Wire brief · Conductor metal and grounding
Aluminum cable: building wire, XHHW-2 and SER
Aluminum building wire carries most of the heavy current in Ohio industry. The lots that get questioned are almost never about the metal; they are about alloy, oxide and what was done at the terminations.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Aluminium cable
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Lot details
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.
What aluminum building wire is now
Modern aluminum building wire is an AA-8000 series alloy, not the utility-grade metal of the mid-century branch circuits that gave aluminum its reputation. The alloy is drawn and stranded, often compacted so the finished conductor measures smaller than the same circular-mil copper would, and it is insulated in XHHW-2 for wet and dry locations or assembled into SER and SEU for service entrances.
SER carries two insulated conductors plus a bare aluminum ground in a flattened assembly; SEU adds a concentric neutral for service drops. Both are ordered by the reel for a specific service change, which is why so much of it turns up as an unused part reel after a job is redesigned.
Terminations, oxide and the reputation
Aluminum oxidises the moment it meets air, and the film that forms is resistive. Every proper termination deals with that: wire brushed, coated with an antioxidant compound listed for the purpose, landed in a connector marked for aluminum or dual-rated for both metals, and torqued to the figure on the lug rather than to feel.
The failures that built the reputation came from small branch circuits terminated on devices never listed for aluminum, in the era before the alloy changed. Feeder and service work today is a different problem. What still matters is that aluminum creeps under a termination over thermal cycles, so lugs need re-torquing after the first heating season, and that aluminum must never be landed directly against copper without a listed transition.
What kills an aluminum lot
An exposed end that has sat in a damp yard shows white oxide powder between the strands, and that end has to be cut back before anyone can judge the rest. Water inside a SER assembly is worse, because the bare ground sits against the jackets and holds moisture along the whole length.
Undocumented alloy is the other problem. Cable with no print and no tag cannot be shown to be AA-8000, and an inspector who cannot see the marking will not accept it for a service. That does not make it scrap, but it does change who can use it.
- Jacket or insulation print showing the alloy series
- Ends capped, no white oxide powder between strands
- SER assembly flat, not crushed or spiralled
- No water staining along the bare ground conductor
Where aluminum lots come from in Ohio
Service upgrades produce the clearest lots: a plant replaces a 480 V service, the utility reworks the drop, and the leftover SER and XHHW-2 come back to the shop on the same reel they were delivered on. Panel changeouts in older multi-building plants produce shorter pieces, often with the insulation already stripped back at one end.
Contractors serving the rural and small-town load centers in the western and southeastern counties buy aluminum because the runs are long and the ampacity per dollar is better. Their leftovers are usually single reels of one size, which is the easiest kind of aluminum lot to identify and the hardest to value without measuring.
Related pages
Adjacent cities, wire families and regional briefs.
More in conductor metal and grounding
All wire typesQuestions sellers ask
Does old aluminum branch wire have any use at all?
Rarely as reusable cable. Small-gauge aluminum branch circuits from the 1960s and 1970s are a known hazard at the device terminations and no longer suit current work. Those lots are handled as metal unless they are clearly a later AA-8000 product with legible markings, and the markings are what decide it.
How is aluminum SER identified when the print has faded?
Look at the assembly rather than the print. SER is a flat bundle of two insulated conductors with a bare stranded ground, and the conductor metal is visible at any stripped end. Faded print still often leaves a shadow in the jacket. Without either, the lot is treated as unidentified aluminum rather than as a rated assembly.
Does aluminum need to be cleaned before it is looked at?
No cleaning, and no cutting back beyond what is already open. A buyer wants to see the cable as it sits, because the oxide and the moisture are part of the condition being assessed. Wire brushing an end to make it look better only hides what the next user needs to know.
Request a quote
Tell the desk what you have in Aluminium cable
Send the basics and a buyer reviews the lot, usually the same working day.
- Reviewed by a buyer, not a scale
- Reels, pallets, partials or a full truckload
- Anywhere in Ohio, one desk
- 01Send the wire type, quantity and pickup city.
- 02A buyer reviews the lot and replies with a basis.
- 03Freight and release are agreed, then the load is booked.
Second look at the lot
Everything helps, but the wire type, the quantity and the pickup city are enough to start.