Now I can replace all the twist caps in my house
Beats getting a hoodie for Christmas!
(Don't ask me how I know)
this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
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Wait hold on a minute, this is the Dull men's club.
That ain't dull, that's brilliant.
Either that or I belong here don't I.
See that's the problem. You lost definitely belong.
Okay this is far from dull, those are fucking amazing
I'd say they're dull in a good way! I don't want my electrical work to be exciting, that tends to end poorly.
Fair enough!
Score! Those things ain't cheap!
They are much cheaper if you don't get them from the hardware store. Just checked my local store against my latest online order, 2.5x difference in per unit cost.
So now I have a box of them. Still not cheap but they are well worth it, plus they're reusable so in my mind it's never a waste even for a "dumb" project or a temp fix.
Nobody local to me sells wago. I really wonder if they're against state code but nobody can give me a straight answer. Most the time it's old timer sparkys I ask and you can't tell if the wagos are forbidden or if they are just stubborn.
Wago connectors are great…wish someone had got me some!
The WAGO makes the fucking wire nut look medieval. Good deal and whenever I opened a splice in my home, I replaced all the damn wire nuts with WAGOs.
That is proof that you were a very good boy this year! Now it's time to hit the breaker box and rewire those switches.
They are the best. Did my entire home installlation using them, it was such a breeze compared to Lüsterklemmen, whatever they are called in English.
The English term for those are wire nuts. They suck but they're great in a pinch
Hm, nah, I meant these:
https://files.catbox.moe/k8mgc0.png
Not great, because if they change temperature a lot or are over torqued they lose pressure after a while.
Those wire nuts look even worse though, do they just screw on top of twisted wire ends to isolate them somewhat?
Hah! My uncle loves those. Picks up a pack whenever he is in Germany and laments that he can't get them anywhere else.
Correct about wire nuts. As far as I know, they're the north American standard. Based on the two options I see here, it looks like they're also the most archaic option lol
In Belgium we call these sugar (sucre) as they look like some sugar you'd toss in a coffee
We call these chocolate blocks, and I try and replace as many of them as I can
I generally see the old style called Marrettes. It's a brand name that was the only supplier in Canada for a long time.
I'd call them screw blocks or screw terminals
Yes, that's them. The Marettes as the other answer suggested look even more sketchier, jeez, twisting wires and calling it a day for for up to 32A?
Anyway, I've found over torqued screw blocks in my parents home that lost pressure due to slight plastic deformation of the copper wires over time and that's something you'll never find out until the connector box starts smoking 0_o
Sweet stockin’ stuffah’! Now you can you the rest of your electrical tape on the Wiffle Ball bat
Great gift!
Snag som GelBoxes as well, then you can use them for stuff outside as well
Are you on 240V? Wago connectors are not great for 120V due to higher internal resistance than wire nuts (which is why we prefer the latter in NA).
Ooo, good to know, thanks! I am indeed on 120v, but I'm only doing lighting fixtures right now, so I'm not too worried about the increased resistance. I'll make sure not to use it on touchier circuits.
Yeah. One of the biggest downsides of 120V is the higher current needed for high wattage appliances (toaster ovens, kettles, hair dryers, air fryers, etc). This means you need heavier gauge wires and arc faults are more of a fire risk. On the other hand 120V is definitely safer.
The ones in the picture are rated for 32A which is way more than the typical 15A or 20A circuit
Oh that’s really good then!
You'd love the WAGO booth at the Embedded World Fair. They've got those jars where you can pick some connectors for yourself as a treat.
And you got the expensive ones that are openable yaaay
Those are awesome. Especially in my camper van build as I experiment with where I want things to end up.
I can see how these are easier to use, but why would you replace existing twist caps?
Because I've had them slip out of twist caps before, especially on ceiling fans with three wires going into one cap. I just don't trust em, y'know?
Then something is wrong - like not using the correct size
Yeah, agreed. WAGOs are awesome and look factory professional, but wire nuts are still used most of the time - easier to come by and still cheaper (although WAGOs are becoming very affordable).
The trick to wire nuts is simple; use the correct wire size, which can be mixed but follow the spec from the manufacturer’s website, strip all wires to the same recommended exposure length, and the most important part; do not twist your wires together - insert them straight all at the same height and begin twisting the wire nut until there are two to three rotations in your wires below the nut.
do not twist your wires together
The packaging usually says you can pre-twist the wires if you like, although maybe that's just the manufacturers yielding to the massive inertia of older tradespeople. This Old House says the same thing. I dunno, I don't pre-twist.
The WAGO install is faster than the damn wire nuts.
You don’t have to convince me, just giving wire nut folks a tip
wire nuts are still used most of the time
Not just digital banking, internet and healthcare that the US is over a decade behind on then? 😂
Internet? I mean maybe countrywide, but it’s a big country with ruralness. I download from steam at a 900+ megabytes per second. Bytes not bits. Is that considered bad? what do you get? I used to only get like 600 until a hardware upgrade so I'm still sure I have bandwidth to spare. its usually takes seconds or minutes to get any game.
The prices are definitely bad. Not that I can criticise...
I heard you're supposed to crush them with needle nose pliers so they don't slip out.
yeah no dont. these are great
Marrettes (twist caps) like to break off the ends when you re-connect them. The solid core wire only takes a couple twists before it fatigues and breaks. If you do a new one, or have to strip the wire back because you broke off the last one, I'd definitely change to these. They're much more reliable, don't break the wires and you can see when they're inserted correctly. And when you only have so much length in your wires in the box, you want to preserve what you have so you don't have to open up the wall and lengthen it, and doing so isn't to code anyway if you don't put in a junction box.
I've DIY'ed my own electrical for decades, and I change to these whenever I can now. It's like changing from copper to PEX at any chance for plumbing, superior in every way.
Nice, had to use those this year for the new kitchen hood. The residual-current circuit breaker interrupted my do it myself brilliance a few times before I found out by rtfm how to actually use them...yeah.
Let me guess: You didn't know they can be opened, just rammed the wires into them and called it a day?
Heheh no, I connected blue and brown, then blue, brown and earth wire on the same connector. Finally used one connector for every wire. Idiot...
Ah, the high current RCD test.