Splicing #12 aluminum mobile home wire

At the receptacles, etc. in my mobile home the aluminum wires are spliced by evidently stripping the ends of both and sliding them into a red plastic sleeve and crimping the connection. There probably is a metal tube inside the sleeve. Where do you find these sleeves - Home Depot? Lowes? Didn't see them at Walmart. Haven't found them on line. What turns up are underground splicing connectors which are different. Do these use a regular wire crimping tool like the one used for crimp-on spade connectors or are the indents too small and a special crimpper required?

TIA

Reply to
KenK
Loading thread data ...

You could use this connector, which is approved by the CPSC for AL wire.

formatting link

In most areas, crimping of AL requires a licensed, trained electrician with a special crimper tool and connectors.

Read here for more details on what NOT to do.

formatting link

Reply to
Retired

Why do you need a special connector-- won't regular wire nuts work?

Reply to
Wade Garrett

AL wire expands and contracts with current more than copper. This cause connections of any type to loosen over time. Also AL oxidizes easier, and causes high resistance, causing heat.

For awhile there was a special "Purple" wire nut that contained a sealer, but it too failed over time (or improper installation).

The CPSC webpage at

formatting link
explains all this.

Also you can't use ordinary switches and outlets. They must be rated for AL use.

I had a home with AL wire. Had 2 instances of failure. $2000 later, it is now remediated with a professional crimp & pigtail job.

Reply to
Retired

Thanks. With all those issues, why would anyone use aluminum wire? Sounds like you'd just be setting yourself up for a lot of avoidable problems down the road.

In our increasingly over-regulated society. one wonders how it's even legal ;-)

Reply to
Wade Garrett

Well, today you would not. Most issues are with homes built in the

1970's when there was a shortage of copper. Mine was built in 1971. The whole sub-division was aluminum.
Reply to
Retired

On Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:31:23 -0500, Wade Garrett wrote:

Aluminum wire got it start in small conductors (12 and 10ga replacing copper 14 and 12) back in the late 60s early 70s. Copper was becoming too expensive because of turmoil in south America and overseas. Aluminum had been used and still is being used in larger sizes with no problems but they tried using that same (1350) alloy as a drop in replacement for the small conductors. it was a disaster. The main problem surrounds the use of the steel screws in regular devices and the difference in expansion rates. There was also the problem that the existing screws did not have a big enough head to engage 10ga wire properly. Tack onto that a little sloppy workmanship because if the complacency you get using copper, a largely unregulated trade with a lot of unskilled workers and it is the recipe for disaster. We had fires. By the time they had identified and addressed these problems the market for aluminum in small conductors was gone forever. If you use the newer AA88 alloy wire and CO/AL-r devices (that use larger head, brass screws) your wiring would be fine and perfectly legal but that is not likely to happen. As "retired" says the best solution might be the Copalum pigtail option but it is not cheap because you need a guy specially certified for that system. The next best thing is the King Innovation Alumiconn device. The Ideal 65 "purple" wirenut is still U/L listed but they got hammered by one CPSC study. I will not opine about who is right but you can always get an argument going at an inspector meeting. It is about like the "classified" breaker fight ... but I digress. ;-)

If I had an aluminum house (and I did, my ex still does). I would go with replacing all of the devices with CO/AL-r, using the Aluminicons or the Ideal 65s (your choice) and just be vigilant. I do think if your house has not burned down yet, you have no signs of heating in the boxes and you don't screw with it you will be fine. You could test the receptacles with a hair dryer and an IR gun if you wanted to I suppose but I expect these things would have shown up in the nearly half century that this wire was there.

Once you get up into larger wire sizes where they use lugs and not binding screws, there is absolutely no problem with aluminum. Since most lugs are aluminum too, plenty of studies show that aluminum wire is even better that copper in them. BTW the "goo" is snake oil. I have never seen a requirement to use it in a U/L listing of a lug particularly an aluminum lug.

Let the flaming begin ;-)

Reply to
gfretwell

If you used CO/ALr devices and the AA88xx aluminum conductor it would be perfectly legal.

Reply to
gfretwell

If this terminates in a lug, and I am sure it does, there was never a problem with aluminum wire. The lug is probably aluminum anyway. An AL to AL connection has less of a problem than an AL to CU connection even if it is the wire that is copper. GA Tech did a study on this and surprised everyone with the results of their tests.

Reply to
gfretwell

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.