My boss said to always use a 22/4 wire for keypad runs, even short ones

He told me that about three years ago when I first started, saying it's just better practice. I mean, I get it for long runs, but I was doing a small office job last week with keypads maybe 15 feet from the panel. I used some 18/4 I had left over from a speaker job instead. Big mistake. One of the keypads started acting up, showing random zones as open. Took me an hour to trace it back to voltage drop on that thinner wire. Has anyone else run into this on what should be an easy run?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_james18h ago

Honestly that seems a bit over the top for a fifteen foot run. Voltage drop on 18 gauge at that distance should be basically nothing unless something else was going on. Maybe there was a bad connection at one of the terminals or a staple pinching the wire. I'd double check the whole run before blaming the wire gauge.

sandragonzalez14h ago

Wait, voltage drop on 15 feet of 18/4? That's wild. @the_james might be onto something with a bad connection.