It’s ridiculous. I had the same issue for a 50ft roll of 14 gauge romex. Not even the good 10/3 stuff. This was bottom-of-the-barrel 14/2. I was then able to walk over and grab a $100 cable tester and a box of CAT6 right off the shelf.
I guess crackheads aren’t stealing cable testers or ethernet cable.
“Romex” is a brand name for a type of non-metallic (NM) insulated wire. It’s pretty much the standard for 95% of the wire that’s run in a typical house in North America, and kind of looks like a big flat extension cable. There’s an external plastic sheath that holds all the wires together (that’s the non-metallic part, as opposed to say, running it in metal conduit), and then each wire inside is also insulated, aside from the ground conductor. When you see something like 12/2 or 10/3, that’s the wire gauge (12 or 10 gauge) and then the number of current carrying conductors on the inside (2 or 3, plus a ground).
I’m not a professional electrician, but I believe the color of the cable is standardized, too. The white cable you refer to is 14-gauge, which is standard for a 15-amp household outlet. 12-gauge is yellow, and 10-gauge is orange.
It’s ridiculous. I had the same issue for a 50ft roll of 14 gauge romex. Not even the good 10/3 stuff. This was bottom-of-the-barrel 14/2. I was then able to walk over and grab a $100 cable tester and a box of CAT6 right off the shelf.
I guess crackheads aren’t stealing cable testers or ethernet cable.
What’s Romex? I have no idea what this conversation is about but I’d love to know lol
“Romex” is a brand name for a type of non-metallic (NM) insulated wire. It’s pretty much the standard for 95% of the wire that’s run in a typical house in North America, and kind of looks like a big flat extension cable. There’s an external plastic sheath that holds all the wires together (that’s the non-metallic part, as opposed to say, running it in metal conduit), and then each wire inside is also insulated, aside from the ground conductor. When you see something like 12/2 or 10/3, that’s the wire gauge (12 or 10 gauge) and then the number of current carrying conductors on the inside (2 or 3, plus a ground).
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I’m not a professional electrician, but I believe the color of the cable is standardized, too. The white cable you refer to is 14-gauge, which is standard for a 15-amp household outlet. 12-gauge is yellow, and 10-gauge is orange.
I’m happy to be corrected if I’m wrong, though.