1952 built home, upgraded panel 2011, question is was Alum wire ever covered with cloth sheathing? suspected wire is in the middle of the photo.
Thanks
Not that I can remember, and worked as an electrician for many years.
Having said there there is also tinned copper… which can fool some into thinking it is aluminum. I can tell pretty easily by looking at it, but have seen a lot of both. Look for small scratch marks with copper showing through… if you can see end of cut part look for copper center…
From image… I would suspect this is tinned copper.
That looks like tin coated copper wire . It’s treated like regular copper wire.
I agree tinned copper, definitely not aluminum from that insulation type.
Thank you Robin, Matthew, and Robert. Confirmed my thoughts
Yes, it’s not aluminum, but it is also “cloth covered wiring”. Just as bad…
???
No, solid strand AL was never covered with “cloth sheathing”. Solid strand AL conductors were only covered with a “plastic” insulation (not to be confused with rubberized insulation).
Note: this was/is not necessarily the case with multi-strand AL.