Newell Gurus

Be cautious when ordering wire off eBay or amazon. Some of the stuff being sold is copper coated aluminum which is a disaster if it ever gets wet.

(12-04-2023, 06:52 AM)folivier Wrote: [ -> ]Be cautious when ordering wire off eBay or amazon. Some of the stuff being sold is copper coated aluminum which is a disaster if it ever gets wet.

I noticed this too, you have to make sure you are getting all copper wire. Check the fine print!

I was searching the other day and found this company, PTFE coated and made for high temp, oil resistant applications as well. Pricing seems fair to me. I have not ordered from them, so not sure. Seems promising to me though. If I need wire I am going to order some from them and see how they do. 
https://powerwerx.com/ptfe-high-temperat...DgQAvD_BwE

I almost always look for high temp insulation and 100% copper. Many Amazon ads do not even state what kind of wire but yep, alot of it is copper clad.

A few years ago I bought what I thought was a nice 4 conductor wire with heavy PVC insulation to run through the frame of my Tahoe for toad lights. A few months later the lights quit working so I cut out the heat shrink connector and stripped the wire back only to find the copper coated aluminum wire had turned to powder!

Another incident at our RV lot in Colorado was finding 1 leg of my 50 amp power had voltage but would drop when a load was applied. Found out the phone company had nicked one of the wires from the meter. Thankfully they left the hole open so the power company could fix it. [attachment=12897]

Another consideration is the insulation material. My Ford truck came from the factory with insulation that became brittle in cold temperatures. I was able to fix the driver door harness with silicone insulated wire.

"Silicone wire is a good choice for copper wire insulation because it is flexible and heat resistant. It can withstand temperatures from -90 to +300 °C. Silicone is also flame resistant, which is important for protecting circuit integrity in case of a fire."

[attachment=12898]

I buy Southwire and temco on Amazon. Real copper lots of variety and always 100% copper.

I do also buy Selterm lugs for big connectors, and for the smaller crimp connectors I never get those on Amazon as they are thin soft metal. Del City is old time good.

I also get ferrules from ferrules direct.

Glenn,

Thanks so much for the ferrules direct site. I am a HUGE fan of using ferrules for the power cord in the plug and the connections in the transfer switch. It makes getting that unruly 6 AWG wire into the clamps much easier.