On Mon, 4 Nov 2013 15:50:52 -0500, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .

burning down a house. I lived in a house that had the aluminum wiring and
I
did tighten the wires at the fuse box several times. A house down the
street that was built at the same time (aound 1965) did burn down and the
cause was stated to be wiring in and around the fuse box.

Been in my 40 year old house 32 years now - all aluminum wiring - and
never a connection problem. Had a couple non-co/alr outlets overheat -
but not at the wiring connection. Just cheap-ass low-buck outlets that
got a lot of use.


YOu never know about the wiring problems. In the area I lived in there were
14 houses built arund the same time in 1965 and very similar to each other.
Two of them caught on fire. One several years before we moved in and one
about 10 years after we moved in.

1965 was the old hard fragile aluminum , and there were NO wiring
devices available specifically for aluminum in 1965 - not to mention
most electricians had never worked with the stuff and didn't have a
clue about the possible problems. By the late '60s and early
seventies, the better wire came on stream, and in the mid seventies
CO-ALR devices were developed and listed for use with both copper and
aluminum wiring. The cu-al devices were a stopgap measure that were
never actually tested and listed for Aluminum wiring, and in many
cases were IDENTICAL to the cu-only devices except for the marking.
CO-ALR became REQUIRED by the end of the seventies, and when properly
installed on the second generation wire are perfectly safe. A lot
safer than pigtailing with Ideal Purple twist connectors - and about
the same price but less labour than pigtailing with AlumiConn
connectors. Both are much less expensive than the AMP connectors,
which are virtually impossible to get installed in most of Canada and
the USA today. Special tool, leased from AMP for very high price to
electricians who spent lots of money to be trained and certified in
their application, and generally wanted to cover the training costs on
every job. - didn't go very far....