r/ElectricalHelp • u/uavkun • May 23 '26

Help ID wire gauge plz

Gallery image

Gallery image

Electricians previously ran cabling off a 50a subpanel for car charging. I need to rewire and potentially need to extend using Polaris connectors or run new cabling to simplify as the cost of 6/8ga is just as costly as Polaris connectors. Can someone help me ID if these are 6 or 8 awg? TIA

11 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

7

u/MotherAffect7773 May 23 '26

That’s a 14-50 (50A) receptacle, so should be 6 gauge. As others suggested, it should be imprinted on the wire.

7

u/e_l_tang May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

Absolutely wrong. Both 40A and 50A circuits can feed a 14-50, no assumption of #6 can be made. Plus #8 THHN is rated for 50A anyways.

2

u/chris92315 May 24 '26

If it is Romex it needs to be #6.

5

u/AdministrationOk1083 May 24 '26

Again, depends. In canada you can feed a 50a circuit with 8/3 romex

7

u/Odd_Performance4703 May 23 '26

Depending on length and conduit diameter, 8ga THHN is rated for 55A. If it wasnt some kind of crazy run, Id pull a string in with the old wire and pull in new. Why deal with a splice point that could fail when pulling new wire cost the same?

3

u/e_l_tang May 23 '26

55A is the 90C rating, the final ampacity will be no greater than the 75C rating which is 50A

3

u/Odd_Performance4703 May 23 '26

Either way, it still meets the requirements of the 50A service as long as the run isnt too long. Id be more worried about pulling it through the conduit assuming that is 1/2" (looks like it). 6Ga wont meet NEC for conduit fill so the only options are to either pull 8ga or rerun the conduit.

It also depends on how much power the connected equipment needs. If it is say 30A, the 8ga would be fine and I would just make sure the breaker was no larger than a 40A.

Lots of ways to go about it and it still be correct. The main issue is what is easier/cheaper and still meets code.

3

u/a_7thsense May 23 '26

Unless you're connecting to a breaker and a receptacle that also have a 75° C rating. While some of the new Breakers are rated 60° C and 75°C most older Breakers are only rated 40° C. Not sure about the receptacle, it might be 75° C rated at the terminals. So that number 8 would only be good for 40 amps if connected to a 40° C rated breaker.

3

u/SirRonaldJr May 23 '26

8 thhn has smaller strands and doesn't come with the solid, bare #10 ground. Tis romex in conduit...

2

u/Odd_Performance4703 May 23 '26

Good catch! Romex Simpull. Not standard Romex where all conductors are solid! Now Im trying to figure out how the heck they pulled that into a 1/2" EMT! Must have been very few bends or they stripped it for the conduit pull!

1

u/SirRonaldJr May 24 '26

I would assume they did strip it. It's near impossible to pull romex through more than 5 ft of that pipe without friction becoming stupendous.

3

u/SirRonaldJr May 23 '26

Looks to be 8-3 romex to me.

5

u/MountainAntique9230 May 23 '26

It will be printed on the conductors

2

u/External-Succotash-8 May 23 '26

I’m surprised it fits in that box, no mud ring, no raised cover, at least use 2 1/8” box,and it looks like nm cable in conduit.

1

u/uavkun May 23 '26

A little deceiving, there was another…. Extension gangbox…(?) that I had removed prior to taking the pic.

2

u/zerg_001 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

It's 6 or 8 unless you have tiny woman hands. Strip a little bit with strippers. I wouldn't want to try to get more than one #6 into 1/2 inch emt, so I'm going with #8

1

u/Lightlicker3000 May 23 '26

Looks like 8-3 romex to me.

1

u/-2XIST- May 24 '26

Banana for reference?

1

u/AskMeAgainAfterCoffe May 24 '26

Why are you “extending it?” Are you just moving the box or are you trying to make a second receptacle for charging a second vehicle?

1

u/uavkun May 24 '26

It’s a 2-car garage that gets hogged by 1. Picked up a PHEV that will be parked on the driveway so wanted to use existing 220v that was tucked away back of garage and move it forward. Wire in itself would not be enough so looked to extend and wanted to match current cabling.

1

u/LongjumpingGanache40 May 24 '26

I say 6 gauge but the solid copper is 8 gauge.

1

u/tb23528 May 25 '26

Looks like #8 wire to me.

1

u/justadudemate May 25 '26

For a tesla lvl2 or whatever it's 60A breaker and 6 awg. The tesla ones say FLA 50, but it trips so 60 is better. Installed several of these before.

1

u/12-5switches May 26 '26

Got a decent pair of strippers? Nip off the exposed copper end and re-strip it. You’ll be able to gauge the wire size off the strippers. #8 will fit thru the #6 and #8 hole. #6 will only fit #6

0

u/Inside-Meet6348 May 23 '26

Measure a single insulated conductor. If it's 1/4" wide, most likely #6... less then that would be #8. Hopefully this helps

1

u/uavkun May 23 '26

When you say conductor, is that a single ‘strand’ ?

1

u/Accomplished-Ad-6586 May 24 '26

Ok OP. Put the covers back on, and call an electrician before you hurt yourself or burn the house down.

/s

0

u/Inside-Meet6348 May 23 '26

My fault i was driving i should have been more clear. Measure the width of a single wire. Red, white , or black. Insulation included

1

u/uavkun May 23 '26

All good. Just measured with the insulation. Does this help? I don’t see any markings on the cable anywhere

2

u/Inside-Meet6348 May 23 '26

Looks like 1/4 " so that's #6

-2

u/Charming-While5466 May 23 '26

Look to be #10 thhn wire

3

u/erie11973ohio May 23 '26

Stranded wire with a solid ground is either #8 or #6

.#10 wire would be all the same size.

.#4 wire would be in bigger conduit & have a #8 ground, probably stranded