Why don't they make 4 wire Romex

[dannydee]

Why don't they make 4 wire Romex (plus ground). There are many 2 or 3 way switch circuits that need 4 wires plus the ground. 3 wire is all they sell. I can think of other cases where I could use 4 wires too. For example, I had to run two common strands of romex to a double light switch that also feeds an outlet. Two switched wires, one hot, one neutral. That's 4 wires. So now I have an illegal white wire controlling a light from a switch. Why not 4 wire romex with black, red, blue, and white. (patriotic too).

[Abe]

Go to a real electrical supply house. They'll have it or can get it.

[LouB]

I googled "4 wire" romex and got: Results 1 - 10 of about 4,670 English pages for "4 wire" romex

This was from the third hit (part way down the page)

We have what I call 12/4 Romex. Red, Black, and 2 White in romex. We use 3 or 4 wire home runs whenever we can.

415-239-5393 John A. Peters, Electrician SF [e-mail]

Lou

[John Grabowski]

There are two types available. 14/4 and 12/4 have the black, red, blue, white, and bare ground. 14-2-2 and 12-2-2 have a black, white, red, white with red stripe, and ground. You need to go to an electrical supply company to buy this stuff.

You can also get 4 wire armored cable.

[hallerb]

now I have

homr depot sells it localy

[S. Barker]

Home depot and Lowes both have 12/2/2, but you certainly don't need it for 3 way switches.

BTW, your white wire controlling a light is not illegal. It may be against code however if you don't remark it with tape.

s

[John Gilmer]

As someone else pointed out, for a "switch loop" you can make a white wire hot. And, of course, you CAN get the 4 wire romex (in TWO types of marking) that you want.

You might consider just accomplishing what you want by separate the circuits and using, for example, the 2 wire romex for the outlet. Even if the 2 wire romex runs between the same two boxes as the 3 wire romex, you should only connect the two neutrals at the source end. The general idea is that the sum of all the currents in one romex should be zero.

** Posted from **

[gfretwell]

Home depot sells 12-2-2, I had my hand on a box today. $72 for 250' It is red, black, white, white with a tracer. You can reidentify one of the whites to any other "phase" color.

[Doug Miller]

They do.

What's "illegal" about that?

Because you're not shopping at the places that sell it. Try an electrical supply house, instead of Home Cheapo.