Recently bought 100 feet of 14 gauge speaker wire.
It says on the role, not designed for in-wall installations .
Why not, it's only speaker current?
OTOH, it's 14 gauge. Could I use it for a lamp cord? The insulation is clear and a little stiffer, but it seems a lot like electrical wire. What reason is there that it can't be used for electric radios, lamps, etc?
It has to do with the fire rating of the insulation. In a wall, wire has to be "riser" rated. Will it burn your house down? No but the smoke will be worse if you have a fire and the wire will contribute to the spread of the fire. It may really just be lamp cord but if it is not marked "300v" it is not legal lamp cord. That is not unusual tho. Most offshore stuff that does not carry the U/L label will be that way.
Because it's cheap-assed speaker wire, not designed for or approved for power use.
You get more dangerous every day, Micky.
The damned stuff is a fire hazzard. Safe for audio use - but that's all.
Some of the speaker wire (maybe even low voltage wire for cars) seems to be comming in that is actually copper coated aluminum.
Or chinese mystery metal. The big joke is the "oxygen free" speeker wire that Yuppies pay 5 or more times as much for as you pay for lamp cord.
I said aluminum, but it could be any kind of aluminum looking mystery metal.
The one I really like it the 120 volt cord that goes from the equipment to the wall socket. That is a 6 foot long cord for atleast $ 100 of some of that 'oxygen free slipery teflon wire'. Do they not know there could be 20 to 100 feet of cheap copper # 12 or # 14 wired going to the breaker box and hard telling what to the main transformer.
All flexible copper is low oxygen.
Greg
I think it's mostly about it looks and possibly insulation type.
Greg
Clare Snyder posted for all of us...
I thought he asked this several weeks ago...
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