AWG Not Right -- A Public Safety Warning

[45North]

The us has very powerful slander laws. Remember the voting machine company that won a $700m settlement against someone who made false claims against it?
So, the one thing the OP did right was not revealing the name of the company if there was the slightest chance he was mistaken.

Edit: He could have posed it as a question - when I measure this wire in this way, I get this result. What am I missing here? That way anyone (including the manufacturer of the wire) could have responded.
Either he has something or he's made an honest mistake. At this point we don't know which and he's disappeared!

Seems to me the forum has a responsibility not to carry unsubstantiated claims. The wire maker deserves the benefit of the doubt.

 

[OM617YOTA]

I hope you no longer consider them highly reputable.

It's very hard to shop for fine stranded DC wire imo. The only highly reputable brand I know of is Southwire Excelene but it seems they only sell it in very large spools, and I only find Nassau as a reputable reseller of smaller cuts, in Orange only. The rest of the market seems to plagued by generics and second tier brands that people only trust by personal experience.

Spartan Power on Amazon had very good welding cable at a reasonable price. Made in USA.

I went with 8awg welding cable for my solar cables as well, and attached my own 8awg rated connectors.

 

[740GLE]

The big annoyance with Home Depot locking up the wire is they have to walk the wire you buy up the the register.
Annoying if you have a lot on your shopping list,

Last time I picked up a 250’ spool of 14/2 for $75 at Lowes (my local ace still wanted $170 for the same thing, I feel bad for them), the rolling thumb lock on the cage only needed the last digit rolled from a 7 to an 8 to unlock or something like that. Was completely a guess on my part, but I figured I would do the same thing if I were them.

I did hit the “call for attendant” button twice with no response in 5 or so minutes before I tried the lock.

I grabbed my roll, locked up the cage and rolled the last digit back to what it was and was out of the store in 10-15 min as it should be. This was a Sunday morning around 8am so it was quiet in the store.

 

[johnnysolar]

The big annoyance with Home Depot locking up the wire is they have to walk the wire you buy up the the register.
Annoying if you have a lot on your shopping list,

Order online for pickup, they let you know when to come pickup. Sometimes there is a line at the pickup counter so don't go on Saturday and Sunday expecting fast service if you do the online thing. I don't suggest shipping from HD if you are in the MD area... They often use FedEx and stuff gets reported as delivered but then it's not delivered.

 

[JoeHam]

Ordering quality wire from Temco directly is actually cheaper then buying their wire on Amazon with free prime shipping.

I believe you need a $100 minimum order but that has never been a problem, unfortunately ?.

 

[Supervstech]

Last time I picked up a 250’ spool of 14/2 for $75 at Lowes (my local ace still wanted $170 for the same thing, I feel bad for them), the rolling thumb lock on the cage only needed the last digit rolled from a 7 to an 8 to unlock or something like that. Was completely a guess on my part, but I figured I would do the same thing if I were them.

I did hit the “call for attendant” button twice with no response in 5 or so minutes before I tried the lock.

I grabbed my roll, locked up the cage and rolled the last digit back to what it was and was out of the store in 10-15 min as it should be. This was a Sunday morning around 8am so it was quiet in the store.

Yeah, the cashiers get really confused when ya roll up with stuff...

 

[740GLE]

Yeah, the cashiers get really confused when ya roll up with stuff...

lol, what cashiers?

Self checkout, the “attendant” didn’t mention a thing that I wasnt escorted. Probably didn’t even notice what I was buying.

I mean it was $75 roll.

I can see if I was walking off with $300 250’ roll of 10/2

 

[Supervstech]

I am EXTREMELY reluctant to give out name of a specific company. All I can tell you is they are pretty big in solar. They have physical presence in mid-west, they have online, and they also sell on amazon. I specifically bought copper wire from them (not lesser price) from others thinking they could be trusted. So far, they keep making excuses. Mostly they are claiming this is not their wire. But I have receipts. I have the wire which is clearly marked 8AWG. It is the manufacture they claim they use. They also don't believe how I measured.

But not only is the problem the measurement is 2 - 3 AWGs off the resistance of the wire is also worst and consistent with what one would expect from 10/11AWG wire.

I said I could tolerate difference between 11AWG and 8AWG. But 8AWG to measured of 11AWG is not acceptable. And the proof is in the pudding as they say. There is a clear voltage drop (power drop) as the amps increase. This means the resistive load of the wire is worst than the rated 8AWG per foot. It does appear pure copper, however.

Did you ever show your method of checking the wire?
Pics of your procedure?

 

[jspann]

We need to be pragmatic about asserting a claim against a manufacturer.

Please provide evidence of this claim, proof of purchase if possible and obviously the name of the business.

Posts without evidence will be locked. They do not help anyone.

In this era of outsourced manufacturing mistakes can happen in translation when spooling up a new factory abroad. Awg is American wg. Rest of the world uses mm2 or Bwsg. Kcil is also called out in my table and guess what. 8 Kcil matches 11awg.
Provide the evidence of your problem to your vendor and help them make it right.
It would be useful if you at least posted pictures of the wire markings and with ruler.