22/4 Wire and Reputable Online Merchants

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GraysonPeddie

Active Member
Hi. Excuse my newbish question, but I want to know if there's any reputable sources that sell 22 AWG 4 conductor wire in less than or equal to 125 ft. in length?

This is the question I have to ask since I don't want to be left out with no 22/4 wires when installing a security system (well, only temporary, since I'm not going to drill small holes through walls just to mount a keypad to the wall., including a siren, which I have doubts about doing so since not all landlords will let a renter do that). Wireless will be used for contacts, detectors, sensors, etc.

I'm not looking to buy an excess of 250+ feet of wire, which 125 feet or less should suffice for me.

Keywords for search (in case a forum member may need to do search before starting a thread): 22/4, 22AWG, keypad, databus, twisted, untwisted, pair
 
500-foot 22/4 wire is cheaper than 100-foot 22/4 wire from Automated Outlet? I wish there's a 250-foot version available from Automated Outlet, but I need to spend as little as possible--something less than $20 at 100'... Savings are not that great. For example, what if I buy a 250' cable for $25 if I need only about 100' and then later, by -- let's say 2 years later, I'll use 100' of cable, instead of paying $15 for a 100' cable, then by next two years, get another 100' cable, which costs about $30 total! And I save $5 by getting a 250' cable? Well, like I mentioned, $5--even $10, is not that much, and this is assuming I don't need 50' out of 250' of cable, which comes out to a usage of 200' of cable length total. So, I'll only buy how much footage I need. It may not be logical, but that's the way how I see it when it comes to savings of $10 or less over the next couple of years down the road.

I tried to find a 22/4 cable at Home Depot, but only 500+ feet of cable available... I'll check over at Lowes...

Thanks!

Update: Neither Lowes has one in their website...
 
Grayson Peddie said:
I tried to find a 22/4 cable at Home Depot, but only 500+ feet of cable available... I'll check over at Lowes...
Click to expand...

I have bought 22/2, 22/4 and 18/4 at home depot (the gray-jacket stuff). They sell all those by the foot (I bought all these by the foot). Are you sure you asked? They do sell the 500ft rolls, but they were all available by the foot too.

I also bought some at Lowe's although I don't think they were all available. All the home depots I checked around here (SF bay area) have the three types I mentioned above by the foot.

Laurent
 
Laurent said:
Grayson Peddie said:
I tried to find a 22/4 cable at Home Depot, but only 500+ feet of cable available... I'll check over at Lowes...
Click to expand...

I have bought 22/2, 22/4 and 18/4 at home depot (the gray-jacket stuff). They sell all those by the foot (I bought all these by the foot). Are you sure you asked? They do sell the 500ft rolls, but they were all available by the foot too.

I also bought some at Lowe's although I don't think they were all available. All the home depots I checked around here (SF bay area) have the three types I mentioned above by the foot.

Laurent
Click to expand...

Yeah, you need to go to the spools rack and press the service button and have them cut it for you. It won't be prepackaged in that small of a length. But you may find that 125' by the foot at HD is as much or more as 250/500 ft. in bulk from AO, or WorthDist.
 
Okay, I didn't know about the spools rack at Home Depot. I'll keep that in mind when buying wires for the siren and transformer (what kind of a 2-conductor wire will I need for those two? I do know that I'll need a 22 AWG 4-conductor wire for keypad wires that are not very long in length).

Thanks!

Update: By the way, I've only been to websites, and not by visiting Lowes in-person, because since I'm visually impaired, I'll have to plan ahead and take a bus to Home Depot and spend about an hour there until I get home (I could take a cab, but since I'm hearing impaired, even with an amplified phone, I do tend to not understand what the person is saying over my cell phone, so the bus is the only way).
 
Grayson Peddie said:
Okay, I didn't know about the spools rack at Home Depot. I'll keep that in mind when buying wires for the siren and transformer (what kind of a 2-conductor wire will I need for those two? I do know that I'll need a 22 AWG 4-conductor wire for keypad wires that are not very long in length).
Click to expand...

For keypads, at least for Elk, you can use plain Cat5e. For me, it was just easier to run Cat5e to the keypads, for the networking, the phones... For the Elk, the Cat5e solution takes 3 pairs out of 4 and allows you nice homeruns with the M1DBH (crimped RJ-45 and all).

Laurent
 
As for keypads, do I really have to twist the wires together (ensuring the colored wires match) before I connect them to the keypad terminals? I'll only have one keypad.
 
Grayson Peddie said:
As for keypads, do I really have to twist the wires together (ensuring the colored wires match) before I connect them to the keypad terminals? I'll only have one keypad.
Click to expand...

You only want to untwist enough so that you can connect the wires comfortably to the terminals. It's not a huge deal, really. Maybe one inch of wire untwisted. My problem is color blind, so getting correct wires on terminals is the challenge. Cat5 wiring is a real PITA. I just purchased some RJ plugs that the wires go right through the end, so color determination is easier. My wife gets tired of answering "is this one Brown, or Green?"
 
I can confirm that Lowes offers 22/4 by the foot, because I recently ran out and called to see how much it was. What I discovered is that it was 4 times as much as I had paid from keystonewire.com....and probably AO is similarly cheaper.

So...if you pay by the foot, you'll pay through the nose. ;)
 
re: keystonewire.com

Rob: what's their story? They don't show prices, and don't even indicate how you find out prices (for example I was looking at 22/4 CL2 1000' spool, under "security wire").

"View account" doesn't even have a way to sign up for a new account.

They do appear to have quite an inventory, but don't appear too interested to sell it to anyone that doesn't have an existing account.
 
Keystone is more like your local wire supplier and do 'live' business. The website is not very useful. Just choose the closest location and give them a call, they are usually very helpful. If you call the Fla location, ask for Nick. And remember, they should ship orders > $ 500 for free. If they don't call Nick in Fla or let me know...
 
What I did was filled out the Information Request online asking for prices on the various pieces of wire I needed, and based on that information, the local distributor emailed me with my answers and I went from there. Great prices, and very nice to work with (I worked with Jim in Philly).
 
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