Quote:
Originally Posted by Black4Truck
What would you do if it was your house?? 
They don't make a wire nut that is UL approved for AL/AL splices 
My choices are either leave a 40 year old wire nut on the neutrals in a switch or use a Purple
I don't think that adding a copper element to an AL splice has any mystical powers to make it "approved"
I am also adding arc fault breakers to all circuits mandated in the NEC  |
Didn't mean to ambush you B4T, real bad day that day. My house? Pretty much a concensus of what every one else brought up.
1) Al/Cu rated devices
2) Clean up the makeup, get rid of excess connections and pigtails.
3) I use the alumiconns (tourqed) for al to cu connections.
4) For nuetrals and other al to al connections I use ordinary wire nuts, I dope them with deox because the threads are not alum (why risk corrosion). I replace the old ones, visually inspecting damn near every connection.
5) Don't expect to fly through a house, it's generally a pain in the ass with short cut conductors and undersized grounds wrapped around the cable clamp screw.
Aluminum is a good conductor but you have to get the connections right. In the last few years I've done 90 townhomes pigtail/AFI/service change. The HOA required the work to avoid an insurance rate hike. We lost money because one apprentice drove a ground rod through the laterals and another forgot to plug a freezer back in. About half the units had a 15 amp three wire home run we didn't bid for. No one ended up happy, we finished it because we'd bid it, our estimator ( who found the work) quit months into it. A couple HOs used other electricians, both failed inspection and lost money eventually asking us how to pass and how to make any money.
It came down to money really and the purples are expensive so why waste them? I see them misused all the time like on cu/cu connections in exterior fixtures. $5...10...15...20 LOL.
I have made money at this in the past, but now I hate it and avoid it, hopefully this helps others do better at it.
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