Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Yes

4 (23.5%)

No

6 (35.3%)

Doesn't Matter

4 (23.5%)

Wire Nuts Are Evil

3 (17.6%)

Total Members Voted: 17

[Steve M Smith]

If we did the same thing inside a product it would be called a flying splice or haywired  In a product every splice should be in a terminal or terminal strip.

Strangely, the only place I have seen wire nuts in this country is inside a product.

I recently fitted a bathroom mirror with lights which had wire nuts inside. 


Steve.

[Art Welter]

Choose a manufacturer whose wire nuts work. Some don't. I've had good luck with the ones from 3M.

Unfortunately, it seems we often find out which wire nuts don't work well when we open up a box and see plastic bits of the wire nuts laying on the bottom, or expanded helical coil wire nut inserts no longer making connection, or bi-metalic corrosion from the dissimilarity of the coil and wire material.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Choose a manufacturer whose wire nuts work. Some don't. I've had good luck with the ones from 3M.

Coming from the land of 3M this is a bit hard for me to say, but either I had an entire bag of nuts from a defective run, or 3M nuts suck.  I had tons of problems with the nut just spinning on the wires.  Maybe that's intentional and I'm stupid, but I don't think so.  I've used Ideal nuts for years with great results. 

[Jeff Bankston]

3m scotch locks are the worst wire nuts i'v ever seen. even then the improved ones are junk. i never allowed them on my jobs. if the supply house my boss used only had scotch i would tell him to call another supply house and get Ideal or GB wing nuts. a man needs to know how to tighten his nuts and keep the junk nuts out of his trunk.

[Art Welter]

Coming from the land of 3M this is a bit hard for me to say, but either I had an entire bag of nuts from a defective run, or 3M nuts suck.  I had tons of problems with the nut just spinning on the wires.  Maybe that's intentional and I'm stupid, but I don't think so.  I've used Ideal nuts for years with great results.

Also coming from the Land of 10,000 Nuts, and having worked in a plastics factory there, saw many examples of parts that were failure prone from too rapid heat/cold cycling in manufacture, and parts with metal inserts were especially problematic. There is a fine line between good parts/too slow, and more parts per hour that will fail.

As simple as a wire nut seem on the surface, there a lot of things to go wrong, and when they do there may be batches of them.

[Mike Sokol]

As simple as a wire nut seem on the surface, there a lot of things to go wrong, and when they do there may be batches of them.

I've been helping a No~Shock~Zone reader chase down the reason for his RV hot-skin voltage, and looks like the culprit was a wire-nut connecting solid and stranded wires for the chassis ground. See below. I personally don't think wire nuts should be used in moving vehicles such as RV trailers since the vibration from bouncing down the road is a sure way to loosen up things in a hurry.

Mike - I think I found it!  The pigtail in the junction box between the Franks Autotransformer and the Power center bare wire had come loose from the wire nut.  Since it was wrapped with black tape it looked secure but was not.

Since it was “inside” the Franks “power tester” the incoming ground was solid but the ground to the power center was not. Tomorrow I will solder those three connections and wrap with Splicing tape. Hopefully this will solve my hot skin issue.
Lou

[Stephen Swaffer]

Properly sized and applied wire nuts don't need tape-taped wired nuts are often a sign of someone using the wrong size/defective or poor quality nwire nut.  I would guess in manufacturing low price wins-so perhaps an inferior design.  Also, tape is sometimes used to "weatherprooof" a connection-tape alone does not work well and especially on wire nuts because their is a void to hold moisture, where as a connection that dries quickly would be less liekly to corrode. 

I have used wire nuts in a pinch in vehicles and they work fine-spring tension is usually a plus in high vibration applications. 

Someone mentioned using crimp connectors earlier in the thread-though the exact application was not clear.  I have had inspectors point out that the terminals on devices (switches/receptacles) are UL listed for connection with either solid or stranded wire-but not necessarily with terminals.  But I do not take sides on that issue and plead the 5th as far as code violations in that area.

There are no perfect or ideal (small "i") wire connectors-they all have pros and cons.  IMO, connections are one area that workmanship is critical-whether it is a solder/mechanical/compression/exothermic weld-taking the care to make a secure connection is the mark of a craftsman.

[Jay Barracato]

The key to wire nuts is the twist in the wire before they are applied.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[frank kayser]

The key to wire nuts is the twist in the wire before they are applied.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Evident from a number of the above posts, not everyone believes in pre-twisting the wires before applying wire nuts.
And the wire-nut manufacturers are not sharing their feelings on their preferred practices.


I do know that if the copper is nicked during insulation removal, that can be a stress riser and a point for possible breakage in the future.
I've seen those pieces left inside a wire nut...


frank

[Jeff Bankston]

i'm a commercial electrician. i have twisted on tens of thousands of wire nuts. i dont care about nor do i reconize some pole as being valid. Ideal instructions say not to pre twist the wires together. Ideal specifies that you hold the wires together , put the wire nut on and then twist. properly installed wire nuts will automatically twist the wires together. properly installed wire nuts will not fall off. tape on the bottom of wire nuts is never required but it will not cause a problem either. some companies , and general contractors want tape around the wire nuts. electrical inspectors dont have a problem with tape. the srping inside the wire nut cuts grooves in the wire and works like a screw when properly installed. those that dont know what they are doing are the ones that make bad connections. corroded connections are the result of wires being exposed to moisture and those connection shouild be in a "Bell Box" with silicone sealed seams. in the 70's when i first worked as a helper all the electricians hed a small propane torch,solder, and friction tape. as wire nuts came on the scene solder joints went away. i have done work in buildings with 30 yo wire nut connection that were very tight. i have seen screw lugs that loosedned up and melted down. i had wire nuts in my 66 ford wagon for 75,000 miles and were as tight as the day i installed them. as i said above , i have worked as a commercial electrician for over 20 years and these are the facts.

[ProSoundWeb Community]