New dishwasher hookup, copper to aluminum?

September 6, 2018 4:55 PM

I bought a new dishwasher and was about to hook up the electrical (hard wired) and saw the wires on the dishwasher are silver while the wires coming from the wall are copper. I assume this is an aluminum to copper connection and i can proceed, but i should buy the purple twist connectors to prevent corrosion. Is this correct?
posted by skinnydipp to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Best answer: The wires on the diswasher end may be "tinned." (Stranded wire coated in a little bit of solder to make it more rigid.) I guarantee you no appliance manufacturer is going to take the risk of selling a product which draws a lot of current with an aluminum wiring harness. (Assumption: you are in the US and the appliance is UL approved.)
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 4:58 PM on September 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Looked at your other postings, looks like you might be in Canada. I think the same assumptions will hold; wire can come plated or coated with a number of things which make it look sliver. It's very unlikely it's aluminum.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:00 PM on September 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I'm in Canada, and I agree with Larry David Syndrome: no way is your brand new dishwasher wired with aluminum wire. I don't think you could find a dishwasher with aluminum wire power connections on it if you tried.
posted by pocams at 5:18 PM on September 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks. I found the manual after searching for sometime (floor model, wasn't shipped with one)
It confirmed copper hookup.

Running smoothly as I type.
posted by skinnydipp at 5:33 PM on September 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Appliance repair pro here. Yup, tinned wire ends are totally normal. Glad it's working!
posted by panhopticon at 7:44 AM on September 7, 2018