper alloy conduit threads.
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

I forgot to add that I am repairing some 2.5 year old outdoor compact fluorescent fixtures. I have to replace all of the lampholders because the manufacturer never used silcon carbide paper, elbos grease, and electrical grease where the wires went into the lampholders. This is on a main drag in Cleveland where the sulfuric acid from catalytic converters caused the copper to oxidize rather rapidly.

Usually, when solid copper wire oxidizes and the load is light you do not notice anything until enough copper oxide builds up to stop 120 volts.
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Originally posted by mc5w:
I would not skip the antioxidant. I known that Alcan requires it when terminating their aluminum wire or any kind of warranty is void.
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Show some proof please?
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

I use anti oxide on all connections weather required or not .Also found it works great on my boat batteries (salt water) never had a failure after i started using it ;)
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Originally posted by mc5w:
I have to replace all of the lampholders because the manufacturer never used silcon carbide paper, elbos grease, and electrical grease where the wires went into the lampholders.
Click to expand...
Does someone here have stock in the silicon carbide paper manufacturer? Seems to come up and awful lot. :eek:
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

Dr Jesse Aronstein, who is foremost authority on aluminum and copper wire termination and splice failures, did extensive testing for the Consumer Product Safety Commission on different methods of makeing connections. These tests were more extensive and demanding than the perfunctory test that UL runs on Scotchloks(R) and wirenuts(R).

This is what he found:

1. A lot of the problems that afflict aluminum wiring also afflict copper wiring. My experience with repairing copper wiring is that copper oxide is just as big an enemy as aluminum oxide. Some other problems are cheap steel binding screws - you can only expect so much performance out of a 69 cent outlet.

2. A wire brush is 100% INEFFECTIVE ar removing aluminum oxide.

3. The best agent for removing aluminum oxide from building wire is #220 or #240 silicon carbide abrasive paper. This is essentially a modern version of the Old Signal Corps method which was that you had to clean all the wire strand with sandpaper or diagonal cutters. During World War 2 you had to have ALL the wire strands conducting because there was not enough copper to go around.

Go over to http://www.inspect-ny.com to read and download Dr. Aronstein's work and opinions.

The other thing, is your customer better off with a 400 amp electrical service that has 1/2 of the copper wire strands conducting or a 200 amp servie that has 100% of the wire strands conducting?
 
Re: Use of anti- oxident on aluminum wire

iwire,

Go over to Alcan's website and look up their tests that show that when terminated correctly Stabiloy(R) is just as good as copper except that Stabiloy(R) needs to be of larger cross section.
 
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