Should We Use WAGOS or WIRENUTS?!?!

all right should you be using wire  nuts or wagos out in the field   what's up everyone i am dustin stelzer with  electricianu this question has been asked   me so many times over the years for years  i just have not answered it because it's   a silly thing to worry about it's like saying  should you eat oranges or should you eat apples   both like they're both okay they both do you  know the food thing they both go inside your   body nourishment so let's get into it  a little bit all right what is a wago   for those of you that have no idea what we're  talking about a wago is a type of stab in splicing   device basically if you have two wires that you  need to strip out and put them together one way   of going about this is using a thing called a  wago and it's basically got uh holes that you   can stab in and internally inside of the wago  there's metal that's all connected together   so it's essentially the same thing as a wire nut  except you don't have to twist your connections   together um like you do in a wire nut now there's  even the debate out there of whether or not you   need to be twisting things together in a wire nut  that to me is a little bit more uh a little bit   more solid of an argument you know like if you  don't twist your wire nuts together you don't   have a solid connection you go to untwist the  wire nuts and everything just falls apart on you   so i am more of the school of thought that  i always pre-twist all of my joints that's   just a personal thing nothing says that you have  to the insides of a lot of these wire nuts are   specifically put to kind of twist things together  for me i always want to make solid joints right i   always want my wires even if wire nut comes off  i want that joint to stay i want the continuity   of the circuit to still exist so i am on the  pre-twist side however i still do use wago's   because not all of the time do i want to sit there  and twist thousands of these things if i have a   splicing device if i have some kind of uh  termination that i ca it allows me to take   one conductor out while all of the other ones  remain intact so that's my logic with it right   with a wire nut if you pre-twist everything  kind of the downside is that you have to sit   and untwist all of that stuff if you just want  to get one wire out so you're already gonna   have to kind of like undo the circuit and then  like retwisting and untwisting and doing all of   that to take a joint apart a lot of people think  like that's just stupid it's a waste of time and   it's more of a pain in the butt so using wagos  that allows you to just put all of these things   uh pressure terminations into a junction box  fold everything in the back and go about your way   the national electrical code does not require  that things be listed but it does require that   if things are listed that they be installed with  that listings instructions so you have to install   things to the manufacturer's instructions and if  something is listed you have to install it how it   was listed to be used so let's look in 110 and  that my code ref my dudes that are all looking   like at me like i'm crazy right now is 110.3b  installation and use equipment that is listed   labeled or both shall be installed and used in  accordance with any instructions included in the   listing or labeling it does not say equipment  shall be listed all things must be listed   but there are certain places certain pieces of  equipment certain things like that where they do   call out a listing anything used in this  kind of situation must be listed for the use   so there are times where that is the case  but in general when they talk about listing   they're saying that anything that has a listing  must be installed to the listing well all wire   nuts out there and let's be uh correct with our  turmage uh term-ege i like that word turmidge   uh anytime you have something that is uh a wire  connector wire fastener wire splicing device   um any any of these terms they mean wire  nut the problem is is that ideal has   a patent or a trademark on the term wire nut so  that's why you see wire connectors wire you know   all these different terms out there instead of  using wire nut but we all say in the field wire   not it's just that they were smart enough to go  buy that damn turn so we're talking about wire   nuts but more specifically there's different types  of ways that you can connect conductors together   and those are not the only two so in 110 we're  talking about just all electrical installations   kind of in general so we're going to find general  information about all of this stuff 110.14 says   electrical connections because of different  characteristics of dissimilar metals devices such   as pressure terminals which is what a wego would  be or pressure splicing connectors and soldering   lugs shall be identified for the material of the  conductor and shall be properly installed and used   because if you put two dissimilar metals together  they can actually kind of rust so to speak they   can galvanize through galvanic action and they  can actually kind of eat away at each other   conductors of dissimilar metal shall not be  intermixed in terminal or splicing connector   where physical contact occurs between the similar  conductors such as copper and aluminum or aluminum   and copper clad aluminum unless the device is  identified for the purposes and conditions of use   so a wire nut would essentially take  two conductors touch them together   and then you put those together and if they are  dissimilar metals they're going to corrode each   other whereas a wago might not do that the  way go depending on what the pieces of metal   on the inside of the wago are you will have  copper touching that metal and you will have   aluminum touching that metal but the copper and  the aluminum will not be touching each other so   depending on the wagos that are being used it's a  possibility to adhere to that whereas using wire   nuts you're always going to be mixing the wires  together now there are specific wire nuts that   are listed that have that antiox basically an  anti-oxidizing paste or something on the inside   of it that will minimize the effects of those  things oxidizing each other over time so they   still address that with the wire nuts it also  says materials such as solder fluxes inhibitors   and compounds where employed shall be suitable  for use and shall be of a type that will not   adversely affect the conductor's insulation  or equipment under terminals okay this is   another one connection of conductors to terminal  parts shall ensure a thoroughly good connection   thoroughly good i like that instead of like a  great connection an outstanding connection not   just thoroughly good a thoroughly good connection  without damaging the conductors and shall be made   by means of pressure connectors uh including  screw set type pressure connectors so again wago   are approved solder lugs or splices to flexible  leads connection by means of wire bending screws   or studs and nuts that have upturned lugs  or the equivalent shall be permitted for 10   awg or smaller connectors so i don't know if a lot  of you knew that but like 10 and under if you're   going to be bending