Aluminum Stove Wiring

[njhomeowner]

Hello,

I recentley replaced my stove and found that the existing wire was #4 aluminum 3 wire + 1 uninsulated ground. When changing the stove I had to also change the outlet from a 3 wire to 4 wire outlet, but found I did not have enough slack in the existing to make the new connections. As a result, I cut open the wall and put a splice box (exposed) and spliced in a pigtail of #8 copper. I made the splices using AL/CU split bolts and taped them up real good. Before sliding the stove back I ran everything on full for 10 minutes and checked all connections - they were all cool. I also verified ground and neutral were not open.

Given all the issues with aluminum wire I will be replacing this very soon, but would like some feedback on this temp installation. Is it safe for the short term? I DID NOT use antioxidant on the aluminum wire at the splices.

Thanks in advance.

[RBM]

Larger gauge, multi strand aluminum wire is not and has not been a problem. What you did is fine. The CU-AL split bolt has a separator that keeps the dissimilar metals apart and should be fine as a permanent fix

[RBM]

although you really should put antiox on the connection

[Meat Plow]

Your triplex coming from the pole pig is likely aluminum also. Not a worry in the world.

[Bud--]

The rather well known problems with aluminum wire are with 15 and 20A circuits.

Like RBM I always use antioxidant(but it is not required unless the split bolt manufacturer includes it in the instructions). Otherwise you made the same fix an electrician would.

-- bud--