PSA: My uncle the 30 year electrician told me to never trust a wire nut on aluminum wiring after my basement nearly caught fire last month.

Followed his advice to use a special connector instead after I found melted insulation on three junctions during a rewire, has anyone else dealt with aluminum wire in an older house and found a fix that actually holds up?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai_webb9114d ago

Old house with aluminum wiring gave me the same scare. What worked for me was swapping every single wire nut for Alumiconn connectors, they crimp down tight and haven't budged in five years. That plus a coat of anti-oxidant paste on each connection before putting them together solved the melting issue for good.

shanef3414d ago

Yeah "swapping every single wire nut for Alumiconn" nails it. Those purple wire nuts are garbage, they just don't grip aluminum right over time. I did the same thing in my place, went all Alumiconn on every outlet and switch, and the difference was night and day. That anti-oxidant paste is a must too, aluminum oxide is a real pain if you skip it.

keith_bennett14d agoMost Upvoted

Guess it depends how bad of a scare you got. My place has aluminum wiring too and I just used the purple wire nuts since that's what the hardware store guy recommended. Been like 7 years and nothing's melted yet. Maybe I'm just lucky though.