Cost wise on power wire?

[jessdabest77]

Hey guys I know this probably has been discussed before but hopefully you guys can give me your experience on this question. I want to buy two 50’ rolls of O gauge power wire and honestly because of cost, if I bought welding cable, would it be possible for a system pushing around 8k watts? I really like knuconceptz wire but I have so much more to buy is why I’m asking about the welding cable. Thanks in advance.

[Dafaseles]

Welding cable is technically fine. As long as it's pure copper, it's just not oxygen free copper. From what I've read, welding wire is more susceptible to corrosion than car audio cable, but I've never tested this myself. Welding wire does go by the AWG scale, and car audio cable is oversized, so if you need 1/0 awg car audio cable, 2/0 welding wire would be the same size and about the same amp rating. 

[jessdabest77]

Okay I think I really need to do more research into welding cable. At the end, I really don’t want to save a few bucks now and later pay for it twice. I don’t want to invest money and time into and later do it all over again. Thank you for your help and advice 

[02Blazer]

1 hour ago, jessdabest77 said:

Hey guys I know this probably has been discussed before but hopefully you guys can give me your experience on this question. I want to buy two 50’ rolls of O gauge power wire and honestly because of cost, if I bought welding cable, would it be possible for a system pushing around 8k watts? I really like knuconceptz wire but I have so much more to buy is why I’m asking about the welding cable. Thanks in advance.

stick  with the Knuconceptz ,  welding cable is too stiff to work with to me 

[jessdabest77]

👍

[Turbo598]

I went with UL listed welding cable. There is a reason for Under writers laboratory certification. UL does a lot of testing on all aspects of the wire from the copper content to the jacket material. It is not cheap to get a product certified. It is also not cheap to keep the certification on that product.

 

In this day and age of everything being fake and copied does anybody really believe that the wire is OFC just because it says it on the wire or the company claims it is. Do you really think the wire did not come from China and that the Chinese are honest and would never use sub par material for their products.

 

A lot of fake Chinese products say UL approved on them. The issue is they never sent in the product to be tested. There will always be an approval number associated with the product. This number can be looked up in the UL online database.  

 

Take some time to read up on UL wire testing. It will open your eyes to see why and how it is done. The last time I checked I did not see any UL/ CE certification for Sky high or Knuconceptz wire. I am not saying car audio power wire it is bad wire. I know a lot of people use non UL listed wire without issues.

 

Wire is expensive. I spent over $1k for power wire. I have assurances that the wire is 100% OFC copper, and that the Jacket material was made using the correct rubber for its application.

 

 

Of course this is my opinion. Buy what you like and can afford.

 

 

[02Blazer]

make sure you use glue lined heat shrink , welding cable is not tinned . to each is own , i would never buy welding cable because it's not as flexible and also , what i just mentioned , it's not tinned . i have thousands invested in subs , mids , tweeters , amps , head unit , etc..   a shit ton of other accessories like battery terminals , lugs, lithium banks , enclosure etc.. no way i'm gonna try to cheap out and save a few bucks on electrical !!  don't take it wrong , use what you like and can afford , i do , but use the right tool for the job . 👍

[02Blazer]

why did you need 100 feet of power wire ?? how many runs you doing ? i have 2 runs of positive from battery delete to lithium bank in back and two frame grounds from bank to frame (already had big three) and three positive runs ,three negative runs all 2 feet each . i bought 40 ft. of positive(red) wire &16 ft. of negative wire(black) , what i'm saying is that i hope you're measuring out what you need and buying it rather then just buying it by the spool , might save you some money and then could afford better cable .

[02Blazer]

On 12/4/2022 at 10:29 AM, jessdabest77 said:

Okay I think I really need to do more research into welding cable. At the end, I really don’t want to save a few bucks now and later pay for it twice. I don’t want to invest money and time into and later do it all over again. Thank you for your help and advice 

that kinda what your doing sorry to say .

 

[audiofanaticz]

Knukonceptz actually does have some UL listed wire, and can be verified on the UL site. Sadly it's just for in wall use speaker wire but it's more than most companies are doing.

As for the China made wire argument, the vast majority of wire coming from there is legit and copper, with some brands being better than others. So as long as you stay with a solid brand name you should be fine and get quality wire without other fillers.

There was a bunch of wire brands tested independently by a fellow bass head a few years ago that had access to one of those $20,000 XRF scanners that can tell you everything that is in the wire.
From what I recall the Sundown XS Power Knu Kicker SHCA Kicker etc brands where all around the top of the list and pretty much on par with what wire should be. A couple US made welding cable was tested too. One company tested with a lot of silicon and the people selling this wire pretty much blackmailed the guy testing the wire, harassed his employment trying to get him fired, tried to get him kicked out of college, etc until he finally pulled down his information. Oddly enough if you look at the quality brands of welding cable they say silicone free but apparently the stuff they are selling is not.