Is it worth it to strip Romex® Wire?
This is one of the most common questions we receive from scrappers looking to increase their profit from stripping their wire.
A General Rule…
When you are looking to decide what scrap wires are good for stripping, one thing we commonly say is that if the wire is thicker than a pencil, you should consider stripping it. But that doesn’t always apply…
Romex® wire is one of the exceptions to the rule. Because of the solid pieces of copper found inside.
Romex® is one of the few wires that we actually recommend stripping if you have the time and you’re looking to upgrade your material. There’s a couple of really good things that could come out of stripping Romex® as about 2/3 of the weight is in copper.
It’s Worth It For The Copper Wire Inside
Right off the bat, you’re going to have your grounding wire and that should become bare bright wire instantly. After you take the ground wire out you’ll have two pieces of Insulated Copper Wire left over. Now sometimes it’s worth just selling those pieces as regular THHN, but if you have a wire stripper or the ability and time to strip the wire you will make more money.
CHOOSE A STRIPPER
Profit Up To 30% More By Stripping Your Romex Wire
By stripping the Romex® Wire you can make between 10 and 30% more money depending on what level of time and investment that you put into it. Through talking to multiple scrappers over the years we have found that about 50% of people sell as is and 50% will strip it down further. Of the people that stripped down further about half of those people will only get it down to the THHN and the other half were completely stripped everything turning it into a clean stripped copper wire.
Related Articles:
- 8 Most Common Places to Find Scrap Copper Wire
- How-To: Strip Copper Wire for Scrap
- Determining Types of Copper Wires
*Romex® is a branded product by Southwire and other non-metallic sheathed wire.