Home Depot 12-2 Speaker Wire... any problems with running it in-wall? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Mansure]

I bought 125 feet of the HD 12 gauge speaker wire to finally hook up my gear properly and was wondering if there would be any issues/hazards with running the wire behind the walls in my finished basement.

The walls are actually 1/2 inch thick panels of knotty pine.(sp?)

Any hints or tips to help me along?

Does anybody know of a website out there that goes into detail on how to run speaker wire?

I appreciate your suggestions/comments.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[GordonL]

If the wire is CL-2 or CL-3 rated for in-wall use, you should be ok. As far as installing, drill holes at the exit points, drop the wire to the floor, then run the wire along the baseboards to your equipment.

 

[Brian Mansure]

Thanks Gordon.

I'm glad I didn't use the wire yet.

I'll return it and get the CL-2 or CL-3 audio wire.

I went onto the Home Depot website and it appears they do sell "in-wall" rated speaker wire so hopefully they'll let me exchange at my local HD.

Should 14 gauge wire be adequite?

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Takosan]

Brian,

Before you return it you might want to:

1. check the wire itself to see if anything is written on it;

2. look on the spool @ HD to see if you see a label.

From my experience @ HD probably you won't find any writings on the wire. I bought 100' of 12 gauge @ HD several weeks ago. To my dismay there wasn't anything on the cable itself. I was ready to try to return my 100' cable but decided to take a look @ the spool. Sure enough the spool from where my 100' was cut had a label: 12/2 CL2 SPK. WIRE. You might give it a look ... I don't know if they'll take back a cut wire either.

Takosan

 

[Brian Mansure]

Thanks Takosan.

The actual wire has a clear cover on it with no print what so ever. It doesn't even say which side is positive and which side is negitive.

The one side has a few strands of silver wire through the copper which I assume to be the negetive.

I'll have to go back and check the spool first.

Thanks again,

Brian

 

[Takosan]

Brian,

That's the exact same wire I think. The clear cover, maybe because of the wire itself & not the cover, seems to have faint redish/pinkish/orangish tint.

I didn't know that there was such a thing as one side of the wire being pos & the other being neg ... I thought if I just mark one side with a marker before running it so that the pos on receiver will get to the pos on speaker.

Takosan

 

[Ron Katcher]

I bought the the same wire a couple of weeks ago. Actually, if you look carefully, the insulation on one side of the wire is textured with lines and the other is smooth. In addition, as was noted, one side has silver-colored strands in the wire and one does not. Both of these indicators are present to give you some confirmation that you are truly connecting negative to negative and positive to positive-- which you happen to use for each does not matter. Also, I believe this wire is CL-2.

Cheers,

Ron K.

 

[Rob Lloyd]

Beleive it or not Crutchfield has some decent articles on installing wire yourself. It covers almost everything from planning, what you need for tools, boxes, cutting drywall, using fish tape, how make the wire runs etc. It's worth the look, but the pdf is rather large.

I don't have the link for it but I should be easy to find.

 

[Brian Mansure]

Thanks fellas, I appreciate the info.

I wanted to make perfectly sure it's okay to run behind my walls so that I don't have to remove it and start over.

Rob,

I knew Crutchfield had good instructions for Car Audio installs but never took notice to the HT stuff.

I'll definitly take a look.

Regards,

Brian

 

[StephenL]

Home Depot sells 12 AWG 2 conductor in-wall speaker cable indentified UL CL3R on the gray jacket.

 

[Chris Lana]

Well, last Feb I used a 250' spool of HD 12-ga. Back then, there was no posts (on HTF) about lettering, just to use it. I ran it through walls, joists, on top of the furnace return and finally into the garage where it is exposed to temp. variances. End result-no problem.

Moving in Feb---will use again.

Questions?

 

[Danny Bonnell]

If you are running the wire in-wall, without any sheetrock in place, then your best bet is to use a 90 degree drill and run plastic conduit thru the studs. Then you can pull your wire thru the conduit, and if it ever has to be replaced, its as simple as pulling it out, and pulling a new wire thru. Also, if its in plastic conduit, it doesn't have to be a "rated" wire per se. You can pretty much use whatever you want. Most good wire is rated, irregardless.

The conduit is more of a convienence than anything.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Actually, I never could see the logic it CL-2 rated wire. I figure if my house is on fire, the least of my problems is toxic fumes from a couple of speaker wire runs.
Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Danny Bonnell]

Wayne-

LOL! Good one. You have to wonder about A LOT of rules and codes that are dreamed up.

 

[Steve Gazi]

What is the item # of the HD wire I'll need? I'd like to buy some this weekend so I can start getting things wired up. Does it comes in side-by-side versions? Also, what would be good for fastening it down with?

 

[Nick P]

O.K. guys, I'll be the ignorant one and ask...why does speaker wire running through a wall have to be fire rated? There is no real amount of heat generated by speaker wire is there?