Aluminum Pig Tailing

While commonly seen in older residences, the presence of aluminum wiring in a home can be problematic. This type of wiring can easily overheat and cause a potential fire hazard, and for those homeowners seeking to pass inspection in order to sell their properties, addressing this potential issue is paramount.

The two options available for homeowners are either repairing or replacing their aluminum wiring with copper cable. The latter method is an expensive undertaking and can potentially cost as much as $500 or more per outlet, so more homeowners instead opt to repair their home wiring as it is far less costly. In one instance, Absolute Electric was tasked with repairing the aluminum wiring of a customer’s kitchen in order for that house to pass inspection before it could be sold. Luckily, because aluminum wiring is only known to overheat at electrical connections, such as outlets, fixtures, dimmers and switches, all that Absolute Electric needed to do was attach a short section of copper cable to the end of the aluminum wire at every connection point in the customer’s kitchen. This method is referred to as “pigtailing.”

Copper is far more durable and not prone to overheating when compared to aluminum, and since Absolute Electric was able to simply connect the short piece of copper cable to the connection points of their customer’s electrical devices, this process was far cheaper, faster and more practical than fully replacing the kitchen’s original aluminum wiring.