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Copper stranded wire

How an Admitted Copper Fanatic Shops at Home Depot

March 11, 2019
If you have an eye for or an unusual fascination with copper, the author says when you walk through the miles of aisles at your local Home Depot, you quickly realize that copper is everywhere and in everything.

Most people go to Home Depot or Lowe’s when they need to buy something for around the house. Me, I go there to look at all the copper related things on the shelves. Maybe that’s why my good mother, on more than a few occasions said to me, “John, you’re an odd duck.”

Anyway, I usually start in the plumbing department where they have copper tube ranging from 12 inches to 10 feet in a variety of diameters and wall thicknesses, along with tees, elbows, connectors and end caps. Further down, there is a multitude of brass fittings for just about any configuration you can imagine.

The next aisle over has faucets for kitchens and bathrooms, and I am always amazed by the wide variety on display.

Water heaters, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, stoves, they’re all here, and they all have copper inside. Next I head over to the lighting dept., where I can’t believe the number and variety of products. And although they may be made from different materials, each and every one has copper wires. And this brings us to the electrical department. Here, not one, but two aisles of switches, sockets, and breakers, with just about every one containing copper or brass.

As for wire & cable, there is enough here to make your heart skip a beat.

And that’s not all. Go to the garden department and check out the ingredients in Miracle Grow. Over in construction, the lumber with a greenish color is pressure treated with copper as a preservative, and if you need copper flashing, you’ll find it here as well. In hardware, there are beautiful brass door knobs, kick plates, and house numbers. And don’t forget the brass screws. You need keys? They have them, but don’t be fooled -  it may look silvery, but it’s really brass with a nickel-plated finish.

So there you have it – copper everywhere, in just about everything.

And one more copper thing, if you want a beautiful, informative, and interesting copper chart, with 21 years of important history, check out our website www.jegross.com

A frequent contributor to Electrical Marketing and Electrical Wholesaling, John Gross is publisher of The Copper Journal and one of the nation’s leading experts in metals pricing. If you would like to learn more about how to manage your wire and cable inventory in this volatile market environment, contact him at [email protected] or at 631-824-6486.

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