ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Is this really a thing

I am watching a lot of videos of handy shop tricks and most seem to be coming from Europe or Oz/NZ based on the wire colors and equipment. They consistently show mains voltage wires twisted together and taped or shrink wrapped with no splicing device. Is that legal there?
When I watch, I always assume they will solder them or something but nope, just twisted and taped. Some of the splicing ideas are cool, particularly with the stranded wire but I would want to solder it.

In my overseas experience, connections were always to screws. In place of wire nuts free-floating terminal strips (“Choc blocks”) with shielied screws were used. (1980’s)

The last years Wago seems to be the most popular way of doin that, ofcourse and inside a box. Personally I would have soldered some of those splices, but that is not OK to the last version of our codes anymore. We may ofcourse have such ideas as mine, but the only right thin is to follow the code. We have higher risk of fire here with wooden buildings.

Spotted those ‘tips’ when I googled. There’s some very dubious and dangerous DIY ‘tips’ online.

Those videos look like they might be from Russia or similar. A lot of places use CENELEC or IEC approved devices and colour schemes, but it doesn’t mean they follow the full standards.

Twisting wires together and heat shrinking insulation with a cigarette lighter wouldn’t be remotely acceptable here, or in any EU country any more than it would be in the US.

You have to use approved connectors, the exact type may vary a bit, especially in older wiring, as national regulations were less harmonised, but they were all generally safe and fairly conservative systems.

Mostly these days they use WAGO or similar type maintenance free devices or terminal blocks with screw down, clamping connections. The blocks are can be plastic or ceramic, depending on the application and housed inside a junction box.

If done correctly, twisting wires together can create a surprisingly solid connection but there's a lot of potential for sloppy work. Back in the day this was common practice in many (though not all) European countries, especially before WWII. In Hungary it stayed until after the wall came down, scarily enough with aluminium wires. Surprisingly enough the country still hasn't burned down, even though plenty of those old splices are still in daily use. In several former Soviet countries this method still seems to be fairly popular, although self-respecting electricians solder, weld or crimp to create a permanent connection.

Actually, there's an even worse method of connecting household-size mains wires though, historically speaking. Bend the ends of all the solid wires you want to join into eyelets using needle-nose pliers, push an M3 screw with a washer through all the eyelets and add a square nut. Tighten the nut and wrap the whole lot in tape. This method was popular in Austria until the early 1960s and I've seen it fail time and again. I don't think I've seen one single house with that connection method that didn't have multiple loose splices.

I am watching some of these short videos of this type of splice and I agree, they make a pretty twist. Then I saw the attachment for a drill.
Traditionally we screwed a wire nut on them and moved on. Now they are saying a Wago with a tiny stabber metal spring in there is better.

Wire nuts are good but quite labour-intensive and a bit annoying for fault finding and altering circuits. Wagos let you add or remove individual conductors in a matter of seconds and you can usually reterminate a wire without cutting back. Wire nuts aren't quite permanent like crimps but getting close. Apparently some older European wire nuts had a nasty habit of the plastic bit getting loose and falling off, leaving exposed live metal parts in junction boxes (remember reading that complaint from several Scandinavian electricians).