Wire Connectors

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Besoeker said:
TBH, we rarely used them for anything. They generally wouldn't be acceptable in industrial control panels. But it isn't a problem to connect a number of wires together. These terminals come in different sizes and you can chop then down to however many ways you want/need.

Could you tie 5 #12 wires together in one wire nut? Just asking.
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How do you tie multiple wires together? That is what I am asking.
 
Little Bill said:
You're not comparing "apples to apples" here. The terminal strips have their use but is not what is best in a single or 2-gang box for receptacles or switches.
First off, the terminal strip would take up too much room in the box
2nd, you have to take time to get out a screwdriver to tighten down each screw.
With a wirenut, you take all the conductors at once and twist, no screwdriver needed.
Similar, with Wagos, you insert the wire into the port and done, no screwdriver needed.

Now take a control cabinet, you want it to be neat, you mount the terminal strip or block either straight to the cabinet or on a DIN rail. You wouldn't want a bunch of wirenuts hanging all over the inside of the cabinet. Also makes it easier to trace wiring, which you often need to do in a control cabinet.
In an outlet box that will be closed up and not opened unless needed, the wirenuts or Wagos are best and don't necessarily need to be as neat as a control cabinet.

So each have their place but neither is a good all around connector for different applications.
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I've seen larger boxes turn into a mess of spaghetti easily. I have used terminal strips in larger boxes and it tends to be easier to keep neat and is usually easier to trace things down the road when necessary. Last few times I uses an existing panel cabinet for a splice box and moved the panelboard, I used terminal strips. When moving a 42 circuit panel these strips turned out to be great and hopefully will be easy to trace if ever need to. Run conductors numbered 1-42 (or whatever) from new panel to 42 terminals and connect old conductors to same number they originally came from. Terminal 1 is breaker 1 - easier to trace than to find in a mess of wire nuts. If you had 42 neutrals - run 42 white conductors and number them 1-42, tie the outgoing neutral conductors to appropriate number that corresponds with the ungrounded circuit conductor - also makes future tracing a little simpler. Need multiple conductors tied to same point, see below.

Little Bill said:
Let's say you have five (5) neutral wires that need to be spliced together with no pigtail needed. How are you going to take the terminal connectors and join the (5) wires together? Each terminal unit has two sides, one in-one out. Unless you double up the wires in one of the terminals you couldn't get all (5) wires joined.
Take a proper sized wire nut or Wago and join them all at once. And yes, you twist all (5) together by hand. However if I have several to do I usually use a "wirenut twister" to make it easier on my hand. Some multi-tip screwdrivers have a twister in the handle for this. You can even get a spinner/twister bit for your drill or impact.
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Use a jumper bar to bridge multiple ports together to make multiport terminals when needed.

I don't have too much issue with using 4 #12 in a red wire nut, but they are trickier to make a good connection than just 4 conductors it seems. I don't like connecting more than 5 conductors in any combination in a wire nut even if it is listed to take them, 16 and 18 AWG stranded maybe an exception.
 
Maybe missed it, but did not see any mention of the ideal crimp and rubber boots (wire-cap) in the discussion. http://www.idealindustries.ca/produ...terminals_crimps/crimp_connector_wrap-cap.php

use the crimps almost exclusively for multiple ground connections, but usually wire nuts for conductors.
In own home, used crimps and boots, and soldered the crimps also. Never would bother with the soldering anywhere but own or relatives homes.

It is interesting that in the old Mil-spec-217 reliability document, soldered crimps were rated LESS reliable than just a crimp, likely due to poor soldering practice though.
 
Besoeker said:
We use these.

http://www.sprecherschuh.com/ecatalog/get/Section_N.pdf

You can get jumpers that tie adjacent terminals together if you need to. Around page N25.
There are also versions for thermocouples, fused versions.
Important for us was that they can be numbered for ID. Terminal no 123 has wire no 123 going into it.
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Those would be impractical for many of our general applications.

When one has three #12 NM-B cables, a receptacle, and a single gang box to make up, wire nuts are quicker and work fine.
 
jumper said:
Those would be impractical for many of our general applications.

When one has three #12 NM-B cables, a receptacle, and a single gang box to make up, wire nuts are quicker and work fine.
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Unless you are strongly against Wago (or equivalent) they are faster yet. I been using them for general use for a few years now. No call backs yet. I may opt for a more traditional connection if I know it will have a regular and continuous heavy load on it. Not much in a new dwelling is like that though. Electric heat or window air conditioners are what I would be more leery of needing a really good connection in most dwelling applications, maybe a pool pump but I don't run into many pools.
 
kwired said:
Unless you are strongly against Wago (or equivalent) they are faster yet. I been using them for general use for a few years now. No call backs yet. I may opt for a more traditional connection if I know it will have a regular and continuous heavy load on it. Not much in a new dwelling is like that though. Electric heat or window air conditioners are what I would be more leery of needing a really good connection in most dwelling applications, maybe a pool pump but I don't run into many pools.
Click to expand...

I have no problem with wagos. I have not really used them much but they work fine.

Terminal strips and blocks are great for control cabinets and such but not for everyday wiring.
 
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