Identify wire

[JIMMIE]

My friend called me up to take a look at some wiring in his garage. He had an arc in an outlet box and wanted me to check it out. the circut had a 15 amp breaker, 4 15 amp outlets daisychained. Arc occured because the backstab connection came lose and shorted against the box. House was built in 1990. The thing that is a little strange to me is that the supposedly 14 guage wire is a little small for 14 guage and is brass colored. Ive never seen any like it. I took a look at a few more outets around his house and apparently this type of wire was used throughout his home. The one thing different I did notice in the rest of the house was that the screws were used instead of the backstab connections. Can you identify this type of wire and are there any known saftey issues with using it.

Jimmie

[RBM]

It might help to know what is written on the jacket of the cable. The copper itself isn't always the same color or hardness, but the gauge should be consistent

[clare]

Saw a whole basement wired with copperclad iron telephone wire (parallel conductor) back when I was househunting last - about 29 years ago. Called it to the attention of the broker.

Looked just like this Swedish stuff:

not find an american or canadian reference.

It was available in 1mm and 1.4mm (aprox 18 ga and 14 ga respectively)

[Colbyt]

Wire color can vary. Overheating caused by age, a loose connection and overheating can add to that.

For a home built and inspected in 1990 I would not be unduly concerned.

This is about the time that the MFG learned how to spin the wire down to the absolute 14G. It may appear smaller than what you are used to seeing since many of the older wires were slightly oversized.

As always, proceed with caution.

[JIMMIE]

Checked the wire size with a guage and compared it to new 14 guage wire used to replace the old section( garage is unfinished). The old wire was definitely smaller. The wasnt any legible writing on the wire but appeared to be standard Romex type cable. One thought I had was maybe it was a metric size. Dont really know if there is such a thing as metric cable but just a guess.

Jimmie

[The Daring Dufas]

That is almost identical to what is/was used in The United States by the phone companies. Copper clad steel wire pair in a black plastic jacket. A wedge type hanger is used to grip the cable jacket when a drop from the pole to a home is installed and the cable is self supporting. There is a newer drop cable with the same rectangular cross section that contains several twisted pairs for the newer telecom equipment but I don't think it is as strong as the old cable.

TDD

[jw]

Please upload a few inches of the wire so we can pass it around and all look at it. Thank You.

[jw]

Well, it's possible. The males in Europe all have metric testicles. :)

[Art Todesco]

Could it be European or Asian Romex? I was in Thailand a few years back and found Romex wiring used in the hotel where I was staying. First, I couldn't believe that a commercial building used Romex and second it looked like thermostat wire. I think it was something like 16 gauge IIRC. I think they use a 7 amp 240 volt circuit like we use 15 amp 120 volts in the US, for lighting circuits, etc.

But if it was 16 gauge, it would be wrong on a 15 amp circuit.

[trader4]

So, what gauge was it? You could also use a micrometer and then find a table online to figure out the exact size. Also, since the whole house is wired using it, isn't there a visible length somewhere with markings on the jacket?