My last apartment had pretty bad wiring, but nothing like this; although probably just as dangerous.
It was in a 25 storey high rise built in... wait for it... wait for it... the early 1970s. (I'll get back to this...but you guys already see where this is going I bet).
When I first looked at the suite they had a couple of plates off for painting. I glanced at them and noticed something I'd never seen in person before... aluminum wire. One of the visible boxes had two old GE rocker style switches and the connections looked good. This must've been original, so I figured it was okay. Another open box had a reasonably new CO/ALR switch in it and the connections also looked okay. The suite was a good size and price and what I had seen of the wire looked like it was in good shape.
So I signed the lease...
After taking posession of the place I went to work examining the rest of the system. I got out a flashlight and started popping off the plates and looking around at the connections.
I started with the devices that seemed the newest/most recently replaced. Except for ONE, none of them were CO/ALR!. Out of all of the replaced devices, they all had some problems:
1) One outlet in the bedroom had the worst connections I'd ever seen. It appears that whoever replaced it stripped off new wire and inserted it STRAIGHT into the screw terminals and tightened without any wrapping. Oddly enough, no signs of scorching or overheating. Even in the time I lived there, it never heated up and I used to check it a lot. The TV/Stereo/etc was downstream of this connection.
2) One recept. was replaced by someone who must've heard of "pigtailing." Except they did it all wrong. First off, they pigtailed the ground in a CONDUIT system. Why not just take off the aluminum ground jumped to the box and replace it all together? Next, they must've used whatever wire they had around because each neutral was pigtailed to red wires. The hots were pigtailed together to a single black pigtail. I don't understand the inconsistency with the pigtailing. Anyways, both of those neutral pigtails you could literally see (with a flashlight) how the white wires slowly gradiated to a dark black as they approached the wire nuts--ordinary yellow marrettes.
3) Another receptical was on a multiwire branch circuit and whoever replaced it did not pigtail the neutrals (maybe this was a blessing??). I can only assume that as the connection to this non co/alr device starts to take its toll on those connections that the neutral connection may suffer and cause a voltage imbalance on the rest of the circuit. I was sure to plug in only lamps downstream of that.
4) There were quite a few lampholders in the suite with fancy bulbs/coverings. I don't know of any rated for aluminum wire, so they were either directly attached or pigtailed. Either way I bet they weren't too safe. I wasn't dumb enough to try to examine them in any way. I didn't want to disturb this mess.
5) No electrical disconnect means within the suite. I beleive (but never determined for sure) that the disconnect was in a locked closet in the hallway. They told us if we tripped a breaker after 8 pm that they couldn't do anything about it until the next day.
The original switches were GE rocker style, which I've seen in a lot of homes here built in the 60s. They have brass screws terminals and no properties that I feel would be suited to aluminum wire. They were, however, clearly the original devices, and showed not a single sign of failure/overheating.
The original recepticals were extremely interesting. They were old Smith & Stone "CU-AL" rated devices. And odd they were because they had no conncetion method except back stab. Yet they displayed "CU-AL" loud and proud on the mounting strap (now I understand "CU-AL" devices are the OLD style, but I never expected to see back stabbing anywhere near aluminum!). None of them (including the original refrigerator receptical) showed any signs of overheating. Except a few of the recepticals showed significant conductor sticking out from the back. I am not sure if they were wired that way or if it is the typical case of the wires actually creeping out of the backstab holes over the years. One of them was showing at least 3/4 inch of conductor so I wonder what was left inside!
I sent both the leasing office and their head office a list of these problems and asked them to have a qualified electrician do the repairs. I never heard back. Figures.
Needless to say we moved out after the lease was up.
The company that built/owns this building owns other complexes with aluminum wire as well. Some friends of mine have lived in them and I noticed it. I wonder if they were so cheap that they spec'd aluminum wire to be installed in all of their properties while it was available. I know two out of.. maybe twelve isn't a great sample, but I have to wonder. I'd never even heard of AL in highrises until then.
We moved to another highrise down the street... it was built in the 60s... renovated completely in 1999. All copper wire; although there is a single run of BX in the suite (i literally mean BX... with the cloth wire and everything) to the bathroom light. They pulled new wire through the pipes to give the fridge and dishwasher separate circuits. You can tell because the newly pulled wire is, get this, No. 14 STRANDED thhn/thwn. (No. 14 is the general purpose wire size here... No. 12 is pretty rare even in new construction.). Needless to say, I feel a lot safer because you can tell the work was done by professionals and it looks clean and workman like.
I got all of this information with a flashlight and some removed plates.
[This message has been edited by jdadamo (edited 08-06-2005).]
