Water heater wire - conduit or romex?

[Jon Danniken]

I'm putting in a new cold water heater along with the wire to run it. I will be using 10 gauge solid with a ground wire, and stapling it to the joists in the crawl space under the house.

The old wires were single wires run through a flexible conduit. The big boxes I called said that romex 10/2 w/ground would be fine to run in the crawlspace, stapled to the joists.

One store recommended style UF, the other said just any old romex would do.

What say you: single conductors run inside a conduit, regular romex, or romex UF?

Jon

[mm]

Why can't you use the wires that were there before? That's what I did.

[Stormin Mormon]

As I understand it, UF if ultraviolet light resistant. Not an issue, in crawl space. Might also have separately shielded ground, also not a big issue. I'd reuse the existing wires, or run romex.

[John Grabowski]

10/2 RX should be fine indoors in a dry location. Code does not permit it to be stapled to the underside of floor joists. It must be run through bored holes in the joists. Running on the side of joists is okay, but in either case the wire must be at least an 1 1/4" from the edge. You can run conduit on the underside of joists.

Why not just pull new wires through the existing flexible conduit? BTW stranded wires are easier to pull.

[Doug Miller]

Some is, some isn't. The "U" has nothing to do with "ultraviolet".

UF stands for "underground feeder".

[Doug Miller]

Why bother? What's wrong with using the existing wiring??

[Jon Danniken]

Ah, thanks John, sounds like the romex is out, and the conduit is in.

For the ground condcuctor, do I have to use 10 gauge, or could I use say a

14 gauge? And can I just use bare wire in the flexible metal conduit?

Aye, it seems that is all that is available around here in bulk, so stranded it is.

Jon

[Doug Miller]

John's advice is incorrect.

He's right that it's not permitted to staple romex to the underside of joists. But it's *not* true that "it must be run through bored holes in the joists." If you need to run romex across joists, it's perfectly acceptable to nail a board across the joists, and staple the romex to the board.

But what's wrong with re-using the existing wire?

Yes.

No.

Yes.

[hrhofmann]

What is a cold water heater? Most of us use hot water heaters to make hot wate, either gas or electric..

[mm]

You've been asked four times now by three people.

Are you just going to take and give nothing back?

[David Nebenzahl]

On 11/14/2009 7:46 PM hr(bob) [e-mail] spake thus:

No.

I give the OP 25 points for not using that god-damndest stupidest construct in the English language, "hot water heater".

A water heater doesn't heat hot water. A water heater HEATS COLD WATER.

[John Grabowski]

*Thanks Doug. I forgot about running boards. That is an approved method to run small cables on the underside of joists.

[George]

What he wrote only means one thing:

"I'm putting in a new cold water heater along with the wire to run it"

[mm]

joists.

That doesn't say WHY not the original wires, which is what people asked.

[clare]

joists.

Perhaps he is adding a water heater, or moving it, or even replacing a gas, propane, or oil fired heater???????

[Existential Angst]

Well, it's not totally silly. It could just be vernacular for "heater for producing hot water", as opposed to a hot-air heater. AND, strictly speaking, since hot water is perty arbitrary, a hot water heater indeed heats hot water, making it, well, hotter.

And then, there are hot water heaters and goddammed-hot hot water heaters.

Ackshooly, "water heater" would suffice, eh?

[Jon Danniken]

Here is the equivalent of a few thousand words as to why:

Jon

[Jon Danniken]

Thanks again John, and Doug. Can I just use some 1"x2" strips, or should I get something a little more sustantial?

Jon

[Jon Danniken]

I glad you appreciated that. :-)

Jon

[dpb]

Jon Danniken wrote: ...

...

Thicker than the cable and make a raceway in which the cable runs to protect from mechanical damage. One could misinterpret the above as meaning to staple to the surface of the furring strips.

At least in older Code, an uninhabited space would allow the cable to be surface-mounted as likelihood of mechanical damage is low since there's no normal access. Never hurts to be better than minimum and newer revisions may have tightened the requirements.

All in all, what I'd run would depend on the conditions in the crawlspace--do you have any vermin problems, is it dry/damp, etc., etc., ...

The surest would be pull some conduit w/ W-rated wire, going down from there to UF cable (only difference is mechanical) to dry location in conduit to Romex...

But to be perfectly clear on a previous point, the ground conductor must be sized same as the conductors. (There are exceptions but they don't apply to this).

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