Biggest Mistakes DIYers Make When Connecting Wires Together | Part 2

in the not too distant past i released a video showing some of the most common mistakes that diy-ers make when splicing wires together and from that video i got a ton of feedback all the way from what i was using to how i was using it and then all over the place from there but i really appreciate all that feedback because from that feedback i get a lot of really good information i mean i was getting comments from electricians from all over the world along with very experienced diy-ers like yourselves as far as what they like to use and why they use it but i also got quite a few really good comments from people pointing out some other very common mistakes that are made when running wire and then splicing them together so i'm gonna go over two more very common mistakes that are made that can definitely be hazardous so let's go ahead and jump right in let's go all right so let's start off with again our splicing devices and we've got these wire nuts here and there's quite a bit to talk about with these and don't worry juego fans we're going to be talking about this as well the first thing i want to point out is not all wire nuts are the same obviously we've got different colors but then we've got these two here that are the same color the problem that a lot of people run into is they just assume that the colors are everything and to an extent that's true but when you go to mixing different kinds or different brands of wire nuts they all have their own capabilities this one's made by ideal this one isn't if you flip it over to the underside you can see that while that coil or that spring that's up in there is close in size the diameter of this ideal wire nut is slightly larger than the one that's in this wire nut also if you compare them side by side the ideal wire nut is slightly taller it's important that whatever you're using to just refer back to the packaging so you know exactly what this is capable of and what this is capable of and even if you have the same brand say this is ideal and this is ideal you still need to pay attention what the packaging says because the capabilities can also be different even though they're the same brand so what i see a lot of people do is they'll just grab the wire nut that is the correct color to them for what they're wiring up without actually looking at the packaging to see what they're capable of so one of the most common things i see being done is people using the wrong wire nut so say we're working on a switch box or something and we've got all these wires they put them together they take their wire nut they just grabbed out of a box they push their wires up in there they twist them together and then once they're done twisting they think while uh i'm done this is good to go everything's gonna work the way that it should the problem with this is this particular wire nut is not rated for the amount of wires of this particular size inside of it so for instance these are too large for the quantity that's in this particular wire nut and what ends up happening is it's really easy for one of these wires to while it's being held up in there if there's any tension put on it at all it just slides right out so that's why it is so important to follow the directions of whatever packaging your particular splicing devices came in if we look at the back of this particular packaging this is ideal you can see their designations for different colors of their particular wing nuts or wire nuts as to what they can hold or should hold so in this case the yellow wire nut that we were just using the minimum amount of wiring that can be in there is two number 18 or 18 gauge wire and the maximum is up to three number 12. in this example we had four number 12s in this wire nut and that is why ultimately it's going to fail amongst other issues that can come up between resistance and overheating all that comes into play when they make their ratings but as you can see if we move up a size to ideal's red wire nut you can see that the minimum here is two number 16s or the maximum of four number tens so if you can put four number tens in a red wire nut then it can certainly accommodate four number twelves and then as you can see i don't just have one falling out of this red wire nut because it's actually designed for this size of wire and this quantity of wires and of course i personally like to pre-twist my wires first but just to save some time i'm just showing you the quantities and the sizes that need to be paid attention to when using these wire nuts and then if you go down to the bottom of this graph you will see down here on this bottom line wire combinations so as long as the color falls within whatever combination of wiring that you're wanting to put in so in this case three number 12 would be the middle of the capacity of the red wire nut five number 12 you're getting close to the max of that red wire nut and the same thing goes for their big blue wire nut so for instance you just pull out a blue ideal wire nut and you're trying to put in just two number twelves well as you can see here the minimum is three number twelves so two number twelves is not going to work they might feel like they're connected together but it's not going to take a whole lot for them to then just fall out and some folks are probably saying well that's why i use wagos or that's why i use push in connectors well these two devices have their limitations as well this push-in splicing device is made by ideal and just like with the wire nuts you can look on the back of the packaging and you can see what size of wires this particular push and connector is capable of some of it is also engraved into the plastic on the device itself but they can oftentimes be really hard to read and of course this particular one is capable of three wires and they make all different sizes same thing with the wego but the way goes really easy to read and it has a pretty wide range of wires that it can accept so if we turn it over here to the side you can see right here that this can accept anywhere from 24 gauge all the way up to 12 gauge so that's a pretty wide range for this just one device and while yes this does have a wide range of wire sizes that it can accept it is still important to not just look on the side here but also check the packaging as to what all it can accept i will say that is a