Can I use speaker wire to wire flexwatt in parallel?

Currently I have 3 rows of flex watt plugged in and I need to wire in a 4th row ...

I just want to make sure it is okay to use speaker wire (it's either 14 or 18 gauge, don't remember) to wire it in parallel. Will be using the soldering method.

Also, I want to make sure I wire it right ... Was going to do left side to left side and the plug is on the right side. Tape off extra ends and all connections with electrical tape. Sounds right but want to double check.

Thanks everyone ... :)

PS before anyone asks, the other 3 rows are separate plug ins. I'm contemplating wiring them all together as I have extra plugs in case I have issues.

I wouldn't use the speaker wire Jess, you could use the wire from one of them to piggyback them all together so that they are on one plug.

That's true ... why not the speaker wire out of curiosity?

The only reason I'd rather not use the wires I'm using now is because they have the little clampys on em. But I suppose it wouldn't matter.

On another note, my normal girl just threw up a little bit of her 2 day ago meal. Just a little bit of hair and such :( And a runny poo ... All husbandry seems to be in order but I turned the heat down in case she was staying away from it because it was too hot? Not sure, it normally is fine but the probe may have been loose. Hope she gets better :(

AFAIK, speaker wire is usually 18 gauge. Everytime I rewire my guitar amps/cabs i use either 14 or 16 gauge (18 feels flimsy to me).

To be safe, I WOULD go with 14... Although I don't know what kind of current will pass thru there.

And yes! Say yes to soldering and no to clips/connectors! :banana:

I'm pretty sure its 14, but I know they had 18 too so I'm not sure. I got it at walmart to wire my stereo system ... Ha. But I don't wanna use it if its a negative thing. And I have lots of excess wires from the plugs I ordered ...

Do you have wire strippers? If so, you can easily check the gauge by placing the wire on the 'stripping hole' (for lack of a better term) of the different gauges

nope I can't find the only ones I had so I just ghetto strip em with wire cutters or a lighter

I hope your girl is ok, just keep an eye on her. Is the speaker wire copper?

I'm not sure. One side is silver and one side is gold. LMAO

Don't know if its the same size but it looks like this
http://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-16-Gau...i_sku=16829782

It's prolly copper

Is that bad

Not that I know of, copper isn't the best conductor, but its a pretty good one tho. It gets the job done more than well on many situations

All electrical wiring should be done with copper.
Sorry it's taking so long to respond, my computer is acting possesed

I'm not an electrical expert, but I have some basic knowledge, and I would be cautious or skeptical at best about using it. Speaker wire may be able to handle the wattage load, but would it be able to handle the amperage. You would need to know:
1) How many amps the speaker wire is rated for.
2) What is the amp load of the circuit breaker that the outlet is on?
3) How many ohms of resistance does each piece of Flexwatt provide before the electricity reaches the speaker wire?

I may be over-thinking this, but it just seems that using a different kind of wire in the system could affect the current going to that particular piece of Flexwatt, which could affect the temperature that piece of Flexwatt operates at.

Hopefully, someone with more knowledge about this type of thing will have a better answer.

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Originally Posted by Vypyrz

I'm not an electrical expert, but I have some basic knowledge, and I would be cautious or skeptical at best about using it. Speaker wire may be able to handle the wattage load, but would it be able to handle the amperage. You would need to know:
1) How many amps the speaker wire is rated for.
2) What is the amp load of the circuit breaker that the outlet is on?
3) How many ohms of resistance does each piece of Flexwatt provide before the electricity reaches the speaker wire?

I may be over-thinking this, but it just seems that using a different kind of wire in the system could affect the current going to that particular piece of Flexwatt, which could affect the temperature that piece of Flexwatt operates at.

Hopefully, someone with more knowledge about this type of thing will have a better answer.

