electrical issue, just a bad outlet or something more?

[Bydand]

Originally Posted by southgeorgia_

pre series 8000 aluminum (not available in the '60's, so that is what you have), much less allow my family to be put at such risk.

Originally Posted by Pitt Chick

Okay.. I don't want to belabor the point either....
but what I bolded above makes no sense, as my house was built in 1966.

It is an Aluminum alloy that is used now in aluminum electrical conductors. The first AL conductors were series 1350 and had LOADS of documented problems in the 60's. In 1968 a wire manufacturing company (Southwire) came out with a new alloy (8000 series) that eliminated the most common heating problems of the prior AL wire. By then though it was already too late to overcome the bad reputation that AL branch circuit wires in a residence deservedly had earned.

Most outlet and switches of the 60's used steel connector screws and lugs which heat up and cool down at a different rate than the AL wires (electrical draw forms heat, most of the time very, very slight to the point you cannot feel it. The higher the draw though the higher the heat.) With the connector screws heating and cooling at a different rate than the wires it causes the connections to loosen... the looser the connection, the higher the heat gets... eventually the connection fails. Sometimes that failure is just the wire breaking off and the outlet or switch stops working, sometimes the wire melts because of the low melting temp of the earlier 1350 alloy used which can cause a fire. Other times it is a lot of arcing (sparking) which can cause a fire also. Before the 60's it isn't such a huge problem because the screws and lugs of connections were generally brass and didn't have such a big difference in the heating and cooling rate. There are a lot of other factors that make AL wiring in a home more dangerous than copper, but the heating and cooling difference is the one that causes the most problems and and makes fires MUCH more common than in homes built with copper wire circuits.

This is probably WAY more information than you needed (or expected), and it is for sure off the main topic (OP said right off that they had copper wires), but the questions came up and the warnings of AL wires in homes is NOT something that is to be taken lightly. Just because one neighborhood hasn't had a problem, that you know of, doesn't eliminate the real and documented faults and fire hazards of such a wiring system in houses.

If you have a house wired with AL branch circuit wires (the ones going to your lights and outlets) you should have ALL the connections checked every 8-10 years to make sure they are not loosening up and becoming a fire hazard. The problem with this though is that after a few times taking the outlets and switches out to tighten the connection, the wire becomes "work hardened" from the bending and can break off. Yes you can change the outlests and switches to modern ones that are CU/AL rated... but that rating is for modern 8000 series AL conductors and NOT the older 1350 AL used in homes before the mid-70's. Anyway you want to cut it, Al branch circuit wiring in a home is dangerous and not something I or any other Electrician I know, would ever have in our own homes.