ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area survey: barrel crimps or greenies

Has anyone else come across the use of greenies on conductors other than the ground?

I went on one "breaker keeps tripping" call on a recently-wired home to find greenies used EVERYWHERE. A hot wire was sticking out of the end of one of them, and had spot-welded to the box!

I use Buchanan crips applied with the exact tool Randy has in the picture. Why put an extra wirenut in the box when you can use a crimp that takes up a small space?

NJ - I have a mid-50's track home in the suburban LA area, and every stinking splice in every box is done with barrel crimps, then taped over. They didn't even use the old fashoned rubber boot type insulators I've run into here and there.

Needless to say I'm cutting them out box by box as I go through the house replacing devices. Amazing, heh?

So far, though, they haven't caused any problems, but I can see a clear benefit to having plastic boxes with these things. (Keep in mind the branch wiring is 2-wire wiring without a grounding conductor).

Radar

The Buchanon crimps have a tool designed for them. I have one and it does not look like the one pictured by Randy. It works great and the wires are tight and not loose.

Pulled out a box today that was less than a year old. A 14 and a 12 crimped together very loosely. Still a pain in the rear to get apart. For the sake of the next guy I'll stick with the greenies.

Just adding a little more interest to what would seem to be a simple subject.

Wirenuts are tested to UL 486C, and Greenies are tested to UL 467, one for regular wire nuts, the other for grounding purposes. The same goes for the barrels, except the barrels are not listed or tested for grounding purposes. THATS INTERESTING!!!

I called the technical number and spoke to a tech representative about this. They said look in the catalog and I would see that all of the pictures show the barrels used with 'non-grounding' type conductors and that it is not a misrepresentation of the use of the barrels or the wirenuts. That they only show the 'Greenies' with grounding type conductors. I looked in the catalog and sure enough he was correct. He went on to say that 'regular' wirenuts have not been tested for bonding or grounding purposes.

Pierre

I do find that interesting.

The 'regular' wire nuts on the ungrounded conductors are going to take the same fault current as any 'greenie' on the same circuit during a fault, whats the difference?

If you have ever installed plug mold using the wiremold supplied push in connectors you will see the same restriction. In the instructions they show the push in connectors for the ungrounded and grounded conductors, for the grounding conductor they show a regular wire nut.

Bob

LOL

This is a Hall Of Mirrors!

What are the differences between UL 486C and UL 467? (Other than the title, that is.) Is there reference material or the source document available online?

LOL

Yes it is, just bond the darn box and be done with it.

Bob