Aluminum Wiring Repair
Aluminum wiring was installed in many homes in the 1960's. Almost immediately problems started to appear, flickering lights, heat coming from electrical boxes and burning insulation on the wire. Throughout the years there have been many ways to deal with aluminum wiring, and most of them are no longer practiced. We now have a very safe and reliable way to repair your aluminum wiring, by transitioning it into copper at the connection points, which are the most dangerous points on aluminum wiring.
Is aluminum wiring dangerous?
Long story short. No your aluminum wiring is not exceptionally dangerous if the original installers did it correctly and it is not physically damaged, however every connection point IS dangerous with aluminum wiring.
What makes the connections dangerous?
-Aluminum loves to expand and contract as it heat up with normal use of your electrical circuit. This expansion/contraction actually causes the wiring to work its way loose from the connection point. Once a wire is loose and makes poor contact at the connection excessive heat begins along with arcing/sparking, which destroys the insulation as well as the wire itself. This includes all switch, outlet, lighting and panel connections throughout your home.
-Aluminum wiring is much more malleable than copper. Aluminum wiring is likely to break if handled and worked with too much. If your devices are loose or spongy, the motion caused by using the device transfers to the wires in the box, making them more likely to fail. If too much wire breaks off there is no fixing the wire, it needs to be rerun in new wiring which means larger repair costs.
-Older repair methods still had electricians twisting aluminum and copper wiring together. This is not a good solution as copper and aluminum expand and contract differently and will work the connection apart. Also the gel that was used in these wire nuts was actually flammable!
What makes new repairs safe?
Everett Electric uses the safest way available to repair your aluminum connections. We use AlumiConn type connectors. These connectors have an individual port for each wire, so we have no more concern about expansion and contraction working the wires loose, and the aluminum and copper leads are no longer in direct contact. The gel that is used in these connectors is flame retardant so no more risk of sparking. From the AlumiConn we install a new copper lead to land to your device and install a brand new device. Effectively you now have copper connections in your home which are much safer than aluminum. In the panel we cut back and clean up all the connections at the terminals and reinstall/retorque.
If you have aluminum wiring in your home and it has not yet been addressed give Everett Electric a call today (303) 395-0212 or Email Scheduling@everettelectricllc.com to schedule an estimate.