Chris,

Thanks for the help. Now for 2 stupid questions:

1) Am I correct in assuming that 3 insulated conductors (black, black
& light gray) plus bare ground is a 4 wire cable?

2) The 2 black conductors are the hot leads and the light gray is the
neutral for the 240/120, right?

Thanks much.



(Chris Lewis) wrote in message ...
According to Mr. Bill :

I am remodeling my kitchen. I need to move the wiring for my range
and I found oday that the wiring is aluminum. Here are the details:

House built in California in 1992. All of the wiring except to the
range is copper.

Range wiring #6 aluminum, 3 conductors + gruond. All stranded. 2
conductors black, one gray, grounde bare, breakers 50amp.

House is 2-story with kitchen downstairs and range wiring between
truss web.

So, What's up with aluminum wiring in 1992?

It's still fairly common to use aluminum wiring on high amperage circuits.
Much more common with main and subpanel feeds, it's occasionally
seen on stoves or dryers too.

[Note, as far as I am aware, the Canadian CEC doesn't actually ban aluminum
even with 15A/20A circuits, but given the concerns about it, few people
will accept it, and some municipalities (ie: ours) add in code-overrides
telling you can't use aluminum without prior approval from an inspector.
This may apply to the US NEC also.]

It's safe enough because the connections at larger sizes are more
forgiving, and since there's so few of them, the installer is
more likely to spend the time to do it correctly.

Most problems with aluminum are on 15A/20A circuits (eg: general
outlet and lighting strings) especially when the installer uses
improper (often very cheap copper-only) outlets and/or push-in
terminals. Both of which have always been against code for aluminum.

More important, I need to attach about 20' of wire to get to the
rannge location. What sort of connector is approved for this?

I would like to use a new copper cable, but I want to know what type
of connector to use. I know about the connection being in a box and
accessible, etc. I just want to make the coppper/aluminum connection
right.

The most common way to do this is with split bolts (make sure they're
rated for copper-to-aluminum and the wire sizes in question), anti-oxidant
paste, and tape.

Probably best to obtain the materials from an electrical supplier
where you can ask questions on how to use them, but you should find
it relatively straightforward.

You may have difficulty shoving all this into the box tho. Good luck.

Consider yourself lucky that the existing cable is already 4-wire. The
1996 NEC amendments would probably require you to upgrade a 3-wire stove
connection to 4-wire if you're extending it.