I installed some 4/0 AL SEU cable like that about seven years ago for a customer who wanted to supply her own materials. She got it from Home Depot. It had one black conductor and one red conductor. For residential single-phase, WHY?
After a few months in the sun, at the weather head, the black conductor looked fine but the red conductor had turned pink. About a year later, I saw it again and by then, it had turned a pale pinkish-white. I can just imagine what it looks like now.
I know the code says that SE cables don’t need to be rated UV resistant when exposed for connection at the service drop, but why even make crap like that?
I agree about the black/red question. In single phase, what difference does it make? If phasing really mattered, shouldn't it be a black and a red for one job, a red and a blue for another and a blue and a black for the third? It's just silly. Aside from troubleshooting purposes, I don't see the need to color the legs.
I'm sure that the red conductor you saw was just painted onto a black XHHW conductor. I remember it....It looked like someone was just standing there with a red paint brush as the black cable came out of the assembly line. Nowadays, it's just a red racing stripe at best. I am simply delighted with the new 6/3 Romex where all conductors are black with colored stripes. I know that the manufacturers are doing this to save money, but man those stripes are hard to see when terminating on a surface-mount range receptacle where you don't have a lot of slack.
Then on the other hand, while a certain manufacturer thinks that #6 Romex and above can use racing stripes on black, they are marketing colored 4/0+ in all colors? I must be missing something.
