Wire Types ยท SER / SEU
We buy SER and SEU cable.
A service change on a 1960s house leaves four feet of SEU on the ground and a coil of the old lateral beside it. Service entrance cable is bought on conductor count, metal and footage.
Call or text the buying desk954-740-1983
Voltage class600 V
Sizes6 AWG to 4/0, 250 kcmil
NeutralBare on SEU, insulated SER
Common metalAluminum
Get a buy quote
Send the reel list. A buyer reads it.
Six details are enough to start. Tags and photos can follow by text or email once a buyer has looked at the basics.
- A buyer reviews the lot: construction, footage and condition, not only metal weight
- Copper and aluminium, 600 V building wire through 345 kV cable
- Full reels, partial reels, cut lengths, pallets and truckloads
- No fee, no obligation, and no automatic pickup
Reel list · SER / SEU
Reviewed by a buyerTell us what you have and where it sits. Nothing is moved until written lot terms are agreed.
Service entrance cable is the fat, stiff material between a meter and a panel. SEU uses two insulated conductors wrapped around a bare neutral. SER is the round construction, with an insulated neutral and either three or four conductors in total, and it is what most local service upgrades use now.
Sellers bring it in three forms: a coil left from a 200 amp upgrade, a length cut out when the meter was relocated, and a shop or rental re-feed where the run was shortened. Aluminum is the common metal in this family, copper is the valuable one, and both are bought.
01
What a panel upgrade leaves behind
Service work is planned against a worst case, so the cable is bought long. When the meter lands closer than the drawing suggested, or the panel goes on a different wall, thirty feet of SER stays in the truck and then on a shelf. The same job produces the old service cable, cut free at both ends and usually coiled badly because it fought the whole way.
Both are worth quoting. One is new surplus with a tag; the other is removed cable with a short length. Describe them as two items, not one mixed coil.
02
SEU, SER and the neutral question
The neutral is what separates the two products and the two valuations. SEU wraps a bare neutral around the outside of the assembly, which is a lot of exposed metal for the length. SER carries a full-size insulated neutral inside a round jacket, and a four-conductor SER holds more than the three-conductor version of the same gauge.
Count the conductors before describing the lot. A seller who says four-wire and delivers three-wire changes the arithmetic by a quarter, and nobody enjoys that conversation at the dock.
- SEU, two insulated conductors and a bare neutral
- SER three-wire, with an insulated neutral
- SER four-wire, common on a subfeed
03
The condition items that set value
Service cable is thick, so damage is visible. A jacket split at a bend, a neutral strand cut at the end, or a coil dragged across a parking lot all show at a glance, and each one trims the number.
- Jacket intact along its length, not split at bends
- Neutral complete, no strands cut at either end
- Size printed and legible on the jacket
- Coil diameter wide enough not to have kinked it
- Aluminum or copper confirmed from a cut end
04
Sun, bends and why service cable ages badly
The jacket on service entrance cable is not a sunlight product, and a coil left on a truck bed through a San Antonio summer will chalk and then crack at every fold. Once it cracks, moisture reaches the neutral and the aluminum oxidises. That ends any argument about reuse.
Keep it out of the sun and the coil large. A tight coil of 4/0 SER stored in a hot shed takes a set that never comes out.
| Product | Sizes | Condition we take |
|---|---|---|
| SEU, aluminum | 6 AWG to 4/0 | Coil, cut length, pulled |
| SER round, three conductor | 6 AWG to 250 kcmil | Full coil, part coil |
| SER round, four conductor | 2 AWG to 4/0 | Tagged coil, long cut |
| SEU or SER, copper | 4 AWG to 4/0 | Any length above 25 ft |
| Sun-cracked jacket | Any size | Priced on conductor content |
Questions
Answers before you send anything.
If your question is not here, call the desk. A buyer answers, not a call centre.
How much service cable is too little to bother with?
Under about twenty-five feet it stops being cable and becomes metal, especially in aluminum. Between twenty-five and a hundred feet it is a small but real lot. Past a hundred feet, with the print readable, it behaves like any part reel.
Do you take aluminum SER as readily as copper?
We take it, at a different value. Aluminum is most of the service cable in this city, so it is a familiar lot, but the metal recovers far less per pound. Volume is what makes an aluminum service lot worth scheduling a truck for.
The jacket is split near the meter end. Is the lot finished?
No. A split at one end is normal on removed service cable and we expect it. What matters is whether water has been sitting in the split, which shows as white oxide on aluminum or green on copper. Send a photo of the damaged end.
Can you collect a service change the week it comes out?
Usually, if the coil is off the ground and accessible. Tell us the size, the approximate length, whether it is one coil or several, and whether a truck can back to it. Removed service cable left in a driveway tends to get driven over.
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No fee · no obligation
You have the cable. We have a scale and a check.
Send the reel list, the tags or a photograph of the pallet. A buyer comes back with what the lot is worth and how pickup would work, before anything is moved.
954-740-1983 Call or text
- Reel tags, or the print on the jacket
- Reel count and footage, even roughly
- Where it sits and what can reach it
- Whether the cable is still energised