a hook and putting it around  like a receptacle screw or something like that   you can't do that for anything higher than number  10. terminals for more than one conductor and   terminals used to connect aluminum shell be  so identified and then we have splices so in b   conductor shall be spliced or joined with splicing  devices identified for the use or by brazing   welding or soldering with a fusible metal or alloy  soldered splices shall first be spliced or joined   so as to be mechanically and electrically secure  without solder and then be soldered so in the case   of soldering you still need to pre-twist your  joints then you solder so the idea is keeping   the continuity of the circuit right all splicing  and joints and the free ends of conductors shall   be covered with an insulation equivalent to  that of the conductors or with the identified   insulating device wire connectors or splicing  means i installed on conductors for direct burial   she'll be listed for the use so that's pretty  much it that's all it really talks about in code   about this whole using uh pressure connectors or  splicing devices but both of them are fine it's   like whatever one you want to use i use both  it's just i tend to use wire nuts when i'm in   a residence when i'm talking about receptacles or  switches that's the preferred method that i have   and my only reason for doing that is because  when i'm doing a brand new install i'm not   doing things in a way that like service calls that  are going to continually happen where these things   are going to be continually taken apart over and  over and changed constantly that's not likely to   happen when you have a new house yes you might  have somebody go change a dimmer out once after   you've lived there for five years or something and  then you're probably not going to have it changed   out again unless thing goes bad another five  years right so you're we're not talking about   repetitive having to take things apart over and  over and over and over so wire nuts to me are the   most solid things that when i put something in  smash in the back of the box put devices in and   everything i know for a fact that those things are  not going to fail those wire nuts are going to be   solid they're going to stay in there unless i did  something wrong you know and i didn't put on right   or i messed my joint up or something then it could  you know the hot the cold the temperature changes   moisture things like that could affect whether or  not that joint stays together but in my experience   using wire nuts is a very solid thing to do within  a dwelling of building a structure for things that   don't need to be messed with later when i have  things that need to be messed with later this is   things like uh changing out ballasts and lamps you  know like i've gone in home depots and walmarts   and target michaels and hobby lobby and all those  kinds of places they have rows of hundreds of   fluorescent uh lights you know like four lamp  uh lights like eight foot t12s they've got t   fives they've got t eights um so over and over  these rows and rows they're constantly going   out and re-lamping and putting new ballasts  and a lot of them haven't converted to leds   they're just sticking with what they've got so  we'll be going through and changing ballasts like   every month we'd go out there and i would say all  right the manager says there's like 17 of these   that are out so let's go grab a whole bunch of  ballasts and a whole bunch of lamps from the back   of the store push them around on a little shopping  cart and then we'll figure out which ones we think   are actually bad lamps and which one we think are  bad ballasts so what i would do is i would sit all   of my ballasts up and rather than sitting here  and trying to do all this crazy stuff up above   me and twisting joints and everything up on a you  know 14-foot a-frame ladder in the top of a store   i'm going to do all the work down below and so  the best way to do that is in my opinion to take   wagos and put wagos on the ends of every single  one of the wires that way you get up you fasten   this thing up in place you stab every one of your  wires there's probably going to be six to eight of   them kind of depending on what kind of ballasts  you're working on if it's a two lamp or a three   lamp four lamp whatever but it's the quickest  method to get a lot of these done way up on top   of this ladder when there's customers in a store  and everything you don't really want to be doing   too much up there so in my opinion you save time  you actually do more work and it takes less effort   if you put all of those wagos on and you do all of  that work on the ground so once you get up there   you're literally just slapping something in place  boom boom boom put it all back together and go   so i will use wagos in those instances i also  use quick connects on that hot in the neutral   that come in and connect to the ballasts so  there's just different preferences different   times where i would use them or where i wouldn't  use them sometimes you have space limitations   sometimes you have certain kinds of conductors  using wagos a lot of times does not account for   having stranded conductors so you can't really  stab a stranded conductor it just gets all like   gnarled up in there so it's really when you're  using solid conductors but wago does have some   things that allow you to put some really finely  stranded stuff with really solid stranded stuff   so there's a whole bunch of different like models  and things that people don't really realize are   out there until you go to a manufacturer's website  and be like holy crap they make this like thing   to solve this exact problem so y'all should go  to wagoswebsite and check out what they've got   anyways enough talking about all this stuff  i love you crazy people thank you so much for   your constant support we have tons of new merch  available so please rep your squad rep the ucrew   go get your ucrew hat get your electrician you  shirt we got all kinds of stuff there's a link   in the description below you can go check out  your merch also don't forget we have continuing   education for a whole bunch of states right now  we're constantly adding more states so link in   the bottom if you would like to go through  us to get your continuing education i would   much appreciate that we also have classes we have  live tutoring so if there's any kind of classes or   things that you want to know we have all of that  on our website as well and we're constantly adding   new classes and courses and uh we've also got 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Channel: Electrician U

Views: 524,271

Keywords: electrician, electrical, electricity, dustin stelzer, electrician vlog, residential, electrical courses, electrician courses, electrical class, electrician class, electrician vlogging, journeyman, electrician job, what an electrician does at work, journeyman tips, electrician show, wera, from a journeyman, how to become an electrician, surge protector, day in the life of an electrician, vlog, electrical apprentiship, #electrical code nec, #electrician you go, commercial electrician

Id: 783mxTnrVVg

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 31 2022