Possible mislabeled wire?

[dslabuda]

So I ordered a 500 foot spool of xhhw-2 #2 awg from Home Depot for my subpanel run. Am I crazy or does this wire look small for 2 gauge?



My previous limited wire experience is in car audio and it looked closer to 4 awg. So I pulled out some of my leftover wire.



They are almost exactly the same size. I didn't think wires are sized differently for home and automotive use. So is either my audio power cable mislabeled or was this spool misprinted? This is going to be protected by a 90 amp breaker which is too large if this isn't 2awg.

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[DHCrocks]

there is not a big difference between 2 and 4 ga visually, when you jump to 1/0 the it's really noticeable. 4 ga is about 5.2mm and 2 ga is about 6.5mm, just slightly over 1mm larger which is hard to see, especially when the high strand count starts to flare out after you cut it. Hard to tell in the photo due to perspective but is the black one slightly larger?

 

[rockwithjason]

it's right.

 

[pattenp]

You copper #4 is not compacted strands whereas the aluminum XHHW is compacted.

 

[dslabuda]

DH, it is slightly larger. I probably should have pulled the mics out and measured. I guess I was expecting a bigger jump in physical size.

Patten, I thought about the difference in wire type but I mistakenly dismissed it thinking it had to be a minimum physical size. I was thinking the steps in size would be more dramatic between 2 and 4awg.

In hindsight the specs are out there and I could've measured.

Thanks guys.

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[Richard Cranium]

And I think there is a size difference between copper and aluminum. But not sure.

 

[Speedy Petey]

And I think there is a size difference between copper and aluminum. But not sure.

No, gauge is gauge.

 

[Speedy Petey]

You copper #4 is not compacted strands whereas the aluminum XHHW is compacted.

This.