THHN and THWN wire buyers in Tennessee
For plant engineers and storehouse supervisors holding reels of nylon-jacketed building wire, here is what decides the price of a THHN lot and what to send us.
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.
THHN and THWN are the 600 V building wires behind most plant circuits: branch runs, panel feeders, machine drops and the conduit between a starter and a motor. Almost every Tennessee storehouse holds some, usually as a mix of sealed reels, opened reels and loose coils left from work that finished a season or two ago.
We separate those lots before we put a number on them. A reel with a legible tag, a known manufacturer and documented footage is worth more than an identical-looking reel with no history behind it. The copper is rarely the question. The record around it usually is.
The reel tag and the footage decide the price; the wire almost never does.
Lot basics
- Voltage
- 600 V
- Sizes
- 14 AWG to 1,000 kcmil
- Construction
- PVC insulation, nylon jacket
- Typical lengths
- 500 ft and 1,000 ft reels
What THHN and THWN actually are
Both are thermoplastic building wire rated 600 V, made from 14 AWG up to 1,000 kcmil in copper and aluminum. THHN carries a polyvinyl chloride insulation under a thin nylon jacket, which gives it abrasion resistance while it is pulled through conduit. The nylon also lowers friction, so long pulls run easier. Conductors are solid through 10 AWG and stranded above that.
The letters describe where the wire may be used rather than what it is made of. THHN is rated for dry locations at 90 degrees C. THWN adds a wet-location rating at 75 degrees C, and THWN-2 carries both dry and wet at 90 degrees C. Most current stock is dual or triple marked on the jacket, so a single reel often satisfies all three. Read the print, not the writing on the reel.
- 600 V, 14 AWG through 1,000 kcmil
- PVC insulation under a nylon jacket
- Solid through 10 AWG, stranded above
- Sold on 500 ft and 1,000 ft reels
Reading the tag before anything else
A factory tag carries the gauge, insulation type, voltage, color, length and manufacturer, and usually a date and a listing mark. When that tag is intact and matches the jacket print, the reel needs little more than a look at the outer wraps. That is the difference between a reel we can price from a photograph and one that has to be measured.
Tags fade, tear and get moved between reels. Where the tag is gone we fall back on the jacket print, the conductor diameter, the strand count and the weight of the reel against a known empty drum. We will ask for a tape measure across the conductor and a scale ticket rather than guess at footage.
Tags fade, tear, and get moved between reels when a shelf is reorganized. Where the tag is gone we fall back on the jacket print, the conductor diameter, the strand count and the weight of the reel against a known empty drum. We will ask for a tape measure across the conductor and a scale ticket before we guess at footage.
Full reels, partial reels and cut lengths
Sealed 500 ft and 1,000 ft reels in a common size and color are the simplest material to buy, because the footage is not in doubt. Partial reels are the bulk of what we see. Their value turns on how much is left, whether the remaining wire is clean and whether the size and color still have a use in current work.
Sealed 500 ft and 1,000 ft reels in a common size and color are the simplest material to buy, because the footage is not in doubt and the jacket has never been flexed. Partial reels are the bulk of what we see. Their value turns on how much is left, whether the remaining wire is clean, and whether the size and color still have a use in current work.
Cut lengths under roughly 50 ft are a different commodity. They are worth taking when they are bundled by size and color and the ends are sealed, but they are handled as a group rather than as individual pieces, because no single length carries enough footage to matter. Loose lengths with no label tend to end up in the scrap pile.
Related pages
- XHHW wire600 V cross-linked polyethylene wire
- Tray cable600 V tray-rated multi-conductor cable
- Partial reelsOpened reels and remaining footage
- Medium voltage cable2 kV to 35 kV shielded power cable
- Reading a reel tagWhat the tag and jacket print tell you
- Aluminum wireAluminum building wire and feeder stock
Questions sellers ask
Do you buy THHN reels with no tag at all?
Yes, provided we can establish the size and the type another way. We read the jacket print, measure the conductor, count strands and weigh the reel. If the print is gone and the size is ambiguous, we treat the lot as mixed rather than guess. A photograph of the conductor end beside a tape measure answers most of it.
What counts as a full reel?
A factory reel is full when the seal is unbroken or the counter on the take-up line still matches the tag. Once a reel is opened we work from the remaining footage, estimated from the wrap count, the drum diameter and the weight. Anything within a few percent of the tagged length is treated as full for pricing.
Is THWN-2 worth more than plain THHN?
Slightly, in the sizes and colors that are still specified. Dual and triple rated wire covers more applications, so a buyer can use it where a wet-location rating is called for. Plain THHN in an unusual color is harder to move. The difference is smaller than the gap between a tagged reel and an untagged one.
Will you take mixed colors on one pallet?
Yes. We prefer them separated by size and color with a note on each group, but a mixed pallet is normal in a plant storehouse. Send one photograph of the pallet and one of each tag, and we will tell you whether the lot is worth breaking up before it is loaded.
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.
Reels of building wire to move?
Send the sizes, the colors, the footage on each tag and one photograph of the reels as they sit.
Tennessee only · statewide pickup planning