Are there special kits and procedures when the wires for a switch have broken too often at the tips? I fixe dtwo switched two years ago like that and although the need isn't urgent, I could seeit arising in a few months.
I've got aluminum wire in one house. Very few have broken but some have been squished by 40 years of pressure of the push in connections on the switches and receptacles that they no longer have enough pressure to maintain solid contact. I often pigtail a copper wire to them to avoid a repeat.
I am not exactly sure I understand your question, but if I understand correctly the wire broke off near the terminal screw at a switch.
If that is true, the weakness could be caused by someone using strippers incorrectly. If they used the wrong size hole in wire stripers this can cause a weakness.
Unless you use a connector or paste, specifically designed to connect copper to aluminum you have a fire risk. If copper is connected directly to aluminum there will be galvanic corrosion which can arc.
I would totally get rid of the aluminum wire even though it's obviously going to be a big job.
And if that's the problem, then you can just strip more of the insulation off the end. If the wire is too short to have enough to properly reach the switch, then add another
6" piece and use a wire nut to secure it to the existing wire.
Although pigtailing copper to aluminum without the proper connector or paste is not a good idea, it is far less dangerous than using aluminum wire in "backstab" receptacles. That practice has NEVER been approved, and is one of the worst things you can do with aluminum wiring, safety and reliability-wise.
There is only one "butt" connector approved for joining solid copper to solid aluminum wiring and it requires a special tool that can only be rented or leased from the manufacturer by operators trained and certified in it's use. Can't remember the name at the moment.
Ah-yes. It's Copalum
The"ideal" wire-nut designed for joining copper and aluminum is also falling out of favor as the failure rate of connections using the product is higher than anticipated - and higher than acceptable. The only good and simple way to use aluminum wiring is with devices specifically designed for use with aluminum wiring and designated as CO-ALR devices. Installed according to the included directions, particularly on second generation Al wire, they are as safe and reliable as using copper wire.
If you need to connect aluminum to copper the new Alumiconn connectors also work very well but they take up a lot of box space and are not cheap.
I have replaced all devices in my home with CO-ALR devices (about 5 or
6 times the price of standard "big box" copper only devices - and in the process found NO connections that showed ANY sign of overheating or poor connections (other than a few outlets that had obviously lost the tension in the place receptors, causing poor connection between plug and outlet - which is not wiring related)
My house was wired in 1974 with the "second generation" aluminum wire. (aa8800) by a master electrician I knew very well, without the help of an apprentice.. I bought the house when it was 8 years old and there have been no modifications/additions made since I bought it - and the basement was professionally wired with copper by the first owner.
I agree with you that what you say is what's always said and may well be true in the overall sense. However, I didn't know about it years ago when these squish terminals started causing these problems. The squish area would get loose enough that arcing would occur there and the receptacle would "Fry". So I fixed them as I mentioned. Some of those technically incorrect repairs are now 20 + years old, as old as the system was when the first squish problems popped up. Yet none of those repaired and pigtailed receptacles has ever had a recurrence of the problem, they have all been fine for their 20+ years. Also, I have occasionally had to pull these and replace them if, for example, the receptacle was painted over too many times, or the plastic cracked from a tenant twisting a plug, etc. On a couple of them I have looked to see if there is any evidence of galvanic corrosion where I've pigtailed copper to aluminum and there has not been any evidence of it. In the 40+ years I've owned the place the only problem that's ever come up from the aluminum wires is that they squish, both under the spring push in gizmos as well as under screws (I have to retighten all the fuse panel screws that hold the wires on to the neutral buss and the breakers about every 15 years. And for the places where the aluminum was twisted around a screw, if that gets redone more then once the brittleness of the AL often results in it breaking and I'll have to strip back the wire to get a fresh start... which is why I also went to pig tailing those so I wouldn't run out of wire.
I'm not disagreeing at all with what "good practice" would be, just saying that the corrosion issue and need for special connectors and anti-corrosion pastes, which I never used, has not shown up as a problem in these many many years. Perhaps it's due to AZ's very low humidity. Last time I worked on the wires to add some GFI's I was going to use the special connectors and paste but couldn't find any at the usual retail outlets so just did it the same as in the past.
If anyone is still reading and is "in the biz", have you ever worked with aluminum and actually seen problems from not using the special connectors and anti-corrosion paste?
It must have been "ok", that is, not prohibited by code, back in 1971 in AZ since they built many subdivisions by some of the largest homebuilders that way for about 5 years until the problems started showing up.
The new "back feed" devices are pretty good. They don't use a springtab - they use a screw but do not require bending the wire to fit around the screw, and the co-alr devices have a set pressure due to usre of a bellview type spring washer.
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