ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Ever heard of or seen this

OK, so I guess the general concensus is that they aren't for home wiring but others have seen them. This house was built by the home owner himself and for the most part is built like a brick sh-t house. Very sturdy, but the wiring is where he lacked. To bad for me but I will be changing them. Thanks, guys.

Yea, I've seen that before...in the same house where the previous occupants replaced a 15-amp breaker with a 30-amp one, melting the ground wire into the hot wire and burning it away, leaving the ground hot leaving the panel (if that gives you any idea at their skills. They stunk at plumbing, carpentry, and drywall work too.).

Those type of Scotchloks are not intended for solid wire, only stranded wire. (The other type that is intended for solid wire is for telephone use).

I'm wondering if these are the same things we call "wago"s. That may be a brand name. Same principle as back-wired recepts, in my opinion. Fast and easy, but likely to loosen over time and then cause arcing, etc. We used them (supplied by contractor) on university housing ~3 years ago. No fires yet, as far as I know, but I still would never use them by choice.

No, they are not the same as "wagos".

The connectors being discussed have a piece that slices through the insulation; this 'knife' is then supposed to wedge itself on either side of the wire, making contact.

They're typically used in lighting applications, where they are used to tap off a #12 wire, to feed a ballast. I don't think I'd rely on them for any serious current, though.

"Wagos" , as well as the similar Ideal "In-Sure," work on a completely different principle, and have a far better record thant back-stab receptacles. Those connectors, however, are another discussion.

By the way a short look over the pond:

"Wagos" are the state of art in this millenium. Wire nuts and everything with any type of screws is regarded as antique because only the spring mechanism of a wago type connector is able to adapt to possible form changing of a copper wire. A German electrician rarely uses a screw driver to connect wires, he just "pushes in the wires", even on mcbs or neutral or ground bars.

"Scotchlocks" or alike have not been introduced into LV installations and are so far limited to cars.

On the other hand the Scotchlock like connecting principle is very much promoted and more and more used in industrial context, here called f.i. "QuickOn"(Phoenix Contact) or similar.

According to the data sheet for the Scotchlok™
Insulation Displacement Electrical
Tap Connector 560:



It says they do work with solid wire. This is for the blue ones; the red ones, like the one I saw, are designed for smaller-gauge wire (18-22 gauge wire).

Perhaps the biggest problem with these Scotchlok connectors is that you have to use the correct size for the wire you're tapping into to make a reliable connection. If you don't, expect problems.

Correct, Brian ... and there is a yellow one for joining two #12 wires.

Spec sheets aside, and despite the extraordinarily fine reputation of 3M , I have found the devices problematic with #12. That is, connections are often intermittent. It's possible that the blades are damaged during installation.

I restrict my use of them to light ballasts.