Fraudulent power wire?
 

I went to an electronics shop in montreal on saturday and they had some car audio gear. I looked at the power wire and the stuff marked 4 gauge on the jacket seemed awfully thin.. more like 8 gauge. The red insulation was twice as thick and the wire half as thick as the old Phoenix Gold wire I have at home. I suggested to the guy that he measure the thickness of the conductor and he said he didnt know much about car audio... I said shame on you.. you work in an electronics store and you dont even knwo the basics of wire gauge... Look it up on the web.

Any one else notice this? are cheap chinese suppliers trying to defraud stores and consumers with 4 gauge.. that is not?

No its not the Chinese trying to defraud stores, its the stores trying to defraud consumers. There are a countless number of stores that sell "4 gauge" wire, but when you look at the actual wire it is really closer to 8 gauge. One car audio shop told me that they sell the good wire and the cheap wire, but the customer has to ask for the good stuff or check it. If you go in there looking for the cheapest 4 gauge wire you can buy they're gonna give you the thick 8 gauge.

Bottom line is good stores sell good stuff, ok stores sell good and bad, and crap stores rip you off.

I am not sure I agree with you.. wire marked 4 gauge should measure as 4 gauge... its not as if they are selling an unmarked thinner wire as 4 gauge... Its the manufacturer that is putting the marking on the wire.

The cost of copper is really high now. If you want true copper and true guage wire you will be paying $3-$5 a foot for the good stuff. Noone wants to pay for the good stuff so stores have to buy the less expensive copper/aluminum mixed wire so they can offer something at $1-$2 a foot.

I believe, that unless marked AWG4, it can be pretty much anything. I don't believe the term "4 guage" really legally means anything unfortunately so it leaves the consumer open to tomfoolery.

I've noticed amp kits now labelled with wattage numbers rather than wire sizes. "500watt" kit....no mention of the wire size. :retard:

True, There are many amp kits that just say the wattage instead of the actual gauge.

buy welding wire and save some money !

What would be better assuming hypothetically they were both the same price, something like this;
Car & GPS: Car Audio & Video: Stinger 1500 Watts Amplifier Kit (SS1501X) | Best Buy Canada Web Store

or 0/1 welding cable from princess auto or the like?

who knows? the kit description on best buy says nothing of wire gauge.. at least it says copper/alum mix!

word, and lol at tomfoolery hahaha

double word


If you really think its the manufacturer, then why is it that those shops are not buying wire from Rockford Fosgate or KnuKonceptz, or any other company that makes good quality wire, and instead buy from those manfucturers that make the crappy wire? Hmmm?

I'll tell you why, because they can make more money of the morons buying the wire they think is 4 gauge when its really 8 than they can from selling real 4 gauge. The next time you walk into a store to buy some power cable, remember, "Cash Rules Everything Aaround Me", yes that's C.R.E.A.M. by the Wu-Tang clan. They want to make money, thats how they pay their bills and eat dinner. Some guys believe quality over quantity, but they probably owned shops for years and have a decent reputation.


Dukk is right, use AWG when measuring wire, not gauge.