Yesterday I managed to get a pack of wirenuts. An electronics company carries them. Translucent wing nuts in a pack of 50, cost 10 Euro!
Oh yes, and the guy from the shop said to me: "Do you _really_ want to buy these? You know, they used them at my son's, and half of the receptacles didn't work! Take strip connectors, they're better!"
For those of you who work or have worked in the US, is this expensive?

I doubt it was the wirenut's fault that the receptacles didn't work, it was rather the sparky who didn't tighten them.

Sounds expensive to me.

But then again...I live in New York and I'm biased. You can get a lot of low-priced (still good quality) stuff here if you know where to look.

I've seen small packs of a couple of dollars. A jar of 300-400 nuts can run 20 clams....a pack of 100 about 10 bucks.

The caps are color-coded, by the way.

The only translucent caps I've seen here are crimp-on caps used for motorized appliances(vibration concerns) and other similar electronic things where they don't want you to easily fix things. Also crimping is faster and more uniform quality control than screwing wirenuts.

You should see some of the mistakes I see when I'm repairing broken pencil sharpeners at work. One company (Hunt Boston) uses wirenuts in their sharpeners and sometimes they're not tightened properly or there are loose strands leaking out from underneath the cap!!!

Maybe that's why these things didn't work for him...he didn't crimp them. Look for a steel spring inside the cap. If it's a smooth barrel, then it's a crimp-on device.

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 04-16-2003).]

No, they're definitely wirenuts, called twist-on connectors. The typical spring is clearly visible through the plastic. They're manufactured by DHV, product name is "Top Six" and they're sold under the "Conrad Electronic" brand in clear plastic bags with a cardboard sleeve stapled to it.

Sven, that seems a litte expensive too.
I have here a 100/box of T&B 333s, that I
believe cost $5 or 6 CDN, from a big-box home centre.

I think that the reason they may seem expensive is that very few people in the EU use wirenuts. All standards I know of donot allow it, they are not considered permanent means of attachment therefore donot comply. If your going to go through an inspection, I wouldn't use them. I guarantee you will fail.

Sorry I'm not trying to ne negative!

ccaserta,
Welcome to ECN!!.
Ranger,
I prefer the screw-type Strip connector, it wins hands down with me, I don't know, I suppose I'm just used to using them all the time.
The only thing that really concerns me about wire-nuts is have wires not twisted into them properly and the wire breaking off later on.

These wirenuts have a VDE mark on them and are according to some German electricians legal to be used. In the Netherlands and in Italy wirenuts seem to be fairly common.
I bought them since they are a bit smaller than strip connectors of the same capacity. I don't know of any box fill restrictions, so I have to work on many old overstuffed boxes. The old twisted and taped splices were much smaller than strip connectors, and the basic rule of thumb for box fill was: you can cramp in what you can cramp in! The old boxes were often only 4x8 cm and in thin walls 2 cm deep. In Brick walls you can go as deep as you want, these "boxes" are just wooden frames without side walls or a back. A handmade sheet metal cover is then screwed or nailed onto the frame. These covers had hole patterns, the smallest size typically 2 round holes, the larger ones five holes (a rectangle with one hole in the center).
When I did our dining room I had to resort to twisting and taping since I couldn't get enough strip connectors into the box. Here the wirenuts come in handy.