What do you use to splice wires together? Wirenuts? push-in connectors (like Wago)? Terminal strips in boxes? I've heard some bits here and there, but was wondering what is used where. And, have you had or seen many problems with a particular method.

Thanks in advance,
Bill

Bill,
The most common method here would have to be terminal strip connectors in boxes. Providing the screws are tight & PVC terminal blocks are not used in high temperature applications, there are no problems.
Also plastic joint boxes with fixed brass screw terminals are common in residential type installations, where flat twin & earth cable is used.
We do not use US style wire nuts in the UK.
Porcelain wire nuts known as "Screwits" were used in very old installations here, but were banned when cables went metric (solid strand) around 1970.

[This message has been edited by David UK (edited 05-07-2003).]

Here we use only push in connectors like Wago's. They are very reliable if you keep the wires straight (not bent) and if the wire is stripped long enough. And of course you have to buy a good make.

Belgian,

The connection in the Wago type connectors seems very similar to the "back-stab" connection on our standard grade receptacles and does not seem reliable to many people (in the US anyway).

Can you (or anyone else) add any further comments on that? How long have they been used over there, Do you consider them a good connection etc. ?

Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Addiss (edited 05-08-2003).]

Strip connectors (choc blocks) and Wagos in Austria. Wagos have been around for more than 10 years I think, and at least in Germany many electricians believe that Wagos are far superior to strip connectors. (can't be overtorqued, don' mash the conductor, easier to install,...). Receptacles with screw terminals have almost disappeared here. Personally I don't like them. One reason is that it is virtually impossible to get the wires back out of some of these. For the second reason see the thread on the swiss receptacle...
Wirenuts do exist here, but they're awfully expensive and hardly ever used. ($10 for a 50 bag, only 1 standard size available)

I'll echo our German counterparts on the Wago's. We feel here too that they are much more reliable for the same reasons that Texas Ranger has said. In my view receptacles is a different story. Here we use mainly with screws and I find them much more reliable. The connection is much better.

Oops, I made a jump in my last post. Just to clear up things: I wanted to say I don't like push-in receptacles. I've seen ca. 10 year old Legrand ones where the release buttons were that tight you could hardly press them without breaking your finger. The huge screws our old receptacles had can almost always be opened, even if they're severely rusted. Modern cheap Kopp receptacles and switches have working release buttons, but I don't really trust them anyway. My absolute favs is the 1950ies/60ies Maté series with porcelaine body and screw terminals. Almost indestructible. Of the 8 1960ies receptacles in our living room only 1 is noticeably worn, and it is possible to bend back the loosened springs. Wiring them takes more time, sure. Strip conductor, wrap it a full turn around the terminal screws and tighten them. Fasten receptacle to box. Tools needed: Stanley knife, strip pliers (optional, only for inner insulation, not for Romex sheath), a small and a big straight blade screwdriver, nose pliers or combi pliers (combination of small pipe wrench, cutters and flat pliers) and some patience.
Estimated lifetime: 40 years+, maybe tighten thes crews after about 25 to 30 years.
Backstabbed: Stanley knife, strip pliers (again optional), small screwdriver. Steps: strip wire, push into receptacle. Fasten receptacle with claws or screws.
Estimated lifetime: until the first bad short. the plastic will melt away. Or the backstab connections overheat. What such a receptacle looks like in this case can be seen in the thread on the swiss receptacle. All the plastic around the stab-in terminals melted away and some of the wire insulation is gone as well.

Ragnar,

Are you able to easily buy the receptacles with terminals that use a small grub screw to hold the wire in the terminal? Similar to a terminal strip.

The Belgian receptacles I got a month or so ago use that type of terminals, ditto the British-style BS-546 receptacles I have from Malaysia (5 and 15 amp configs).

That's more of an improvement than the back-stab things with the spring action.

We have some of those here in the USA - the more expensive ones...they're normally known as back-wire (as opposed to back-stab). Instead of wrapping the wire around the terminal screw you stick the wire straight into a hole and turn the screw. The Colombian-manufactured receptacles and switches also use those.

A little pair of pressure plate clamps around the wire holding it in place as you tighten the screw. _Very_ effective. I love them and always spring the extra dollar to buy them if I have the chance.

P.S.: Don't buy your receptacles from a discount store or a supermarket!! Cheap, shoddy devices marked 200 percent because they're in a fancy blisterpack.

