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My boss told me to always use a 22/2 wire for keypad runs, no matter the distance.
He said it was a company rule for voltage drop, but on a 200-foot run to a detached garage keypad last week, the system kept throwing low voltage faults. I swapped it for an 18/4 and the faults cleared right up. When has a 'standard' rule from your shop actually caused a problem on site?
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beth_anderson4mo ago
Lol your boss is right though, that rule stops guys from using cheap 24-gauge wire on long runs. Your 18/4 just got lucky with a better connection.
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gonzalez.phoenix4mo ago
My old foreman in Tampa always said voltage drop is the silent killer of cheap wire jobs. He caught a guy trying to run 22-gauge for a driveway gate over 300 feet, and the motor burned out in a month. That code rule exists because people will absolutely cut corners if you let them.
4
susanm222mo ago
Peel the jacket back on that 22/2 and look - some cheap wire has way more insulation than copper, so you get a big voltage drop even on short runs. That "rule" works when you buy from a real supplier, but if your shop gets the bargain bin spools it's just a recipe for ghost faults. Tested this once with a multimeter across 100 feet of two different brands of 22/2 and found a 1.5 volt difference, which is huge for keypad logic boards.
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