What Wire Connectors Should You Use | Romex Into Metal Box

how's it going you guys it's Scott with everyday home repairs now on our DIY electrical projects when we're taking non-metallic cabling or RX and we're bringing that into metal junction boxes like this 4x4 but also your main panel your sub panel or even boxes up in your ceiling which might be for your light fixtures or your fans there are a few things you need to know and there's definitely ways to do it wrong and there's just a ton of options out there on this one box I'm showing eight different options that you can get so how do you know which one's the right one to use cost quality meets code and just easy to use well let's run around this showing you the pros and cons of each one I'll show you my favorite and the one I use on all my projects but also give you the feedback from the audience so you can take all that information and make the best decision for your own project so let's jump into it so kicking things off it's good to know that you'll commonly have half inch Knockouts and then this one is a/ inch but you could also expand that out to 3/4 of an inch you usually the way you do this is you'll just take your pliers you could take a flathead screwdriver your larger cines and you just hit right on the opposite side of this little metal tab that's holding that knockout in place so you go ahead and tap right here and then that will knock that in then you can go to the inside and just grab a hold of that usually bend it down twist One Direction twist the other and then you're out so let's run through the eight different options starting off with number one and hopefully this is the one you don't use unfortunately this is the one I find quite often and that is just passing your Rx through this is 122 RX so we have two conductors and one bare ground we just pass it through cut back sheathing and then start to wire that into the circuit now this is the whole purpose why we need connectors right is because we have sharp metal edges on these Knockouts which can cut through your sheathing cut through the insulation on your hot conductor and then short to your hot conductor if your box is grounded that would trip your breaker if it is an old house and it is ungrounded that means this metal box now turns into your hot conductor and if anybody touches that they could get shocked because the flow of electricity wants to return to its source and you might be that Return To Source so please don't do this unfortunately it is very common next up is almost as simple but we do solve one of those problems and that is a simple plastic bushing this is a/ in bushing we can pass that through now we are protected right so we're not going to be exposed to the sharp metal to cut through our sheathing and our conductors but we have no strain relief nothing is going to hold this wire into your box so you're not going to be able to maintain code which would be cutting back the sheathing to here and then at least 6 in of conductors coming out with a minimum of 3 in from the surface of the box so that would be code but that's not going to be maintained with this bushing because there's no strain relief now number three kind of steps it up right now we have some strain relief this is a plastic andm cable connector and it's 38 don't be confused this is for/ inch Knockouts but the trade size is 38 so that can be a little confusing when you're just getting started with using these type of connectors but just know halfin knockout but the trade side is 38 now in this case we inserted that from the outside of the box and then our non metallic could pass through into the box now we are both protecting that non- metallic and also now I can't pull it out I have strain relief so this would work for most situations and I believe is accepted in all different municipalities and States but you guys can correct me if I wrong if you know differently in your own area so that's number three now I'll pass this through the challenge comes what if I had drywall coming out to there right I would not have access to put this cable connector from the outside so I might be passing RX through a wall trying to hit this knockout because I can't get access to it from the drywall well you're in luck cuz there is an exact cable connector for that now this looks very similar right to our option number three it's just those tabs are in the opposite direction for strain relief why is that and when is it handy well it can be super handy if you're fishing fish wire through that knockout and we had drywall here and you're pulling your Rx through that means you can pull your Rx into your box most likely more like into your main panel or sub panel and then you could take this guy and you could actually feed that through down through your rch it'll give you a little bit of resistance but with a little effort you can push it through and then you just work that connector to where you want it on the RX and then from the inside you could go ahead and secure that connector right so that's the main difference you're not going to be able to do that with option number three because it would have to go from this side and the tabs are in the opposite direction so that's when this one would come in super handy for your projects around the house now number five is kind of cool and this is the last plastic one you'd have to insert it from the outside so you'd have to have the access there you would then take off this small little gate here and then that's when we would pass through our Rox you'd get it to where you want it in terms of length and then you would insert that gate and then press that down if you need to you can use your strippers your hybrid strippers or your clein and then now here is our strain relief right so we're protected there is our strain rela I've never used this one let me know in the comments which ones you guys like best plastic are easy to use but the biggest feedback is sometimes like we saw on The Insider it can really fight you trying to get that RX in and honestly people then will just go ahead and break off these tabs and then that basically just turns it into a plastic bushing which is not what you want cost-wise completely depends on your quantities you're looking at 15 to 20 cents for your bushing and your standard one and then more like 40 to 50 cents for these two plastic but let's move on to our three metal options and then also get the feedback from the audience and what they prefer to use when running Rox into metal boxes now first up on metal I used to see these in older houses in my area is a two-piece connector so what you do is you're able to pass that through the knockout but then you kind of got to expand it out to hold it in place and then you would pass your Rx inside so that would both give us the protection we're looking for and then also the strain relief because we're able to go ahead and clamp the two pieces down on a RX now depending if you're only passing one cable of RX and especially if it's 14 gauge in just know it will move around in The Knockout and it might actually fall out depending on these tabs you can kind of have to fight it a little bit I don't mind this one and just know instead of a Philips head use a Robertson Square Drive klient has a lot of these nice multi-piece screwdrivers that will basically come with everything you need need so next up we have number seven and number eight from the one side pretty much just look the same but in terms of how they hold Into The Knockout they are quite a bit different number seven here is a 3/8 in metal cable clamp and then that will just push into that knockout and then that second option with the nut you go ahead and tighten this on and then to tighten it just depends if I have I usually snug it up myself and then just use my hybrid wire strippers to then rotate that in place tightening it up and then also getting the screws positioned where I need them and then know there are a few different wrenches that you can actually get there that are purpose built for these nuts and they hook onto it and then that's how you tighten up these can be handy there's ones that are just simple straight like this and then others that are offset now both of these are going to be the same in terms of how they're going to hold the RX you're pass that through you can pass one you can pass one set you can pass multiple sets and again your Robertson's going to be your go-to for tightening that up it's going to give you the torque that you want and then it also is going to stay on the actual screw so it's not popping out where a slotted or Flathead would give you a lot of capability to torque it down but it's going to keep popping out now earlier today I did put a pull out on our Channel I only included four options options and going by our numbers here it was the number two plastic bushing number three that standard plastic connector and then seven and eight those were the options on what is your favorite what do you guys use and seven out of 10 people with about 2,000 people reporting back said that number eight so that's going to be your metal connector with the lock nut that is also my favorite that's my default I'd say nine out of 10 times that's what I use I do carry a few of the number of the number three just that standard plastic for certain instances and actually I'm going to include and I'm actually going to include a few of those insiders too because there are some scenarios where that would come in handy now one question might be hey if I don't have access and I want to use those metal ones how the heck do I get that through right how do I get access if I have the drywall right here there is actually a method to do that I've done it in a couple videos and you can check out this video right here in the way that I get the new RX into the metal box is a little bit of a hack that I learned from Joel Wallman from Electric Pro Academy it might help you out on your own projects so thanks for joining me on this video and we'll catch you on that next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 55,831

Keywords: romex in metal box, nm cable connector, romex cable clamps, diy electrical projects, everyday home repairs

Id: HZ76fnczW88

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 16 2024