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 05-08-2003).]

Note: I edited my post above to read "Back-stab" instead of "Back-wire".

The Back-stabbed receptacles seem to have connection method similar to the Wago type push-in connectors. Many people don't seem to trust them, except on lightly loaded circuits. These connectors seem to be trying for a foot-hold in the US. Do you think the skepticism is justified, from a design standpoint? The ones I've seen are rated at 20A and for solid or stranded wire.

Bill

I've only worked with a tiny handful of old ones an electrician left at a new construction site. I doubt you could get stranded into these, you have to push the wire in with quite some force. Also I wasn't able to find out how the release mechanism works, so I only use them for connections I think I won't ever need to open again. I don'T like things I can't figure out how to use, thus my deep mistrust of any connection that works without screws. I only use choc blocks. (And just for fun I recently bought a bag of wirenuts). I also don't like plugs with a casing that snaps shut (quite popular cheap type of Schuko plug).
All recent receptacles with screw terminals are backwired. Light switches and some plugs have been backwired almost forever (I've got an early 1900s backwired rotary switch). There are several types of terminals used here: the typical US side wired style where you have to wrap the wire around the screw. Then perhaps the most common style, a simple screw but with walls on 2 sides that keep the wire from sliding out when tightening the screw. then there are the types with pressure plates, sometimes simple phase/neutral screws and pressure plate for the ground, pressure plate terminals are always rated for 2 wires. And then the last type, a solid metal block with a hole in which you push the wire, then tighten the screw. Very popular for plugs, old light switches use it as well.
I usually buy Kopp at the hardware store, they seem to last. Or I use salvaged stuff, mainly made by the Austrian companies Maté, PE and MPE (now all Legrand), very reliable stuff.
Older german receptacles are weird, they usually have 2 individual ground screws, one for the incoming neutral and one for the jumper to the neutral screw, an easy way to tell apart German and Austrian.

For Sweden all the above mentioned connectors are used, and some more.

For receptacles: The only type of terminal I've seen on the market today has a center screw which when tightened pushes a plate down, to hold one wire one each side of the screw. (It is one of the types described by Ragnar above) The same type is used on circuit breakers and the like.

Switches increasingly come with the push-in terminal with a release button. The button on the popular ELJO brand is to hard to push by hand, for some reason.

I should add that the Kopp brand is the extreme low end here.

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 05-08-2003).]

I find the system which screws with a metal clamp the best. May I add that on our plugs you can put 2 x 2.5 mm2 on each side of the screw. Contrary to our receptacles, our switches have a metal block with a whole for the wire and a screw that tightens it. I find this system not at all as good for the following reasons: a, If you put only one wire of 1.5 mm2 and tighten it very strongly the wire can snap or be crushed. b, you can put a maximum of 2 x 1.5 mm2 in those holes.

Over here in NZ, we tend to use connectors that have a screw that holds the wires in a brass ring, this is covered with plastic insulation.
Tinned copper eyelet/fork and splices (bare and insulated) are also used.
Where bare splices are used to join cables, they are covered with thick walled Heatshrink for each core and over the overall sheathing of the cable.
Any joints in a domestic installation is required to be made either at the switchboard or in a suitable wiring enclosure(say a junction box or a flush box).

As David mentioned above, screw strip connectors are the norm here. These days the plastic surround is generally clear plastic, but older types were more often opaque plastic in either white, blue, or brown/black. The chocolate-color of the latter is why we still colloquailly refer to them as "choc blocks."

Residential wiring makes widespread use of round plastic boxe with brass terminals fitted inside.

The screw connections on switches and receptacles are a little different (and in my opinion inferior) to the method used on U.S. devices. Rather than the wire being wrapped around the screw so that the large head clamps it down, the wires here are clamped down by the end of the screw. Some of the better makes use a compression plate on the end of the screw.

I'll try to post some pictures later.

The one were the wire is clamped down by the end of the screw is the one I described as a metal block with a hole for the wire. Hardly ever used for modern switches or receptacles, but very common for plugs.
Strip connectors can have virtually any color here. White, yellow, red, grey, blue, green, purple, black, clear,... using different colors in one box adds a touch of color to the installation, I often combinme blue, red and yellow.

Here are the terminals on a typical British device (this happens to be a single BS1363 socket):


The line and neutral terminals are shrouded making it difficult to see them clearly, but they are the same type as the exposed earth (grounding) terminal.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-11-2003).]

