Aluminum wire, bought in Tennessee
Aluminum is lighter than copper and has carried the larger feeders in American buildings for decades. We buy aluminum building wire in Tennessee, in the sizes and markings that let it be installed again.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Aluminum building wire carries a bad reputation from an earlier alloy and from terminations done badly. The alloy in use now is the AA-8000 series, and that is what you will find printed on the jacket of anything made in the last several decades. We buy that material in Tennessee, mostly in the larger sizes.
The practical case for aluminum is weight and cost at a given ampacity, which is why it sits in service feeders, subpanels and large branch circuits rather than in small device wiring. If the reel in your storehouse is aluminum and marked AA-8000, it has a use. If the marking is unclear, that is the first thing to settle.
Photograph the jacket legend, and the alloy question answers itself without a laboratory.
Lot basics
- Alloy
- AA-8000 series
- Forms
- SER, XHHW-2, THHN
- Sizes
- Usually 6 AWG and larger
- Weight
- Lighter than copper per length
AA-8000 series, and what the marking tells you
AA-8000 is a series designation rather than a single alloy, and the jacket of a listed building wire will name the family it belongs to. Conductors made to the older AA-1350 specification still exist in service and in old stock. The difference matters at terminations, because the newer alloys are formulated to hold under the torque and creep conditions that caused trouble before.
When we quote aluminum, we look for that marking before anything else. A reel labeled AA-8000 in a standard building wire construction is a known quantity. An unmarked coil of aluminum conductor is a question, and a question gets priced as one until the alloy can be established from a cut sheet or a legible print on the outer wrap.
Service feeders, subpanels, and large branch circuits
Aluminum in the larger sizes carries service entrance conductors, feeder runs to subpanels, and large branch circuits where the copper equivalent would be heavy and costly. Aluminum SER assemblies are common in residential and light commercial service work, and aluminum XHHW-2 turns up in commercial feeders and conduit runs where pulling weight and support spacing are both real constraints on the design.
It does not belong in small branch circuits, at terminations listed for copper only, or anywhere the torque and temperature requirements cannot be met. That is a code and listing question rather than a buying one, but it shapes what we can do with a lot, because material that is hard to install correctly is hard to move on to anyone.
Telling aluminum from copper and copper-clad
Aluminum is silver when cut, lighter in the hand than the size suggests, and non-magnetic. Copper-clad aluminum has a copper skin over an aluminum core and reads as copper at a glance on the outside of a stranded conductor, though the cut end shows the difference plainly. A magnet will not separate them, since neither metal is magnetic at all.
The reliable answer is the print on the jacket, followed by the cut sheet if the reel still has one. We photograph the legend on every aluminum lot we look at, because the alloy, the size and the temperature rating all appear there in a single string. Without it we are guessing at the one fact that sets the value.
Why termination details affect the quote
Terminations are where aluminum earns its reputation, and they are also where a lot's history shows. A reel of aluminum that was installed and later removed will have been cut at the ends, and the conductor under the jacket may carry the marks of a connector or a set screw. That does not disqualify it, but it tells us the cable has been in service.
New, banded aluminum from an over-ordered job is the simplest thing to quote. Removed aluminum needs its ends cut back before anyone can use it again, and that is a real cost with a real number. We will say which category a reel falls into before we discuss anything else, so the offer is understood in the context it was made.
- Alloy marking on the jacket
- New stock or removed from service
- Ends cut back or still sealed
- Reel sound enough to travel
Related pages
- XHHW wireAluminum and copper single conductor feeders
- SER and SEU cableService entrance assemblies with aluminum conductors
- THHN and THWN wireBranch circuit conductor in both metals
- Copper versus aluminumWhere each metal belongs in a building
- ACSR conductorAluminum stranded around a steel core
- Warehouse overstock wireUnopened reels left from over-ordered jobs
Questions sellers ask
Is all aluminum building wire AA-8000?
All of it made for building wire in recent decades should be, and the jacket will say so. Older stock may be AA-1350, which is a different alloy with different termination behavior. If the reel carries no alloy marking, treat it as unknown until a cut sheet or a manufacturer's print settles the question.
Do you buy aluminum SER with the bare neutral?
Yes. Aluminum SER and SEU assemblies are bought as complete assemblies, with the bare neutral and the ground counted in the construction. We check the outer jacket print for the size and the assembly type, and we look at whether the bundle has been opened or cut into shorter lengths and re-wrapped.
How is aluminum valued against copper?
On a different basis entirely. Copper is largely a metal value question, while aluminum building wire is judged on size, length, alloy and condition, because the buyer intends to install it. A short aluminum off-cut is worth very little; a full reel of marked AA-8000 SER is a different proposition.
Can aluminum wire that has been in service be reused?
Often yes, after the ends are cut back past any connector marks and the jacket is checked for abrasion. What we cannot do is sell on cable whose condition we have not seen. Removed aluminum is quoted from photographs of the ends and the jacket, and the cut-back shows up in the number.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Aluminum reels in the storehouse?
Send the jacket legend and the reel tag. We will confirm the alloy and quote the lot from there.
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