It finally happened .... I came across some aluminum wire in a trailer. Now the fun begins.

For those who have not worked on trailers, they are typically glued together. As a result, opening the walls really isn't an option, and re-pulling the wires is problematic - unless you want to demolish the trailer, and start over!

So, I'm doing the next-best thing ... replacing what wire I can find, and using Co/Alr rated devices. Here's where the trouble begins ....

My local parts houses scratch their heads at the request for rated GFCI receptacles. Leviton assures me that there is no such thing - at least, in their inventory.

Does anyone have a source for Co/Alr rated GFCI's?

(FWIW, this trailer was made before GFCI's were required. While I have 'normal' device boxes, I really want to add GFCI's to the kitchen and bathroom).

Would it be possible to use a pigtail of copper (with approved splicing methods)?

How about the dead front (faceless) gfci devices mounted at the panel location for those circuits. Run copper from the Panel to gfci device and an approved method for pig tailing Al to Cu at the GFCI device near panel

Wow, that is a really good one. I can honestly say that I've never encountered this situation. I'm in agreement that finding CO/ALR rated GFI receptacles is likely impossible. I can only imagine an approved method of pigtail splicing and more than likely......an extension box.

In chat you said that the panel is Zinsco, is the panel going to be replaced? If so, how about a GFCI circuit breaker????

I guess it comes down to how many Alumiconns you can get in a box with a GFCI. I see a 1900 box and a ring in your future.

I was half kidding in that last post but if you gave them a quad with a GFCI and a CO/ALr receptacle you would only have one pair of splices. Splice L/N into the GFCI and use copper jumpers between the receptacles.

Alas, try as I might, I can find nothing wrong with the panel ... plus, with it installed indoors, recessed into the wall, AND it being a trailer (nearly impossible to patch) ... I'm not about to change it. Zinsco lives on ...

Today was productive, in that I now have a very good idea as to what is wrong with the trailer. This, my friends, is why you need to have a megger!

Anyway, I need only replace two sections of wire. Naturally, the least accessible one is guarded by a 35 pound black widow spider ... at least, that's how it looked while I was under the trailer. I just PRAY the brick I hit it with didn't just make it mad!

So, it looks like I'll be doing a fair amount of pigtailing. Apart from the GFCI's, I'll need to do this at the light fixtures.
The King "AlumiConn" connectors look to cost in the neighborhood of $3 each. That's ten bucks' of connectors in a box. I suspect I'll be 'daisy chaining' the $2.60 Cu/Alr devices, rather than my usual pigtail method.
T&B, who had assured me at "counter day" that I would have no trouble getting their rated "Marrette" connectors (about 40 cents each) is proving elusive, now that I actually want some.

Have you tried looking at the "Big Box" stores for the cu/al Marette's, if your wholesaler doesn't have them?

Where I am here in Canada they are on the shelves with the regular ones.

Thanks, MB .... but, alas, they seem to be a 'marketed in Canada only" product. I'm still looking.

Leviton, P&S, and Hubbell have all informed me that they have no GFCI's rated for aluminum wire.

If you are just going for a wirenut (Marrette) why not just use Ideal 65s

Greg, my objection to the Ideal 65's is that, according to the fine print in the instructions, they are not intended for permanent repairs. There is also the cost factor. The King connectors - which, btw, I ordered today - are smaller, and lacking in that capsule of goop.

For that matter, the T&B product .... which I just learned I CAN get .... are 'simple' wire nuts as well, no larger than an ordinary wire nut, and also lacking in the magic goop. It turns out that they are CSA approved, but not UL Listed. Good enough for me!

When I spoke to Leviton, they took great pains to point out that they did not have any GFCI's or AFCI's rated for use with aluminum wire. I found it interesting that they should bring up AFCI's.

IMO, jobs like this one simply scream for AFCI protection - and through the use of a device, not a breaker. It's getting harder each day to listen to the manufacturers' claims (regarding their concern for safety) and keep a straight face.
Simply put ... for all the concern over fires caused by arcing at the devices, they (both code panel and manufacturers) have managed to fail to address the biggest source of such problems: aluminum wire.
Folks, such wiring is simply not going to just disappear. That's reality. IMO, by now (30 years after the heyday of aluminum wire) EVERY device made ought to be able to accept aluminum wire. New technologies - AFCI, GFCI, surge suppression, whatever ... ought to also be able to accept aluminum wire. Double for hard-wired smoke alarms.

Sneer all you want .... but, if this slumlord is going to insist upon continuing to rent this rolling slum, then it is up to me to make damn sure that the poor unfortunates don't get cooked, smoked, or zapped.

I can't imagine why a clamp plate style termination wouldn't be OK for aluminum but I doubt any of the manufacturers want to go to the expense of getting them listed, just to open up the can of worms Ideal got into with the 65.

BTW until the AFCIs that can detect series arcs get into the field, they won't address the aluminum problem.

I promise not to re-open the whole AFCI soap opera

You may be correct ... At least here, with our minimal humidity, nearly every non-approved device I removed looks just fine. Nearly all are old enough to possible be original (70's) devices.

I sure am glad I have the aluminum rep at every IAEI meeting, to assure me that there's absolutely nothing wrong with aluminum wire.

Of greater concern is that many of the undersized ground wires (conductors are #12, grounds are smaller, maybe #16 aluminum) are broken at the crimp .... making it difficult for me to attach them to the receptacles. Yet ANOTHER reason to GFI the place.

We have run into this problem in several of our properties (1,000's of units). There is no GFCi for AL. We have gone the route of pigtailing with approved connectors. If they were closer to the panels, we could pull new wire, but most of the maintenance guys are not savvy on wire-pulling and such.

FWIW .... this job has progressed to the point where I can say, with certainty, what was wrong with the trailer.

I found seven basic errors ... three of them combining to create the shock hazard that got this place vacated.

What is germane to this thread is that NONE of the problems was directly caused by the aluminum wiring, the standard wire nuts used to join copper fixture pigtails to aluminum circuit conductors, the lack of noalox, or the use of ordinary wiring devices.

The two boxes that showed heat damage just may have been the result of a heavy appliance load (kitchen appliances), and not loose or corroded connections to the devices.