XHHW and XHHW-2 wire buyers for feeder reels
XHHW arrives in the sizes that hurt to throw away: 4/0, 250 kcmil, 350 and 500, often aluminium, often on a wooden reel too heavy for two men to move.
- 600 V thermoset wire
- XLPE insulation
- Feeder and service sizes
A reel of 500 kcmil XHHW is not a scrap item with copper in it. It is a feeder conductor that somebody specified, bought, delivered and never pulled, and the difference between those two readings is the whole review. XHHW is thermoset, cross-linked polyethylene over copper or aluminium, 600 V, and its natural home is service and feeder work where the conductor is large and the runs are short and heavy.
The rating split is simple. XHHW carries 90°C in dry locations and 75°C in wet. XHHW-2 carries 90°C in both, and XHHW-2 is what most current specifications name. The suffix is two characters on the print and it changes which jobs the reel can serve, so it is worth reading before the reel is described on a manifest or offered to a contractor who will ask about wet locations.
Thermoset insulation is more forgiving than thermoplastic in storage, which is why XHHW survives a laydown yard better than THHN does. It is not indestructible. Sun breaks down the surface, water finds its way into a reel that sat on its side, and a jacket dragged across gravel will show it. None of that keeps a reel out of a lot; all of it belongs in the description when the reel is finally photographed.
What we buy in this family
Condition and documentation decide the basis, not the family alone. These are the forms this material usually arrives in.
- Feeder sizes from 1/0 to 1000 kcmil
- Copper and aluminium XHHW-2
- Full reels with factory tags
- Partial reels with documented footage
- Switchgear and panel change-out cable
- Dual-rated RHW-2 and USE-2 constructions
Reading an XHHW lot: size, metal and rating
The three facts that set a feeder reel apart are size, metal and rating, and all three should appear in the print. A 350 kcmil aluminium reel and a 350 kcmil copper reel are different animals with different buyers, and a reel marked XHHW is not the same as one marked XHHW-2 when the next installation is a wet location.
After that comes footage. Large reels are usually delivered full, so a partial 500 kcmil reel is a deliberate leftover: cut for a pull, or short-shipped. Whatever the reason, the remainder is worth measuring rather than guessing, because at that size a hundred feet is a real quantity of metal.
Thermoset insulation and how storage changes the review
XLPE does not craze the way a PVC jacket does, so an XHHW reel that has been outdoors usually looks better than it is. The failure mode is at the ends: insulation that has drawn moisture under the jacket, strand corrosion on aluminium, and a surface gone dull from UV. Cut back six inches on each exposed end and look at the strands.
Mechanical damage is the other half. A reel dropped on a loading dock can crack insulation without breaking the conductor, and a flange that has collapsed inward has crushed the outer wraps. On aluminium conductors, a sharp bend is a permanent set. Damage that would need cutting back is priced into the lot rather than argued about afterwards.
Where feeder cable actually comes from
Feeder-size XHHW is generated by change, not by consumption. A panel upgrade, a switchgear replacement, a service re-rate, a chiller swap: each one leaves the old feeders and a length of new cable that was ordered with slack. Plants that keep a storehouse will hold those reels for years because the cable cost real money.
That is the lot worth photographing properly. A tagged reel photographed square-on, with the print legible and a tape measure across the flange, reviews faster than a wide shot of a rack in a dark room. Where a whole storehouse is being cleared, a written list of sizes and footages does more than any photograph.
Where this cable turns up in the two states
In the Triangle and Charlotte, XHHW shows up where the electrical rooms are: service entrances, risers, switchgear replacements and the feeders that run from a pad-mounted transformer into a building. Data hall and laboratory work south of the airport and around Research Triangle Park consumes large conductor in copper, and the leftovers tend to be short lengths of expensive cable rather than full reels.
Upstate South Carolina runs the other way. Automotive assembly and the supplier plants around Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson pull aluminium feeders in quantity, and plant electrical departments hold the remainders long after the job is done. Utility and co-operative yards across the Piedmont add distribution-class material on their own schedule, usually as a yard clean-out with the tags still on.
Coverage
North and South Carolina
Every city page carries the local industrial base and access notes. Start from a state hub if you are not sure which one applies.
XHHW and XHHW-2 wire questions
What is the practical difference between XHHW and XHHW-2?
The wet-location temperature rating. XHHW is 90°C dry and 75°C wet. XHHW-2 is 90°C in both, which is why current specifications usually call for the -2. Both are 600 V thermoset XLPE conductors and both are UL 44 listed. In a surplus lot the print decides the description, and a reel marked only XHHW is described that way.
Is aluminium XHHW worth buying, or only copper?
Aluminium is a normal feeder conductor in sizes 1/0 and larger and is bought on its own merits. It is not copper and is not priced as copper. What a buyer wants to know is the alloy and temper, whether the strands are compact or compressed, whether the ends are sealed and whether the reel has drawn water.
How do you confirm footage on a large feeder reel?
The factory tag with a remainder is the best evidence, followed by a printed length counter. Failing that, we take the reel weight, subtract an estimated reel and packaging weight, and divide by the published weight per thousand feet for that size and metal. The result is an estimate with a tolerance, and it is written down as one.
Can you take a mixed rack of feeder sizes as one lot?
Yes, and mixed sizes are common in a storehouse clean-out. We review the rack as a group and describe it by size bands rather than pretending every reel carries a documented length. If the rack holds four or five sizes with real footages, splitting it into those groups usually produces clearer terms than one anonymous lot.
Send xhhw and xhhw-2 wire details
Construction, footage, condition and pickup city. Photographs can follow once a buyer has replied.
Or email saleselectricalbuyers@gmail.com
- No fee and no obligation to sell.
- Written lot terms before anything moves.
- Pickup scheduled around your access rules.