NEC 110.14 and highly stranded wire on oven

[SceneryDriver]

The ovens (and practically every appliance I looked into) use AWM wire. AWM wire is available in various strandings. Some are Class B or C. Some have higher strands. A good place to see them is in units that may be returned to the store. I saw an oven at Home Depot one time sitting on the floor. The customer had returned it, and they had put it there for a discounted sale. Otherwise, unfortunately, they do not let you look at this detail in the appliance before you buy it. Calling the manufacturer is completely useless, as they do not understand what you are talking about. And their installation manuals do not address this detail at all.

Crimp ferrules onto the wires if they're finely stranded, and use a Wago Lever-Lok or Polaris-style connector as you see fit. Ferrules solve this problem, making the end of the wire, no matter its strand count - a semi-solid conductor. It'll still smoosh (technical term) under the set screw in a Polaris connector, but the strands won't be cut by tightening the set screw. You'll need the new-ish Lever-Loks made for 10awg wire if you want to insert ferruled 12ga. The ferrules do bulk up the end of the wire a bit.

All that said, a properly made up wire nut termination has been field proven millions of times over, listing nonsense not withstanding. For up to 10awg, I'd use a good quality wirenut and not loose any sleep over it. That termination will likely outlive us all.


SceneryDriver

 

[wwhitney]

Are Lever-nuts? I thought they were.

From https://www.wago.com/us/lp-221 on WAGO 221 Series LEVER-NUTS

"Connect solid, stranded and fine-stranded conductors"

Cheers, Wayne

 

[Birken Vogt]

"Connect solid, stranded and fine-stranded conductors"

There are even some push-in connectors without levers, from Ideal I think, that specifically state you can push in fine stranded conductors, and I have done it, and it works fine, most of the time. Occasionally the fine strands will accordion but not usually.