Old panel swap bit me in the wallet, should have looked closer

Did a residential panel change out in Phoenix last Tuesday, 200 amp service on a 1985 house. Everything seemed straight forward until I started pulling the old breakers and found the neutral bundle had aluminum tails spliced to copper with no antioxidant goop. Corrosion was bad enough that one splice just crumbled in my fingers. I had to rework 14 connections and charge the homeowner an extra $450 for the labor and materials. Lesson learned, always pop a few breakers and inspect the neutrals before quoting a flat price. Any of you guys running into spliced aluminum neutrals on older services and how do you handle the cost?

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taylor_mitchell801mo ago

Yeah that extra charge is fair but also, quick heads up, aluminum to copper splices actually don't need antioxidant paste if they're rated for it, like the little purple wire nuts or the Al/Cu rated connectors. The goop mainly matters for aluminum to aluminum connections. The real issue there is just the corrosion and bad contact, not the lack of paste. I've seen that same crumbly mess on neutrals in Tucson, usually where the drywall dust and moisture got in. For pricing, I just start quoting "inspect and repair" on any 80s panel now, so the customer knows upfront the neutrals might blow up the budget before I even touch it.

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