I got these multimeter leads that have printed 22AWG on the wires:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000061196885.html
Then I bought 10 meters of 22Awg wire from here:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32903241720.html
and they have printed on them 22AWG but they are much thinner. So I am confused, what’s the deal here?
At least one seller is lying. Have you measured the actual wire with the insulation removed?
one seller is not being honest likely
But why would they have both printed 22awg on them?
I measured the thin one with a micrometer, but it’s so thin I can’t be sure the value is correct (around 0.22 mm)
Same answer as above; someone is lying and has taken it as far as having the wrong value printed on the wire. I cannot think of any other answer. AWG is a standard; physical deviation = a lie someplace. I have a gauge like this for measuring. https://www.amazon.com/Whitelotous-Stainless-Thickness-Measure-Diameter/dp/B076CNW9HX (the reviews on this one seem to be very good or very bad…. as if they had quality control problems on some. ?
It’s square mm.
Someone without a clue about the meaning of the writing copied it from somewhere else, because it made the item easier to sell.
They don’t care that if you use it as marked relying on the info, you could burn your house down.
It’s like putting “tactical” on flashlight descriptions, something to write that makes potential buyers believe it’s worth more than it is.
You’ll also see “CE” written on things. That’s frequently done to fool a potential customer:
and here’s the relevant footnote for that:
There are many types of wire insulation. The meter leads may be thicker because of the type of use. If you look at the pics they have two coatings on the meter leads and only one coating on the rolls. The wire inside is probably the same gauge.
Edit: Different ambient temps, chemical or sunlight resistance and overall usage all a factor in insulation types.
I thought it was obvious that AWG refers to the diameter of the actual conductor, not the OD which would include the insulation layer.
That’s exactly what it is for as far as I know. Usually silicone meter leads have a lot thicker sheathing than standard silicone wire. Im guessing to take more abrassive and flexing abuse so they last longer. I have ordered the same AWG silicone wire size from several different places in the US and china. They can have different size sheathing on the same wire conductor. Teflon wire from what I have seen usually has a much smaller sheathing than silicone wire in the same AWG rating.
It be hard to say if one seller is lying or not unless you measured the conductor diameter. I have purchased silicone wire from Aliexpress way cheaper than in the US with the wire being just as good quality. This is the store I purchased from. https://www.aliexpress.com/store/2916004?
Back when looking for bulk wire on AX, I’ve seen “18ga” wire that said rather prominently, “not American 18ga” or something to that effect. You could get 22ga wire that’s labeled “18ga”, and it’s just horse$#|+. But that’s their disclaimer, so you can’t return it.
Plus, cheap stranded wire is often not made from continuous strands as it should be, but is mostly made from random scraps of wire twisted together. So you could strip insulation off a wire-end, and pull out 1-2 short strands of wire, too.
It’s disgusting.
22 AWG should be around 0.64mm in diameter WITHOUT the insulation. 0.22mm not counting insulation would be 31 AWG.
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Thanks for the links ” moderator007 “, I really needed that for the silicon tubing for my water cooled flashlight ! :+1:
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20A on AWG22 is quite optimistic on the probe link
Usual probe leads in Europe have 0.75 or good ones 1.5mm²
lol, no. No wire is made like that. It’s impossible, they couldn’t even put the insulation on, it wouldn’t run through the machine or unspool. Maybe you cut too deep when you tried to get the insulation off, or maybe it was damaged because they bent it too tightly to package or ship it, but even the cheapest junk wire uses continuous strands. It may not be all copper, or that copper may have radioactive chinesium impurities in it, but it started out as single strands.
As far as the risk of getting less than pure copper, especially copper clad aluminum in its place which is particularly problematic when you were wanting high strand count wire for flexibility, i wouldn’t even bother trying to measure diameter. Hook up a test load for a known current draw and measure the voltage drop. What they claim the gauge is, isn’t nearly as important as the effective resistance in use.
I am not so sure it can be said that this generic wire is just as good as US wire. Often the silicone falls apart in a few years and comes off in chunks, and sometimes it even bleeds out some silicone oil and becomes nasty sticky.
Speaking of silicone wire, I received this box of 18 AWG wires
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32872439317.html
seems ok at first glance.
I only paid like 1.5$ for it because of that game 