# blue romex



## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

papaotis said:


> i see it every now and then, remember it was in the 80s, i think. anyone remember what years that was around? i think it wasnt very long



Late 70's


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

You guys don't have blue romex right now?

We have it, I use it for arc fault circuits, which are only required for bedroom receptacles.


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## papaotis (Jun 8, 2013)

i remember using some in the early 80s. leftovers?


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

Mike Holmes smashes holes in nice peoples drywall then frames a basement with screws and blue studs and requires Guido to supply romex to match.


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## Bootss (Dec 30, 2011)

FrunkSlammer said:


> You guys don't have blue romex right now?
> 
> We have it, I use it for arc fault circuits, which are only required for bedroom receptacles.


you've got to be kidding:laughing:


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## 8V71 (Dec 23, 2011)

Lep said:


> you've got to be kidding:laughing:


When have you ever known the frunk to kid around?  :laughing:


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## Hmacanada (Jan 16, 2014)

We still have it. Back in the early 90,s we started using it for some reason. Was an idea to match insulation to the colour of fuses or breaker handles I think . Died out now but you can still get it.
Every other nmd is coloured for easy identification .
Not a bad idea as far as I'm concerned.


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## btharmy (Jan 17, 2009)

I have blue (more like aqua) romex in my house. It was built in 1968. I also have some romex with insulated grounding conductors in it.


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## Bootss (Dec 30, 2011)

FrunkSlammer said:


> You guys don't have blue romex right now?
> 
> We have it, I use it for arc fault circuits, which are only required for bedroom receptacles.


is there a way for a guy to make a buck off a code change proposal," blue Romax for arc fault circuit":laughing:


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

papaotis said:


> i see it every now and then, remember it was in the 80s, i think. anyone remember what years that was around? i think it wasnt very long


1984 when NM adopted the B prefix. Southwire was the only manufacturer doing baby blue romex. Lasted for a few years.


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## big vic (Jan 23, 2012)

Phelps Dodge manufactured the "blue" romex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phelps_Dodge


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## FrunkSlammer (Aug 31, 2013)

Lep said:


> is there a way for a guy to make a buck off a code change proposal," blue Romax for arc fault circuit":laughing:


Oh it'll totally be in the 2015 Canadian Electrical Code. 

All our romex is already colour coded though, so blue for afci isn't that weird up here. Most guys don't do blue though.. don't blame them, I just like it that way.


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## papaotis (Jun 8, 2013)

Shockdoc said:


> 1984 when NM adopted the B prefix. Southwire was the only manufacturer doing baby blue romex. Lasted for a few years.


are you sure it wasnt before that? i know it wasnt around long, maybe 3-4 years?


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## Meadow (Jan 14, 2011)

btharmy said:


> I have blue (more like aqua) romex in my house. It was built in 1968. I also have some romex with insulated grounding conductors in it.


I wish the insulated ground romex was the norm. Would help out a lot, one area being AFCIs. Less chance of a hot or neutral to ground short.


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

Here in Canada, it was around 74 or so. I remember it was about 1/2 the size of the regular nmd, very thin jacket. The manufacturer recommended using a potato peeler to skin it


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## Aegis (Mar 18, 2011)

Since it's still not code to use blue Romex for AFCI, then I can use it for anything


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## daveEM (Nov 18, 2012)

I wired a couple of bedroom circuits with it. Bastards want more money for it tho. So now I use white. 

Like Aegis I had no problem using up my roll end in other parts of the house.


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

papaotis said:


> are you sure it wasnt before that? i know it wasnt around long, maybe 3-4 years?


Pretty sure, I was buying it for hobbies and a basement apt I wired.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

I had some of the blue romex in the early 1990's.


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## tesco (Feb 17, 2012)

I saw a house with orange 14/2 romex, was built in the late 70s. I'd assume it's original.
Someone else brought brown romex back to the shop for scrap (can't remember the guage but probably 14/2) that he ripped out of a commercial unit, he said was probably installed early 80s.
On both of those the insulation was thinner than today's making the wire look like #16.

And we use blue 14/2. It's sometimes cheaper than white. The main use is to mark AFCI circuits at the panel, but we can use it for whatever we want (no code).


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## Galt (Sep 11, 2013)

Never seen blue but used some black in late 60s.


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## Shockdoc (Mar 4, 2010)

Galt said:


> Never seen blue but used some black in late 60s.


I think by now I have come across every brand and color of nm.
Anyone ever see Phelps Dodge with the brown hot conductor?


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## Vintage Sounds (Oct 23, 2009)

It's common for AFCI circuits in Canada and I knew of one major production-line residential EC in Toronto that used blue for switch legs.


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## Joefixit2 (Nov 16, 2007)

I've seen the blue stuff once in a while when doing demo. One time I saw it in a house used only for all the home runs. Must have been so the boss could easily see if the home runs were all pulled.


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## Gnome (Dec 25, 2013)

tesco said:


> I saw a house with orange 14/2 romex, was built in the late 70s. I'd assume it's original.


I wonder if it was to match the orange impregnated paper insulation cable used previously.


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