itsunclebill

We've had several discussions about push in type connectors and whether or not "real" electricians use them in some other forums I frequent. And, where they get used - with the general opinion by some folks that they are kind of a residential thing if they are to be used at all.

I spent a good part of this week in a fairly new commercial building, at least 2 full floors of which were custom built for a fairly prominent tech company - that evidently spec'd everything. Not a wire nut in the place. All the connections are made with push in connectors. These folks have had zero problems with conections. It appears that all connections were made with expansion in mind as every box I was into had an extra port or two available.

Probably no revalations here but I'm curious what others are doing and seeing. I know I'm gradually getting away from wire nuts in a lot of cases and have a BUNCH of push-ins out there. And, I see huge stocks of push-ins at a lot of the houses that do a lot of commercial stuff.

Thoughts, ideas, experience? Anybody seeing failures?

MDShunk

I'm not seeing any failures, but I'm still not jumping on board until they've been in the marketplace another 20 years.

I do use them when the come preinstalled in certain recessed cans. I do use them on ballast change-out secondaries, when I remember to grab a handful off the truck. I do use them in old work, where the existing tails are too short to get a wire nut on properly. That's about it, for the moment.

Remember the self-stripping wire conector craze of the late 70's/early 80's? That was a passing fad that didn't really stick around. I sorta think the Wago style connectors will stick around, for some reason.

DeepOne

They do not love overloading and some connectors not reliable when different size wire stuck beside (more thin can snuggle worse).

frank

I am not too happy with these myself either. They come sometimes in fluorescent fitting input terminals and with other light fittings from time to time. Also some capacitors (condensers) have them. They do not like two wires in the same 'push' and I would not think they are happy with heavy loads. If you are going to fix it - fix it right!

Frank

DeepOne

On amusing concurrence circumstance there is work for me through several days with using "Wago" terminals. Including reconstruction of the old wiring with increase amount and change the position of outlets.

DeepOne

raider1

I have seen an Idea In-sure connector (another brand of pushin connector) take a ground fault that melted the #12 THHN in half, but the connector wasn't even melted even though the insulation on the #12 was melted in the connector. After witnessing that I feel pretty good about using them.

Chris

itsunclebill

have seen an Idea In-sure connector (another brand of pushin connector) take a ground fault that melted the #12 THHN in half, but the connector wasn't even melted even though the insulation on the #12 was melted in the connector.

That was pretty much the results of my "non official" testing before I began using them.