Copper Grades Explained
Copper pays more per kilogram than any other common scrap metal. What most people do not realise is that the copper in the bottom of a cylinder, the copper wire behind a rewired wall, and the copper in an old car radiator are not priced the same. They fall into four distinct grades. Knowing which is which, and keeping them apart before collection, can make a real difference to what you take home.
Bright wire
Bright wire is the top grade. It is thin, shiny, completely clean copper wire with no insulation, no tarnish, no paint, no solder, and no other metal attached. Typically it is new wire offcuts from rewires or unused coils from electrical stock. The surface is still bright and reflective. Bright wire pays the highest rate in the whole yard. If you have any, keep it on its own.
Number 1
Number 1 copper is clean copper tube, thicker wire, and solid copper that has light surface tarnish but no paint, no solder, and no mixed-in metals. Central heating pipe runs that come out cleanly and have been cut off at the joints usually grade as Number 1. The key is cleanliness. Any paint or solder and the grade drops.
Number 2
Number 2 copper is copper with solder, light paint, or light corrosion. Copper fittings with solder joints still attached, older tube with surface oxidation, and plumbing offcuts with minor contamination all sit here. Number 2 still pays strongly, just not as strongly as Number 1. If you strip the solder off and clean the paint, Number 2 can become Number 1.
Braziery
Braziery copper is the mixed grade. It covers old car and air-conditioning radiators, copper with brass ends attached, copper with significant iron or steel attachments, and heavily oxidised copper. Braziery is the lowest of the four copper grades but it still pays better than almost any other scrap metal. Radiator cores, in particular, are a common braziery source.
How to tell each one by eye
Bright wire looks new. Shiny, reflective, clean. Number 1 looks dull copper, clean surface, no paint or solder, no other metals. Number 2 looks the same but has solder joints still present, paint streaks, or a darker tarnish. Braziery has brass collars, steel fittings, oxidation, or mixed components. A strong magnet test separates anything with ferrous content out of the copper grades; proper copper is not magnetic.
Why separating before collection bumps your total
If everything is mixed in a single heap, we have to grade to the lowest common denominator for a fair weighted figure on the call. If you can separate, even roughly, bright wire in one box, clean tube in another, everything else as braziery, the rate per kilogram for the top two grades lifts the total price meaningfully. For larger loads this can be the difference between a good collection and a great one.
We buy all four grades
We buy bright wire, Number 1, Number 2, and braziery, all day, every day, across Carmarthenshire. You do not have to sort if you cannot, but separating even two grades is worth doing for a bigger load. Ring 07974 608 218 and we quote the live rate for each grade on the call.
Copper to sell? Call 07974 608 218, describe what you have, and we price it grade by grade.