# Is romex ever allowed in carflex?



## ZBat910 (Aug 4, 2014)

First off, this is my first thread on this forum. I am a residential electrician in North Carolina. Our local county code inspectors are currently getting up to date from how lacking they have been over the years and all of the contractors are suffering. From what I can tell the majority of the time you fail an inspection it is due to them interpreting code to its maximum instead of what it actually means. Today I met with the head inspector for a mechanical inspection with an electrical reconnect. The air handler is located in a utility room inside conditioned space. There is a disconnect and a piece of #6 romex running from the disconnect to the equipment. Previously, before I installed the new unit it had bare wire which I know to be against code, so I covered it with carflex going into the unit. I know carflex is approved for wet locations and I also know that romex is not approved for wet locations regardless of being in carflex. The inspector failed me and said that romex was never allowed in carflex and also said that the 2011 nec made a provision stating that carflex is completely wet rated and therefore romex can't go through it. Is this correct? I told him I had never heard of it and he said he would get back with me. Any help is appreciated.


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## Black Dog (Oct 16, 2011)

ZBat910 said:


> First off, this is my first thread on this forum. I am a residential electrician in North Carolina. Our local county code inspectors are currently getting up to date from how lacking they have been over the years and all of the contractors are suffering. From what I can tell the majority of the time you fail an inspection it is due to them interpreting code to its maximum instead of what it actually means. Today I met with the head inspector for a mechanical inspection with an electrical reconnect. The air handler is located in a utility room inside conditioned space. There is a disconnect and a piece of #6 romex running from the disconnect to the equipment. Previously, before I installed the new unit it had bare wire which I know to be against code, so I covered it with carflex going into the unit. I know carflex is approved for wet locations and I also know that romex is not approved for wet locations regardless of being in carflex. The inspector failed me and said that romex was never allowed in carflex and also said that the 2011 nec made a provision stating that carflex is completely wet rated and therefore romex can't go through it. Is this correct? I told him I had never heard of it and he said he would get back with me. Any help is appreciated.


It does not say that in the code anywhere.

Welcome aboard...:thumbsup:


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## stars13bars2 (Jun 1, 2009)

while it is against code to strip the jacket from nm and install it inside flexible nonmetallic conduit, I know of no article that prevents a bare conductor from being used as an equipment grounding conductor inside same conduit.


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## ZBat910 (Aug 4, 2014)

Thanks for the replies. I do not know the ins and outs of the code as I would like to but this seemed wrong to me. He said he is going to "revisit" the code and tell me if I need to change it. I will be interested to hear what section he will tell me backs his statement. Maybe after I get all of my mechanical contractors tests out the way I can focus more on the electrical. Once again, thanks for the help.


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## 1.21gigawatts (Jun 22, 2013)

If the air handler and carflex are in a dry location you are code compliant. However if the sealtight, smurf, emt or whatever was in a wet location 300.9 requires your conductors to be rated such as THWN or UF.


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