Jumper Cables A Jumble Of Compromises
I've had an unused 30 feet of 4 AWG DLO cable sitting around for a number of years. I have decided to make jumper cables. DLO cable is the thickest and toughest insulation of them all and the conducto...
Forum Discussion
K Charles wrote:
ADT7976 is 4 gauge 500 amp
Most "jumper cables" you find at Walmart and most other retailers are 6 ga or even 8 ga.
I HAVE burned up 6 ga jumpers on a cold winters day.
Even worse yet, most premade jumper cables now days are cheating, using Copper COATED ALUMINUM (CCA)wire, manufacturers SHOULD label it as CCA but often they do not mention that it is CCA. Manufacturers electrically (electroplate) a very thin layer of copper over top of the aluminum wire and you simply left with a much lower capacity Aluminum wire with a fancy copper coat. The copper coating is to little to make any resistance or capacity difference over plain aluminum, it is solely there to stop the aluminum from corroding into a worthless high resistance white powder.
That makes that 4 ga copper coated ALUMINUM wire more equivalent to 6 ga all copper wire as far as Ampacity goes.
Good example is this one..
HERE
The price for the above is $20 for 20 ft ga jumper cables (40 ft of wire when adding pos and negative).. Box and description does not mention CCA but it is in expensive compared to all Copper wire for 4ft in that ga.
One reviewer in the link above measured the resistance of the jumper in the above link..
This is what they found..
"I am pleased with the 20-foot 4 Gauge jumper cable set made in China by EPAUTO. The cable is copper coated aluminum, known as “CCA.” It took microscopic examination to see the aluminum core in the fine wires forming the cable. I measured the resistance using an Agilent 34401A 6.5 digit bench multimeter in 4-wire resistance mode to be about 0.4 ohm per 1000 feet which is appropriate for #4 copper coated aluminum. This is equivalent to #6 copper. I was hoping this cable was 100% copper, but it was not advertised as such. "
4 ga copper wire can run $2 per ft easily, 40ft would be $80 not including the 4 clamps..
Yeah, I am aware of the "skin effect", please do not go there for DC. Skin effect only comes into play with AC (Alternating Current) and at HIGH FREQUENCIES (think RADIO TRANSMITTER FREQUENCIES).
OP is simply USING something (the wire) he already has laying around instead of buying a new cheaply made and less superior jumper cable.
