Aluminum

zap · 03-12-2007, 04:30 PM

We recently "inhereted" some property which has mostly aluminum wiring.

The wiring was recently "upgraded" (Ideal Purple #65's at every connection) to fix issues with the Aluminum and I was just looking for some wise feedback to a few issues:

1) There is some debat over the reliability of the purple 65's on the Internet, and about 7 or 8 years ago the CPSC indicated these should not be considered a permanent fix but only a temporary solution. Any comments?

2) In the boxes I have looked at so far, where there is Al/Al connection it is simply twiested together and covered with electical tape. Is this acceptable?

3) None of the grounds are pigtailed, but I believe Al ground wire OK on plugs and switches, correct?

4) Not all of the switches are grounded (ground wire not connected to terminal on switch), and I have heard different opinions on this, should they be?

5) In the breaker box there is a neutral bus, but no ground bus, instead, all of the Al grounds are terminated into a single ground nut, and where copper has been added it is grounded in the neutral bus. I think there should be a ground bus, and I don't think we should ground anything in the neutral bus, am I just being too cautious?

Thanks for any insights.

jwhite · 03-12-2007, 05:49 PM

Quote:

We recently "inhereted" some property which has mostly aluminum wiring.

The wiring was recently "upgraded" (Ideal Purple #65's at every connection) to fix issues with the Aluminum and I was just looking for some wise feedback to a few issues:

Just lite the match and walk away. Quit wasting your time being too cheep to fix the house up right

Quote:

1) There is some debat over the reliability of the purple 65's on the Internet, and about 7 or 8 years ago the CPSC indicated these should not be considered a permanent fix but only a temporary solution. Any comments?

See commet number 1

Quote:

2) In the boxes I have looked at so far, where there is Al/Al connection it is simply twiested together and covered with electical tape. Is this acceptable?

Not at all. Even the chincy aluminum wire nuts are better than no wire nut at all.

Quote:

3) None of the grounds are pigtailed, but I believe Al ground wire OK on plugs and switches, correct?

I do not know of any mfg still making aluminum devices. If the devices are rated for CU/AL That rating applies to all the terminals on the device

Quote:

4) Not all of the switches are grounded (ground wire not connected to terminal on switch), and I have heard different opinions on this, should they be?

If the boxes are metal and grounded, then in some cases the box can carry the ground to the device via the device mounting screw. Best to just pig tail to all devices and be safe.

Quote:

5) In the breaker box there is a neutral bus, but no ground bus, instead, all of the Al grounds are terminated into a single ground nut, and where copper has been added it is grounded in the neutral bus. I think there should be a ground bus, and I don't think we should ground anything in the neutral bus, am I just being too cautious?

If this is the main panel for the house then the grounds and neutals should be on the same bar, or if on two bars, they should be bonded together effectively makeing them one bar.

BigJimmy · 03-12-2007, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zap

1) There is some debat over the reliability of the purple 65's on the Internet, and about 7 or 8 years ago the CPSC indicated these should not be considered a permanent fix but only a temporary solution. Any comments?

I read about this extensively some time ago when I was considering buying a house that I knew had some AL wiring. What you should really consider is having Copalum splices installed. They are expensive and require a special crimper to install but they are the accepted means of safely splicing aluminum and copper conductors together.