250' or 1000' or something else

[paullmullen]

When you buy wire for inside branch circuits {NM 14-2, 12-2, or THHN for instance), do you buy 250' rolls or 1000' rolls? And why?

Here are my pros and cons:

Easy to move around	Shorter Rolls
Less not-quite-long-enough scrap at the end of a roll (Cost)	Longer Rolls ??
Less expensive	Long and short seem to be the same per food

 

[infinity]

For a normal job with cables I always liked the 1000' reels. For wire like #12 or #10 THHN 2500' reels.

 

[paullmullen]

For a normal job with cables I always liked the 1000' reels. For wire like #12 or #10 THHN 2500' reels.

Cool. Why do you prefer it that way?

 

[infinity]

Cool. Why do you prefer it that way?

For MC cable I like setting up the 1000' reels and easily pulling the cable off especially for long homeruns. With 250' rolls you might end up with lots of short pieces and lots of twists in the cable. If you pull the 250' coils off the outside (wrong direction) it's murder going through the studs. For 1000' reels we order them reverse wound so they go through the studs in the "correct" direction.

Same for rolls of THHN, 500' just doesn't go very far so unless it's lots of short pulls 2500' reels are preferable.

 

[letgomywago]

Doing a subdivision do the reels of romex but running around with 5 different sizes in the van you do coils by necessity

 

[Hv&Lv]

For 1000' reels we order them reverse wound so they go through the studs in the "correct" direction.

As hard as that crap is to pull in my question is why isn’t “reverse wound” an industry standard by now?
It has to be something to do with the way the MC is made and coming off the production machine.

 

[texie]

There is no one size fits all for question like this. It all depends on the type of work you do. If you wire single family production homes doing multiple houses door to door then I've known contractors that have trucks with masive reels of NM that just pull up and the rope crews are in and out very quick. I have even known some that bought in such quantity that they used custom colors or had their company branding on the jacket.
If you are a semi-custom or full custom EC most use 1K reels. On the other hand, if you do additions/remodeling some times 250' coils are appropriate.

 

[electrofelon]

As hard as that crap is to pull in my question is why isn’t “reverse wound” an industry standard by now?
It has to be something to do with the way the MC is made and coming off the production machine.

Every thousand foot spool of MC I have seen is reverse wound, I figured it was always that way? Is it not? Maybe I've just been lucky....

 

[kwired]

For individual conductors particularly for 14, 12 and maybe even 10 AWG if you pulled off a length of conductor from a 500 foot reel and let it lay on the ground it has a tendency to want to coil up. And is worse the closer you are to the center of the reel.

Take same size conductor but pull same length off a 2500 reel and it will lay rather flat on the ground. Closer you are to center of the reel it may want to coil back up a little but is now where near as bad as off a 500 foot reel.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

We mostly used boxes but there was a time when we were doing many new homes so we switched to reels. To be honest, the reels were a nuisance for me-- heavy and hard to unreel. We went back to 250' boxes.

 

[infinity]

Anyone remember when 500' of wire like #12 and #10 came in a box? When I first started in the business we had THW wire that came in flat, square cardboard boxes. Yes it was as horrible as it sounds. Even if you pulled it out of the box the "right" way it still had circular memory in it. We would stretch out 75' or so and with one guy on each end slam it on the floor multiple times to straighten it.

 

[nizak]

1K ft reels for new construction or large remodels.

Just all around easier to pull off a reel and keep the cable flat without kinking and knotting up.

Made a hand cart that holds (3) spools. Can wheel it around the site.

I usually measure and have cut anything larger than #10 NM.

Found that I end up with less scrap when cut to length.

 

[James L]

I've wired new homes as small as 800 square feet and as large as 15,000 square feet. And I've used 1,000' spools on each, as well as 250' rolls on each.

I much preferred 250' rolls

Just so much easier tool take into a house and up a flight of stairs

 

[kwired]

I've wired new homes as small as 800 square feet and as large as 15,000 square feet. And I've used 1,000' spools on each, as well as 250' rolls on each.

I much preferred 250' rolls

Just so much easier tool take into a house and up a flight of stairs

You can set the 1000 foot reel in one place and pull off from there for the entire project. 12 and 14 AWG aren't too bad to carry though. But are getting more difficult as I get older, but that is what hand trucks are for. I do need to handle much larger and heavier reels for larger cables/conductors at times.

 

[Frank DuVal]

Anyone remember when 500' of wire like #12 and #10 came in a box?

YES!

Just so much easier tool take into a house and up a flight of stairs

No need to take up a flight of stairs, just pull it up to the next floor or two. Not having a cart, I used to put two scrap wood pieces onto two studs and hang the reel on a short piece of conduit between the studs. For 250 foot hanks, I put an eye hook in a ~14" 2 x 12 scrap and then a hardware store swivel to a chain hanging from a doorway header. A few 3" screws into the 2 x 12 to keep the hank centered as it unwinds too.

 

[LarryFine]

Anyone remember when 500' of wire like #12 and #10 came in a box?

Yep, and the NM, too. I would hold the box upright between my feet and pull the wire upward out of the box.

 

[James L]

YES!

No need to take up a flight of stairs, just pull it up to the next floor or two. Not having a cart, I used to put two scrap wood pieces onto two studs and hang the reel on a short piece of conduit between the studs. For 250 foot hanks, I put an eye hook in a ~14" 2 x 12 scrap and then a hardware store swivel to a chain hanging from a doorway header. A few 3" screws into the 2 x 12 to keep the hank centered as it unwinds too.

I used to just hang it on the front of a stud using framing, nails and a short piece of conduit.

I tried to hanging it just on the first floor and drill a hole and pull it up through that just seemed like more hassle than what it was worth.

 

[Frank DuVal]

That's what stairways are for. A drilled hole IS too much trouble.

Yes, nails holding the conduit to two studs works just fine too.

 

[James L]

Sux when you need to pull only 80 feet but gotta drag a whole spool inside

 

[garbo]

Anyone remember when 500' of wire like #12 and #10 came in a box? When I first started in the business we had THW wire that came in flat, square cardboard boxes. Yes it was as horrible as it sounds. Even if you pulled it out of the box the "right" way it still had circular memory in it. We would stretch out 75' or so and with one guy on each end slam it on the floor multiple times to straighten it.

We had boxes of #12 & 14 THW & maybe TW wire in 500' boxes in the late 1960's . Luckily a wire company salesman stopped by think it was 1967 and gave us samples of THHN/THWN ( guessing it was dual rated back then ). When we called our electrical supply house to place an order were told no such thing as THHN insulation but we persisted. Owner of the supply house ripped the wire company of not informing them first on new products. Only bad thing too many electricians found that #14 copper THHN THWN conductors were rated for 20 amps ( guessing at 90 C table ) so they feed it with 20 amp breakers. Luckily the very talented inspectors picked that mistake up rather quickly and stopped that code violation.