ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Press On Connectors

I've never used these 'Wago' connectors. I also never realized that's what they were called. To me, if it's not broke don't fix it. Making up a good splice is what seperates professionals from the amateurs and I certainly consider myself a professional.

As far as the stab-locks go... well, lets just say I prefer to not use them. I understand that they're UL approved. Big deal. They come lose over time especially in a room with a wooden floor with a 6-year old jumping all over the place. The better install BY FAR is to secure the wire to the terminal.

YEAH I GUESS IT IS UP TO THE GUY PUTTING IN THE STUFF, EVERYBODY IS DIFFERENT, JUST LIKE SOME PEOPLE LIKE THE UNIONS, AND OTHERS DONT.

[This message has been edited by makokiller (edited 01-20-2007).]

Just to further muddy the water....

Wago (the name of the manufacturer) is now making a similar type connector that has little levers to grip the wires. That is, you can actually remove wires .. a real plus!

I agree that these things (both types) really shine when there are more than four wires to connect, or when the wires are of differing sizes.

BTW, please do not post using all caps! All caps is a lot harder to read.

As far as receptacle connections are concerned, most of the "back stab" failures I've seen have had lots of problems somewhere inside the device. For example, the two receptacles will give different readings on a plug-in tester. I cannot say this is the fault of the 'back-stab,' and might actually be caused by something else inside the POS device. At least, when you use the screws you eliminate the inside device from the list of things that can go wrong.

Yea,I have used the ones with the little levers they are really cool

European Terminal or "choc blocks" go right up in size to at least 60A. In my brico there are blocks of many sizes which will take up to 5/16" [8mm] solid wire. Actually they are all a PITA - trying to manipulate the wires into the hole, line up the block with all your other wiring fighting back, getting the screwdriver aligned, avoid the wires on either side and always worrying "is it tight?" , and then trying to make an orderly safe assembly in the box without ramming it all in like a bird's nest, which means big junction boxes. Worse is when one side of the brass screw slot decides to shear off just as you give it that extra 'just to be sure' tweak- now you can't undo it either!

Alan

I actually have a genuine european splice block sitting on my desk, they do look like a real PITA to use though, I think wirenuts are a lot easier than these things (I made a couple test splices with 'em)

we use the Ideal In-Sures pretty regularly) although the tan twisters are our conector of choice) and I have seen one fail, accidentaly shorted a hot to ground, no tripped breaker, 120V L-N, 0V L-G huh? we started opening boxes, and found a blackend 6-hole on some grounds up-stream, looked like a good connection on all the grounds... hmm, still great for relativley low-current aplications,

edited to add: yes, please no caps, please no caps, please no caps, so annoying to read.
IMO
-Will

[This message has been edited by Elviscat (edited 01-21-2007).]