Aluminum wire question

Hi, Does all single strand aluminum wire only have thermoplastic insulation? Or is there older aluminum wiring with cloth insulation? Also, do you ever find just one wire in a panel that is aluminum, perhaps from an upgrade in the 70’s, or is it usually all or none?

Yes… Thermoplastic only. Cloth covered would be “Tinned Copper”.
One, or multiple, or all. Could be any of the above. In my area, I rarely find all, but it does happen. Usually just one or a few.

What JJ said…^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks for the info. Appreciated.

Good questions, great answers.

Very rarely have I encountered AL with cloth jacket insulator from residential home inspections and have photos, 2 or 3, on other HHD’s to support this. The conductors were not tinned copper.
I will try to post them when I have time.

I will be waiting patiently for those photos.

Don’t hold your breath!

Not Robert, but here goes anyway, most of the AL wiring I find has cloth sheathing, all has plastic insulation on the wires.
Yes I occasionally find one or two added AL wires in older houses, one way to tell is that all AL wire has a ground conductor, all the NM tinned copper I have seen had no ground conductor and rubber insulation over the wire, or it was knob and tube.
Once you have seen both tinned copper and AL you won’t mistake one for the other.
Almost all the homes with AL I find have had copper wiring added after, like basement development, kitchen upgrade, no one doing any wiring is going to use AL if they don’t have to.

Thanks Eric.

I have shown the images when mentoring.
I do not bother on NACHI MB any more. Why bother.

Good example, but that’s not cloth wiring. That’s a rayon jacket. We are looking for AL with cloth covering on the individual conductors, which I do not think exists.

Yup, but the same question gets asked again and again, not everyone gets that sheathing is not insulation. It is hard to tell what the poster is asking about did the poster see sheathing, or did the poster actually look at what the wires were insulated with. And Rayon is a textile, cloth is made from textile, if A = B and A = C, then B = C. I am also totally in awe of Brad’s ability to perform chemical analysis from a picture, your talents are under utitized here, you could be a one man analysis lab.

Are all of you Canadians like this?

I’d like to say yes, but probably not.

NEVER to be seen!

Then why did you post above that you would? Frkn liar! And you wonder why you get no respect here!

Sure looks like rubber conductor insulation (not Thermoplastic) to me… Must be a Canadian thing?

https://www.nachi.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=200749&d=1522079515

Nope, that wiring is in the US too. Thermoplastic insulation with rayon jacket. I don’t see it often. Most of it had a PVC jacket.

I wonder why ??? JJ has little self control

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