1/0 Welding Wire Vs 1/0 Alumnium Wire

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

From the Performance Autosound Review of our KLMX 4 Gauge vs 1666 Strand Bare OFC cable

Cables were both 20' in legnth and the draw was 100A:

Cable / Voltage / DC Resistance

KLMX - 13.38V / 6.4mOhm

1666 OFC - 13.41V / 6.0mOhm

Fleks - 13.48V / 4.9mOhm

So between a 1666 Strand OFC 4 gauge cable vs our KLMX 4 gauge at 20' length and 100A draw, you have a difference of 0.03V! For $0.89 for the CCA KLMX cable vs the copper model that was nearly double in street price.......this is why we offer the CCA, when done right (or should I say like we do it) it can work and be a cost effective alternative to OFC.

 

[Farmacist 10+ year member]

Wow, that is very high! That equates to $16.20 per foot.

On second thought, you probably meant to say 200' of wire was $270.

' = foot

" = inch

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

that's what I meant, I hit the button too many times heh,

you cant beat that price though, and it's even better for me since I can local pickup also //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[sound_around]

airgas sells 25ft rolls of 1/0 copper welding wire for about $40

 

[elriley]

Not really true. It also has more resistance per foot. Circular mils are the same and unless we're talking REALLY high frequency stuff, the skin effect is negligible. I'm also a Journeyman Electrician who knows better. Welding cable is merely more flexible (necessarily so) and the amount of copper is the same. No difference. Don't take my word for it, look it up. If you're IBEW you should go back to school. If you're not, no wonder.

He actually is right in saying that more strands can handle more amps. Current travels on the outside of the wire not through it, so there's more surface area on wire with more strands therefore can carry more. You guys can fight about the rest of it I'm not getting into that.

 

[Sanchito 10+ year member]

He actually is right in saying that more strands can handle more amps. Current travels on the outside of the wire not through it, so there's more surface area on wire with more strands therefore can carry more. You guys can fight about the rest of it I'm not getting into that.

yeah, but hes just saying that the only reason anyone would need the welding wire advantage, is that its more flexible, it can handle the same amp flow that comparably diametrical wires can

 

[MakeshiftAudio 10+ year member]

I personally am planning on using service drop 4/0 4/0 2/0 Cu for the future setup. I am not a Journeyman or anything, but I do deal with high power electronics and have had experience in the area.

 

[t1990le 10+ year member]

Need To Know What Wire Would Be The Better Wire To Run From My Batterys In The Back To My Amps.
I THINK THE WELDING WIRE IS COOPER.

For the least resistance buy pure 0awg silver wire //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[DBBOOM 10+ year member]

For the least resistance buy pure 0awg silver wire //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Quit being cheap...............................................................go ahead and run GOLD wire.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

 

[knukonceptz 10+ year member]

Quit being cheap...............................................................go ahead and run GOLD wire.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

It would be more expensive, but also less conductive then the copper wire. Gold is closer to Aluminum then it is Copper in terms of resistance. Gold however does not react to oxygen and therefore makes for reliable connections that wont oxidize

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_conductivity

 

[DarkFire 10+ year member]

Just get some yttrium barium copper oxide wire and douse that shit in some liquid nitrogen. Kiss resistance goodbye.

 

[nchilds21 10+ year member]

So all in all

which is better welding wire or knu/kicker wire??

 

[TnT_Sounds 10+ year member]

I prefer my welding 3/0 and 4/0 any day over anything else

 

[McIntosh 10+ year member]

He actually is right in saying that more strands can handle more amps. Current travels on the outside of the wire not through it, so there's more surface area on wire with more strands therefore can carry more. You guys can fight about the rest of it I'm not getting into that.

A common misconception. You're presumably referring to the skin effect. This is of virtually no consequence at audio frequencies. Additionally the strands are all touching one another so they effectively become one conductor (with a lot of air gaps). Stranding is used for flexibility with a slight loss in conductivity as a trade off. Using 8AWG as an example: solid and stranded are both 16510 circular mils in area (the same amount of copper). Solid has a resistance of .764 ohms/1000' while stranded is .778 ohms/1000'. The stranded is physically larger than the solid because of the gaps between the strands but is more resistive and therefore will ultimately carry less current before failing due to I squared R heating. Now if you were trying to conduct microwave frequencies, a hollow conductor (pipe) would work much better.

 

[McIntosh 10+ year member]

So all in all
which is better welding wire or knu/kicker wire??

Welding cable is certainly more flexible. Its also slightly more resistive (more voltage drop) and also somewhat "delicate" (the fine strands can fall off quite easily if flexed near the termination points). The "whiskers" if shedded can cause a short as well. Regular wire is more stiff and unforgiving. The lesser of two evils I suppose. I use welding cable for welding and jumper cables. In both cases the ends need to be reterminated every so often due to many strands becoming broken. Your call, no simple answer.

 

[xtremebassjunky 10+ year member]

A common misconception. You're presumably referring to the skin effect. This is of virtually no consequence at audio frequencies. Additionally the strands are all touching one another so they effectively become one conductor (with a lot of air gaps). Stranding is used for flexibility with a slight loss in conductivity as a trade off. Using 8AWG as an example: solid and stranded are both 16510 circular mils in area (the same amount of copper). Solid has a resistance of .764 ohms/1000' while stranded is .778 ohms/1000'. The stranded is physically larger than the solid because of the gaps between the strands but is more resistive and therefore will ultimately carry less current before failing due to I squared R heating. Now if you were trying to conduct microwave frequencies, a hollow conductor (pipe) would work much better.

truth.

the only time you are going to notice a difference in performance between copper welding wire and copper knu wire is when you go way the hell past 20'. the usual rating is in fact 1000' McIntosh is correct.

people get hung up on this issue too much, the differences that someone should worry about between welding wire and car audio power wire is the coating on the outside (eg: neoprene welding wire) or the actual amount of copper in the wire (ie its actual rating)