3 ms·

phew, at that age I'd really be worried about the seals for the gas oven and about the insulation of the wiring for the electric one.

bell-cot 2y ago
[Took a look at my stove] Nope, all the easily-accessed wiring (under the stove top - which lifts like a car hood, for quick clean-up after a pot boils over) is in excellent shape. Insulation colors look a bit faded, but that's it. (Yes, all those wires bend a bit when you either remove a burner, or lift the top. But the design is such that the radius of those bends is extremely large, compared to the diameter of the probably-solid-copper wire.) Guess: "Gas Seals" was a checklist item for that last service man at church. I think we have our gas stove, water heater, and furnace looked at every 7-ish years by someone from the local gas company.
- IX-103 2y ago
  Sounds like they really don't make them like they used to. Most things have moved to stranded wires due to their lower resistance per weight properties, despite their higher likelihood of breaking during bends.
  - mrWiz 2y ago
    Lower resistance per weight doesn't seem right to me. Spot checking a few values on a chart provided by a wire manufacturer[0] shows that stranded wire has greater resistance per weight. Stranded wire is much more flexible, easier to work with, and handles rebending much better than solid wire and I assume this is why it's more commonly used. [0] https://www.calmont.com/wp-content/uploads/calmont-eng-wire-gauge.pdf https://www.calmont.com/wp-content/uploads/calmont-eng-wire-...
  - newaccount74 2y ago
    I'm not an electrical engineer, but I am pretty sure that every cable that moves should be made from stranded wires. Stranded wires last longer when bent repeatedly. Solid wires are used for fixed installation (eg. inside walls). Any cable with solid conductors must be mounted in such a way that it does not move or bend during use. Electrical resistance is very similar for solid vs stranded conductors.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- mschuster91 2y ago
  Faded colors in something that's usually covered point towards a serious degradation of the insulation. I'd recommend you get an isolation tester device and an instruction on how to use it by a local electrician. That way you can (relatively) easily check your house installation - not just devices but also the home's wiring itself - against danger due to insulations going bad, before someone gets hurt or devices start tripping the GFCI. Speaking of GFCI, I seriously hope you and everyone else reading this thread has all their wiring protected by one. If not, please please please get it retrofitted ASAP, and if you can afford it, retrofit a combination of thermal fuse, GFCI and arc fire detector. Electrical issues are a leading cause for domestic fires. > Guess: "Gas Seals" was a checklist item for that last service man at church. I think we have our gas stove, water heater, and furnace looked at every 7-ish years by someone from the local gas company. Good, then you should be good to go (and it's crazy that the pipes, fittings and interior seals are still intact at that age and not dried out!), although 7 years is quite the stretch. Here in Germany, the norm is once a year for furnaces/water heaters - personally I had an emergency repair to be done as in well below a year the water heater went from "perfect emissions" to "dangerous CO levels". The cause turned out to be cat fur being sucked in and burning up, depositing soot on the burners.
- sokoloff 2y ago
  Wires subjected to repeated flexure in normal use are very likely to be stranded copper rather than solid copper.

bell-cot 2y ago

[Took a look at my stove] Nope, all the easily-accessed wiring (under the stove top - which lifts like a car hood, for quick clean-up after a pot boils over) is in excellent shape. Insulation colors look a bit faded, but that's it. (Yes, all those wires bend a bit when you either remove a burner, or lift the top. But the design is such that the radius of those bends is extremely large, compared to the diameter of the probably-solid-copper wire.) Guess: "Gas Seals" was a checklist item for that last service man at church. I think we have our gas stove, water heater, and furnace looked at every 7-ish years by someone from the local gas company.

IX-103 2y ago
Sounds like they really don't make them like they used to. Most things have moved to stranded wires due to their lower resistance per weight properties, despite their higher likelihood of breaking during bends.
- mrWiz 2y ago
  Lower resistance per weight doesn't seem right to me. Spot checking a few values on a chart provided by a wire manufacturer[0] shows that stranded wire has greater resistance per weight. Stranded wire is much more flexible, easier to work with, and handles rebending much better than solid wire and I assume this is why it's more commonly used. [0] https://www.calmont.com/wp-content/uploads/calmont-eng-wire-gauge.pdf https://www.calmont.com/wp-content/uploads/calmont-eng-wire-...
- newaccount74 2y ago
  I'm not an electrical engineer, but I am pretty sure that every cable that moves should be made from stranded wires. Stranded wires last longer when bent repeatedly. Solid wires are used for fixed installation (eg. inside walls). Any cable with solid conductors must be mounted in such a way that it does not move or bend during use. Electrical resistance is very similar for solid vs stranded conductors.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
mschuster91 2y ago
Faded colors in something that's usually covered point towards a serious degradation of the insulation. I'd recommend you get an isolation tester device and an instruction on how to use it by a local electrician. That way you can (relatively) easily check your house installation - not just devices but also the home's wiring itself - against danger due to insulations going bad, before someone gets hurt or devices start tripping the GFCI. Speaking of GFCI, I seriously hope you and everyone else reading this thread has all their wiring protected by one. If not, please please please get it retrofitted ASAP, and if you can afford it, retrofit a combination of thermal fuse, GFCI and arc fire detector. Electrical issues are a leading cause for domestic fires. > Guess: "Gas Seals" was a checklist item for that last service man at church. I think we have our gas stove, water heater, and furnace looked at every 7-ish years by someone from the local gas company. Good, then you should be good to go (and it's crazy that the pipes, fittings and interior seals are still intact at that age and not dried out!), although 7 years is quite the stretch. Here in Germany, the norm is once a year for furnaces/water heaters - personally I had an emergency repair to be done as in well below a year the water heater went from "perfect emissions" to "dangerous CO levels". The cause turned out to be cat fur being sucked in and burning up, depositing soot on the burners.
sokoloff 2y ago
Wires subjected to repeated flexure in normal use are very likely to be stranded copper rather than solid copper.