benefit of the wagos in that it does have that wider range of capabilities as far as wiring size goes all right so i think i've covered the wiring sizes and gauges in depth enough let's move on to the next big mistake so before i get to the next big mistake if you're finding value in this video or finding the information to be helpful or informative please do me a big favor hit that thumbs up button right down below it really does help the video out to help spread out to other people and hopefully be able to help them out as well i really appreciate it let's get back into it all right so the next big mistake that i see being made is going back to wiring size so let's say that you've already got an outlet box in the wall and as you can see with this wiring here this is number 12 or 12 gauge wiring well let's say you want to add an outlet to this or you want to be able to tap into it to power a light switch that goes to a light whatever it may be you are going to have to run more wiring into this to then send that power onto that next device so what i oftentimes see happening is instead of getting the same sized wiring that's already in the box they just go out to their garage find whatever's lying around and this is well this particular one is 14 3 but if it was 14 2 a lot of people just wouldn't think anything of it and just think wiring is wiring and they take this 14 gauge wiring put it into the box and then make all of their connections well this is a big no-no and for numerous reasons as we know our original wiring coming into the box as supplying the power is 12 gauge which means it could be on a 20 amp circuit so by installing then this 14 gauge wire this 14 gauge wire is not capable of handling the amperage that the 12 gauge wire is capable of handling but the key comes down to what's in the panel what circuit breaker is attached to this wiring that's coming into the box initially if it's on a 20 amp breaker you got a big problem by putting 14 gauge wire in because it's going to be allowing more power to flow through it then this is capable of handling so if this is on a 20 amp circuit breaker what can end up happening is this wiring here depending on what you're using it for if you try to pull too much power and that 20 amp circuit breaker allows for that up to 20 amps to flow through it flow through this 12 gauge wire and then into this 14 gauge wire depending on how much amperage you're calling for it could cause this wiring to overheat and then ultimately start a fire if the circuit breaker that this 12 gauge wiring is hooked up to is a 15 amp circuit breaker then yes you could get away with this 14 gauge wire because that 15 amp circuit breaker is going to trip before more amperage is sent through than this 14 gauge wire is capable of handling but the problem with that is if in the future someone that doesn't do their due diligence doesn't know what they're doing maybe they own your house they're doing some renovations and they see just one of the types of wires that's in this box a lot of people that don't know any better are just going to assume that that's what's running on the entire circuit and so then they plan their installation accordingly so this could lead to a lot of confusion down the road and ultimately could cause some hazards down the road as well now let's flip the script let's say that the 14 gauge is what is originally run into the box and somebody just has this 12 gauge wiring laying around in their garage which is actually what i seem to see the most as long as they're on a 15 amp circuit breaker in this case with having that 14 gauge wire theoretically it shouldn't cause any issues because that 15 amp breaker should trip before it would exceed the maximum ability of that 14 gauge wire causing it to heat up causing a fire it's still just not a good thing to do it can cause a lot of confusion down the road now when an electrician comes in and he for instance sees that 14 gauge wire he's going to know for sure that if the customer is wanting to add a 20 amp circuit breaker that ain't going to work but if all he saw was the 12 gauge wire running electrician more than likely is still going to catch that there's an issue there because they're going to be way more prone to pay a lot more attention to what wiring is currently running into the service panel into the current circuit breaker that's in there but if a homeowner comes in there and they don't really have a whole lot of knowledge not just what to do but then what to look for they may have only just seen that yellow sheathing in that 12 gauge wire and just assume that the whole circuit has that 12 gauge wire running through it they're wanting to up it to 20 amps the circuit breaker that is and so they're just going to assume that there's not going to be an issue with doing that may not even pay any attention to what wiring is actually coming out of the current circuit breaker and just switch out the circuit breaker to 20 amps and so in that instance that could cause a serious fire hazard in the future but to avoid all of this it's just best to make sure that the wiring that is already being run into the box or on your circuit you just maintain that same color all the way through so i hope that this was helpful for you i don't really see this being talked about enough in other places so hopefully it was helpful if it was please do me a big favor hit that thumbs up button right down below and also of course if you have any questions or comments at all you can leave those down in the comment section down below and if you like diy projects like this i will post some videos right over here that you can click on of some projects that i've done in the past so hopefully those can help you out as well and i hope to see you all in the next one see

Channel: How To Home

Views: 284,189

Keywords: do it yourself, connect electrical wires, proper joint of electric wire, electric wire joint, diy electrical wiring residential, wires connecting method, electric wire connection, diy electrical wiring, electric wire joint connector, how to use wire nuts to connect wires, how to use wire nuts properly, wago 221 connectors how to use, wago 221 vs wire nuts, wago 221 lever-nuts, how to connect stranded wire to solid wire, Incorrect wire nut size, incorrect wire size

Id: BaYsusE9864

Length: 12min 19sec (739 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 09 2022