One method used on airfield lighting is uninsulated crimps with two diffrent sized heat shrinks on top of one another, this is a very tough waterproof joint as it has to be given that there life is mostly spent in water filled pits!
4mm2 double insulated singles are usually used on airfields.

Quote from David:
Here is an example:

Time to revive an old one...

I have just had reason to utilise some of these

http://www.wirenut.com/wt/IdcPushin.nsf

(Click on their Push-In connectors)

[img]http://www.wirenut.com/IDEAL-EZ/pro...1986?OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=jpg[/img]

I must say that I am impressed – the job was much quicker - and I felt safer - by not pushing loaded wire nuts back into a crowded box.

I might though, pull on hard hat and adopt a low profile


[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 07-05-2004).]

The use of push-ins has come up several times in othe threads. While checking out the Wago site, I came across these... They have positive clamping, as opposed to spring held. Wondering if anyone has used them? I think they'd be a great improvment on some of the wire nuts we use in the States.

Personally, I'd like to see the US go to terminal strips like the rest of the world. But did I see this right? Wirenuts are more expensive?




[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 07-05-2004).]

I kind of like the connectors in which the conductors are held in a collar with a set screw, terminal-strip style, but a cover then screws over that collar to give the finished appearance of a wirenut.

Seems like it's a system with the best of both worlds.

I hate wirenuts! It's that wearisome feeling you get when you open a jointbox in, say conduit, and as soon as you touch anything they all rattle off down your steps!! Gimme chocos anytime - or better still a fixed terminal box as shown above in Pauls post ( looks a bit Screwfix-like that one though...! ) provided it's a good quality one that doesn't splinter the plastic as soon as you torque up more than a finger-tip's worth...

I agree with Paul; the best screwterms are the ones with a bearing surface on the wire and not the end of the screw - less likely to snap a 1.00mm Cu that way.

I dislike intensly the stabbers. My experience with these in sound systems is; yeah ok - they're fast. But the quality of the connection is lousy, especially if someone has re-used it. As soon as they weaken the battle is lost...

Had a look around our 1970s wiring in the attic in Ireland a few months ago.. All connections are made with MK fixed terminal boxes, black circular boxes which make pretty decent connections!

They're bulky, but they're safe!

Choc-boxes get used behind light fittings quite a bit though. DIYers often just leave them dangling loose in the attic space! (Ideally they're encased in a box)

MK has been considered the Rolls-Royce of wiring accessories here for many years, and their junciton boxes are still certainly among the best, if somewhat expensive compared to other makes.

The "choc block pushed into the attic" method is all to common here as well, I'm afraid. The juncture between fixed cables and lighting fixtures is one area where many British homes seem to be severely lacking. People run regular T&E into high-temperature enclosures, or they take of a loop-in ceiling rose with three cables running into it and just choc-block the loop thru portion and shove it into the attic, etc.

Darn, don't you just hate when that happens? Some of the cheap no-brand types are getting really bad in that respect.

By the way, for non-Brits, Screwfix is a big mail-order DIY supplier over here: www.screwfix.com

a propos one of your other posts extolling MK, that's why I almost always use them Cheaper jb's are simply not worth the hassle... Isn't it amazing how the following always apply when you're faced with a splintered box:

1. It's always the LAST terminal you tighten.
2. It's always the most visible box in an installation.
3. Despite #2, it's always the least accessible.
4. It's the 'busiest' box, usually six-term with every entry used to the full
5. You're pleased with the way it's all going/looking until that happens...
6. Your arms ache like hell from working at full stretch over your head for the last age
7. The client has just walked in...
8. It's 4:45pm on a Friay afternoon
9. All the cuts are 1.00mm - ya don't want to rework them for fear of them breaking
10. It NEVER looks as good when you redo it

Does all that sound like a helping of deja vu???

Oh well...MK it is


[This message has been edited by uksparky (edited 07-09-2004).]

Hey, you must have been looking over my shoulder on some of my jobs!

Re #6, it always seems that if anything needs re-doing it's the one stuck in a really awkward corner where you've just spent 20 minutes working above your head while twisted around the cabinet, rafter, or whatever.

Regarding www.screwfix.com…
Paul, I would never have thought to associate the term “Armadillo” with a garden wiring kit. Interesting.