Do you twist your solid wires together before you put them in a wirenut.

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Do you twist your solid wires together before you put them in a wirenut.

  • yes i twist them

    Votes: 93 73.2%

  • no i do not

    Votes: 34 26.8%
  • Total voters
    127
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I also sometimes pretwist, but usually not. If the ends line up even and none are pushed back when starting the wire nut, and tighten down with #-in-one tool, you should have no problems.

I've also seen pretwisted connections fail when one conductor rolls back around the others and is not getting pressure from wire nut, it will work for a short or a long time.

When I take a wire nut off the condutors usually stay together, the wire nut has twisted them.
 
I always tighten the wirenut till the conductors twist outside of the nut. Upon careful disassembly, the conductors under the wirenut spring are always spun as if pre-twisted with one difference . . . the wirenut doesn't have to overcome the "oval-ization" of the pretwisted conductors that occurs when the cutter squeezes off the excess.

I never pretwist.
 
Thank you all for your insight into this topic. the results are kinda what I expected them to be. the guy i work with said he was working with someone one time and was putting solid wires together with out twisting them and the guys said to him
" I thought you were an Electrician" he replied with I am and the other guy said all Electricians twist there solids together. :grin::grin::grin:
 
K8MHZ said:
No choice for 'sometimes'.
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Agreed. Sometimes.

weressl said:
Twisting them before will provide you with a larger area of direct surface contact between the wires that will be further reinforced by the twistlock's design.
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Unless the conductors are being deformed, isn't the contact area a single line in either case?
 
Steviechia2 said:
Solids always! Stranded No.
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If joining solids, sometimes I twist them, sometimes I don't. It just depends.

If joining strandeds, I twist each conductor first, then twist them together.

If joining a mix, I twist the strandeds together, then add them to the solids.
 
al hildenbrand said:
. . . the wirenut doesn't have to overcome the "oval-ization" of the pretwisted conductors that occurs when the cutter squeezes off the excess.
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After I trim the wires, I give the tips one more sliding twist to round off the ends. That way, the wirenut won't prematurely tighten on the cut corners and leave some wires loose.
 
Barndog said:
I like to twist my solids together but when you have to take part of the connection out. it can be a pain to break them apart.
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I agree with the above posters who said that you should have a hard time telling the difference between a pre- and post- twisted connection. If you use the wirenut to twist the wires, peachy keen, but there should be a stout twist regardless of your method.

What really ticks me off are people that don't strip a little insulation off before capping a conductor with a wirenut. Wirenuts are designed to bite into copper, they don't bite into plastic worth a darn, and tend to fall off when serving their intended function. :mad:
 
for all of you who dont twist prior to capping, what do you ask of your employees?--- anyone working for me i expect every splice to be made up with linemans. i'd be pretty worried about ol' yellow wrist popping up on a job, and i have to go back and check hundreds of splices.
 
mgmelec said:
for all of you who dont twist prior to capping, what do you ask of your employees?--- anyone working for me i expect every splice to be made up with linemans. i'd be pretty worried about ol' yellow wrist popping up on a job, and i have to go back and check hundreds of splices.
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Staff training never stops and acceptable/correct splicing is just another area to qualify - and rightfully so - I agree to train what?s acceptable even with wire nuts.

Years ago I did an apartment complex and the electrical contractor wanted all make up with stake-on?s & tape [UGH], one of our journeymen quit over this, I just remained indifferent because it?s the owners desire; anyway it was said there?d be bad connection issues and to my surprise only a couple to troubleshoot due to bad connections. The contractor was very specific how to splice and expected it to be done (training how took place), this apartment complex is still functioning today from what I understand with very few electrical issues to maintain.
 
;)
Twoskinsoneman said:
??? would you expound on this thought? And are you implying that twisting a wire around another makes it mechanically secure?
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I am saying twisting 2 or more solid conducters together with your linesmans will give you a mechanically secure connection before you even put on your wirenut. That isn't implying anything, that is fact. I have never had a connection done this way come loose. I have gone to numerous service calls where the previous installer did not pre-twist and the connections became loose and either arced apart or justed tripped the breaker. I have also seen melted wiring and partially melted boxes because of these loose connections. How they didn't start a fire I dont know. ........................................thought expounded;)
 
Pretwist is good insurance

Pretwist is good insurance

I always twist my solid wires with my lineman pliars. After 27 years in the trade I have found that it has just become second nature and only takes a couple of seconds. I have seen wires when twisting a wire nut on miss being grabbed with the group of wires and not get twisted into the group if you don't pretwist. Maybe it's just me being lame, but the lineman twist is just extra insurance that I have made a good splice that can be looked at before the wire nut is put on.
 
Steviechia2 said:
George Stolz said:
I . Wirenuts are designed to bite into copper, they don't bite into plastic worth a darn, and tend to fall off when serving their intended function.

I was taught in school and I now teach my employees to pull on each nut after tightening.
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I always pull on each wire in my wirenuts after installation to verify the connection is secure. I have been in alot of boxes where you pull down the wires to check or add something and one or more wires fall out.
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LarryFine said:
Unless the conductors are being deformed, isn't the contact area a single line in either case?
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Exactly. The helix configuration does not significantly change the contact area of adjacent cylinders. The benefit of pretwisting solids lies in the steadfastness of the mechanical connection and not any real improvement in electrical connection. All good terminations must strike a balance of mechanical steadfastness coincident to electrical conductivity.

George Stolz said:
What really ticks me off are people that don't strip a little insulation off before capping a conductor with a wirenut. Wirenuts are designed to bite into copper, they don't bite into plastic worth a darn, and tend to fall off when serving their intended function. :mad:
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I will confess this is a pet peeve of mine as well. Not only for the reason George states, but I like a little exposed copper to land my test lead so that I will not have to strip a hot wire.

Edit to say I voted that I twist my solids ( roughly ninety-five percent of the time)
 
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weressl said:
Twisting them before will provide you with a larger area of direct surface contact between the wires that will be further reinforced by the twistlock's design. No I would NOT twist them together when using the Wago type connectors;).

http://www.idealindustries.com/prodDetail.do?prodId=in-sure&div=0&l1=push-in
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I never actually looked at this reasoning, but it makes sense. I twist the wires to keep them from coming apart, or having one pull out in the box. One more reason to twist before installing the wire nut.
 
I rarely pretwist. If I had splices failing as a result I would always pretwist. Therefore pretwisting is not usually necessary.

Yes I've seen individual wires fall out of the wire nut, fry the wire nut, etc. The guy that put that wire nut on should have either pretwisted or learned how to install wire nut without pretwisting.

When I do pretwist due to # of wires or akward angle I'm basically doing the same thing with my Kleins that I usually do with wire nut & tool.
 
George Stolz said:
What really ticks me off are people that don't strip a little insulation off before capping a conductor with a wirenut. Wirenuts are designed to bite into copper, they don't bite into plastic worth a darn, and tend to fall off when serving their intended function. :mad:
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Its made to bite into more than one solid wire though. My experience is that if you strip it back the wire nut falls off and then you have more bare wire exposed.
 
If you pre-twist, you can always be extra-extra sure of the connection by wrapping tape after you put the wirenut on. :)
 
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