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to help him out, volts x amps = watts

speaker wire is used for speakers. it could work for what you're doing. but I don't recommend it. your flexwatt is rated at so many watts per foot. add it up for your total watts. go and buy wire that has a higher rating than what you added up. so if you added up say 550 watts, that will pull 5.5 amps (watts divided by volts = amps) since you're plugging into an outlet in your home the voltage won't change but you now can figure out how to get amps or watts.
if you didn't know the volts, simple, watts divided by amps = volts.

use the right wire. is 20 dollars or even less for the proper wire worth burning your house down.

x2 ^^ The lightest duty AC cords can be 16 gauge but 14 is more common for medium duty. you can get a cheap extension cord at the hardware store for 3 bucks and cut to size, then you will have the proper type of wire. I wouldn't use speaker wire unless I was really in a pinch and then it would have to be the heavy duty large gauge wire. Best bet is to get some proper gauge insulated wire for the intended purpose, why invite possible issues?

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Originally Posted by don15681

use the right wire. is 20 dollars or even less for the proper wire worth burning your house down.

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Of course not, it has nothing to do with money. I just have some extra around the house and was curious. I know nothing about wiring except how to do it, that's why im asking.

We get the 6 ft extension cords from the dollar store. There only a dollar and work great. I don't know enough about electrical engineering to trust using speaker wire. But then again I'm the girl who won't leave the drying running when no ones home for fear of something going wrong and the house burning down lol. The whole flex watt and snake racks kills my OCD lol.

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

Of course not, it has nothing to do with money. I just have some extra around the house and was curious. I know nothing about wiring except how to do it, that's why im asking.

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my post wasn't to bash you. but give you some info on how to figure what you need to do it safe. you had the common sense to ask, where some others don't.
to do it right will only cost a few dollars and you'll be able to sleep a whole lot better at night.

Speaker wire cant handle the constant power running though them, unless your going ot go and use 8guage wire.

Not to mention most speaker wire sold in stores is cheap and NOT copper where extension cords are all copper.

walmart has 6ft extension cords for .98 cents each rated to i think 800 watts per cord.

I used llovelace's suggestion and used the excess wire from my plugs. It wasn't easy but it works.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

Wow. Sorry I didn't see this sooner.

All speaker wire is is a high strand wire. Where normal XX gauge wire would have XX strands, speaker wire has a lot more. Its to reduce all the bad little properties of electricity no one every puts a 2nd thought to. It also makes the wire more flexible. Other than that it is exactly the same as "normal" wire.

Do this... add up the wattage of your flex watt. Now divide by 120, that gives you your amps. Unless your running a huge rack.... your drawing a whole amp or two right? Flexwatt doesn't draw crap and your small wire will be fine. 18 gauge is good for like 13 amps or something (ill have to check that after work, I gotta head there right now)

and btw I have never seen speaker wire that wasn't copper... aluminum would break too easily being that flexible so it wouldn't make sense. Also to who ever said copper wasn't the best conductor... unless you wanna talk gold and silver....yea it is. General wiring comes in copper and aluminum. thats about it.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

walmart has 6ft extension cords for .98 cents each rated to i think 800 watts per cord.

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:oops::oops::oops: I buy 2 or 3 or those every time we are in wally world just to have them incase;):D:D

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

and btw I have never seen speaker wire that wasn't copper...

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there are a lot of companies that are making aluminum speaker wire, it is usually the really cheap "install kits"
the autozone and pepboys here carry them and I have done some installs for people that buy them then they get all pissy when they need to find a noise filter to kill the whistle:rofl::rofl:

All of my flexwatt is wired with speaker wire.... All of you questioning it... Wire is wire is wire.... it doesn't know what it was manufactured for as long as you are competent to know that it will handle the electrical load you should be good. I use outdoor speaker wire because it is rated to handle the outside elements so moisture and such should not be as much of a problem in like my incubator

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

there are a lot of companies that are making aluminum speaker wire, it is usually the really cheap "install kits"
the autozone and pepboys here carry them and I have done some installs for people that buy them then they get all pissy when they need to find a noise filter to kill the whistle:rofl::rofl:

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Really? such a bad idea, bend that back a forth a few times and be wondering why the speakers keep going in and out... lol

btw I looked it up and 18 gauge in free air is good for 18 amps with 90º insulation, doesn't list 75º or 60º. but regardless its going to be good for the 1 or 2 amps you'll be pulling.

