★★★★★ 3
Higher resistance than expected
Size: 14AWG-50FT, Size: 14AWG-50FT
I like Nilight products, I really do, but this one isn’t as good as it could be. After reading other reviews I wanted to take a different test approach and measure the resistance of the whole roll. I thought this might explain the low rating of 5.6A at 12V. I believe my test explains this rating. First, you need to make sure you understand that this is copper clad aluminum. It is clear in the ad title but make sure you are good with that.
The test consisted of me removing the entire 50 feet of wire from the spool to reach the other end. I then stripped back the end and tied the two together securely. Only soldering would have produced a more complete contact. I then tested the resistance of the roll with an Agilent U251B multimeter which gave the reading in the pic of .75ohms. That’s not much but compared to what I found on several charts that was high.
The average resistance of 14 gauge 41 strand copper wire should be 2.63ohms per 1000 feet or .1315 per 50 feet. The wire tested 5.7 times greater resistance. Obviously aluminum will test with more resistance than pure copper but I was unable to find what those values should be.
The insulation is thick and durable so abrasion wear shouldn’t be an issue if routed properly.
The wire may still be great for your application but if you are considering pushing this wire to the load limit you may want to upsize to 12 gauge.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2024