Thread: Aluminum Wiring--Breaker Box Side

As an agent I've been using this site for over a year for information, but only registered recently. Now the system is complaining I haven't posted anything yet, so here's a post. Great source of information!

I have a listing built in the 70s with aluminum wiring (rather rare around here). The current owners had an electrician come in and pigtail copper at all the outlet/switch boxes (and yes I've read material here about that regarding the different types of connectors, that most seem to think it's better to replace all the wiring, etc.).

A recent purchaser walked for a number of reasons, but on thing their inspector called out that copper wire wasn't pigtailed in the breaker box. I've not heard that as being necessary if you're going this route for a fix. Is it? If so, does it depend at all on the breakers?

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Most of the breaker I am aware of are listed for use with copper or aluminum conductors. If rated for AL there is no reason to add a copper pigtail in the panel.

Thanks. That's sort of what I was thinking.

The outlets were (at some time) suitable for use with AL wire.
A problem Al has, is with bending it around the terminal in the outlet.
In an outlet with a copper pigtail the AL wire is bent around the terminal.
But the AL wire does not need to be bent around a terminal on a breaker, so a pigtail is not needed.