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

Also to who ever said copper wasn't the best conductor... unless you wanna talk gold and silver....yea it is. General wiring comes in copper and aluminum. thats about it.

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not to start a discussion, but I still stand by my comment. Yes, copper is great, and it is an excellent conductor, but you can't rule out Silver and gold (meh). As an Electrical Engineering Student, you get to see silver and gold wire...


sorry for the 'rant' :P

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

Really? such a bad idea, bend that back a forth a few times and be wondering why the speakers keep going in and out... lol

btw I looked it up and 18 gauge in free air is good for 18 amps with 90º insulation, doesn't list 75º or 60º. but regardless its going to be good for the 1 or 2 amps you'll be pulling.

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The cheap rolls of speaker wire sold in stores under $15 will either be all aluminum or will be Copper for + and Aluminum for - or Aluminum for both + -.

Monster Car Audio has the best speaker wire ive ever used for car installations as its pure copper and def not cheap.

The chances are speaker wire laying around the house/junk drawer is garbage aluminum wire i wouldnt use.

For the price of a extension cord at walmart, id just head there and buy that.

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Originally Posted by Munizfire

not to start a discussion, but I still stand by my comment. Yes, copper is great, and it is an excellent conductor, but you can't rule out Silver and gold (meh). As an Electrical Engineering Student, you get to see silver and gold wire...

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pretty easy to rule out something thats hundreds of dollars an ounce :)

I did miss the part where she said it was half copper half aluminum, but the only reason aluminum is bad is because if you bend it around a lot or pull on it too hard, it breaks. Be nice to it and it works fine. For a rack you might be moving around all the time, probably not worth it.

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Originally Posted by jjmitchell

All of my flexwatt is wired with speaker wire.... All of you questioning it... Wire is wire is wire.... it doesn't know what it was manufactured for as long as you are competent to know that it will handle the electrical load you should be good. I use outdoor speaker wire because it is rated to handle the outside elements so moisture and such should not be as much of a problem in like my incubator

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wire isn't all the same. then why do they call it speaker wire, it should be called just wire. yes you can wire your flex watt with speaker wire and it will work. but when something fails and instead of pulling a few amps, now your pulling close to 20 amps just not quit enough to trip the breaker in the breaker box. now that speaker wire can't handle this and next thing the plastic insulation on the speaker wire begins to melt and starts a fire. now with the insulation burning off of the speaker wire you get a direct short which is good cause this will cause that 20 amp breaker in the house to trip. hopefully it's not too late, and the small fire that started burns out and doesn't catch your house on fire.

it's not all about it working, but you have to look at how it will work if something fails. that is why in my first post I said I didn't recommend it.

crank up your radio so that your putting a lot of watts to your speakers and pull the wires off and grab the bare wires with your hands. now connect the same wire to an outlet in your house and grab the wires, feel the difference! (don't actually do this) use something for what it's intended for and you'll save yourself from future problems.

the extension cords from walmart that's around a dollar. I have one in front of me and it's ul listed at awg 16/2 spt-2 13 amps 125 volts 1625 watts 6 foot long.

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

pretty easy to rule out something thats hundreds of dollars an ounce :)

I did miss the part where she said it was half copper half aluminum, but the only reason aluminum is bad is because if you bend it around a lot or pull on it too hard, it breaks. Be nice to it and it works fine. For a rack you might be moving around all the time, probably not worth it.

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actually the stuff I have left over is all copper after looking at it.

Either way, I used the wires from the plugs I had already as llovelace suggested