Wire Connectors Overloaded
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2016
- A selection of wire connectors are overloaded - which will fail first?
Connectors and wire sent in by TheChipmunk2008
1.5mm² PVC insulated solid core wire, connectors are a screw terminal 'chocbloc' style, a Wago 773 series, a red insulated butt crimp, and an Ideal Wing-Nut twist connector.
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"Looks like we've got a bit of flame going on over there..." You've got a knack for narrating drama. :) Thanks for conducting this test. It was impressive to see all the connectors "survive" your torture test.
The key to the wirenut is to make sure the wires are twisted together under the cap. The manufacturers don't require it, but many electricians in the US and Canada twist the wires together with pliers then apply the wirenut. If you just rely on the spring inside to complete the circuit, you're asking for trouble. In other words, use the wirenut to insulate the splice only. Don't rely on it to male the connection for you.
I have been trying to convince myself to do pretwisted, but does not Pretwisted stress the copper, which can also cause a wire to come loose.
Really don't see wire nut connection coming loose just by pull, the only way I can see coming loose is the spring overheating
@@La2venida
I've seen some rather crazy looking pretwisting, and yes it does seem to cause more stress on the copper. Theoretically if everything is within specifications (such as maximum current) this kind of exercise is really just for dramatic effect.
I will say that of these four different connector types, the plastic wire nut is the only one that relies on the plastic portion to maintain the mechanical connection between wires. All the others are really just the plastic portion preventing electrical contact with everything outside the connector. But if the plastic portion of a wire nut is gone, the steel spiral isn't necessarily going to hold the wires in place. However, it shouldn't get to the point where it's going to melt.
Cool, so by the time any connector has failed your house would have burnt down already 😃
It seems so.
I would hope one would have appropriate over-current protection in the circuit so that this scenario would never happen. ;)
A problem with this test though I think is that all those connections seem to be freshly-made, and so haven't suffered the effects of years of hot-cold cycling, and degradation due to moisture/etc. I've seen plenty of choc-block connections fail badly in my time, to the point of setting on fire, purely down to contact resistance increasing as a consequence of the above. And thus melting/smoke/fire before any protection device kicks in. :/
+9ff70f96 hmmm. Good point about age of the connections. If I've only got 1 in 1 out of a choc block I'll stick them in the same side and use both screws on both wires, to try and keep the most surface area and reduce the chances of a high resistance join.
Yep, that's good practice, in my opinion. Nice to know others out there put the effort in too. :)
Thanks, now I don't have to watch the video. idiot
Great job! Real conditions, real live testing. All connectors are amazingly capable.
Although I am using them on a daily base, I was always a little sceptic about the Wago connectors in general. Nice to see those new small types drawing 4-5 times their rated current without failing. Thanks for the video.
I'm only a diy'er when it comes to electrics but enjoyed your video. Nice to know that whatever connection used they all held up 👍🏼
Why is that a good thing that the connections 'held up'? This demonstration doesn't make a lot of sense.
The wire nuts have been used in America for decades. If the best brands are used (I prefer Ideal brand) and installed properly they will last a lifetime with no failures. Thanks for the video.
Good video, but thermal camera would have been amazing for this.
That would have made a fasinating addition to the vid.
+Philip Burkett Yes I agree, seeing a hot spot form would be very informative. I use Wagos mostly now as I found crimps unreliable on solid core wire especially cheaper ones even using a good crimping ratchet tool.
Whereas Wagos are not intended for stranded wire.
According to Wago they are good for both solid core and stranded wire.
Programentalist Have you ever tried pushing very fine stranded wire into a Wago terminal?
9:30
Normal reaction: Oh shit!
JW: Just inadvertently reconnected it, there
This was interesting, thank you. I personally prefer the lever type Wago connectors for two reasons, they are intended to be reused, and they can clamp down securely on really tiny wires, in other words they are really versatile.
Some of them also work on stranded wire and not just solid core. This can be pretty useful when connecting lamps and other appliances
Yup those are the best
For building wiring I prefer the non-lever type because they're quicker and cheaper. Most domestic fixed wiring here is 1.5 and 2.5 solid, so the non-lever connectors (2273 series) are perfectly suitable. I do use the lever types for connecting lights and other items wired with flex. Never had one fail so far.
Out of the many I've installed myself I've only had one choc block fail though, so they aren't that bad either. It's mostly down to properly tightening the screws I think. Wagos are massively faster and nicer to use though, so choc blocks are mostly a thing of the distant past for me. I feel sort of nostalgic for them but sticking in five wires and keeping them from slipping back out while tightening the screw is definitely rather annoying.
Interesting, and one would hope that the breaker would go way before any of this could ever occur. I particularly like the poking around on the failed wire with the metal screwdriver! ;)
Surprised to see that the connectors lasted for so long and at such a high amperage. They seem far more reliable than most people give them credit for. Great experiment and a real eye opener !!
Thanks, gives comfort knowing load ratings have (as they should) such a safety margin.
Wire nuts are best because the wire is wrapped around itself a couple times and the nut is merely holding the wires in place. All other connectors use a single contact point on each wire and the current must pass through the connector. The single contact point is hundreds times less area than the wire wrapped in the wire nut.
Contact area is overrated. Look at a push-in connector and how it contacts the bus bar, and there can be a fairly small contact area yet it meets all relevant safety standards. The most important thing is going to be that the connector is not going to overheat when used within its specified current rating.
I've used wire nuts without pretwisting and according to a manufacturer's directions where undoing the connection and the wire tips are loosely against each other and don't really hold together.
This test doesn't find the weakest connector as the heat of the wire being conducted to the connectors is the reason for these connectors to melt. A better test would be to use the biggest diameter wire that could fit in all the connectors so there would be less effect from the heating wire so we could really see the effect of the current on the connectors only.
That wouldn't be a realistic scenario.
and 90A on a 1,5mm² is?
can't get a much bigger wire than that though from what I see
That's what I'm saying. Many of these test introduce the wire to current that code would not allow for. However there are larger wago connectors with up to 8 ports. Presumably the added metal would allow for more current but I still do not trust them.
the wago bridge heated higher than the wire, you can see it heat the wire near the connector. as long as it's thick enough for the rated circuit it may be ok, but I can see where they can become hotspots.
nice video I enjoyed the experiment. My guess is that the wago connector actually did cause the failure, that connection being the most resistance, higher ohms, caused it to heat up more than the other connectors. Although the wago connection itself didn't fail it got hot enough to cause the failure in the wire immediately adjacent. Maybe?
Fascinating vid John. I thought the Wago Connector would fail first as the actual wires are not in contact with each other but they all stood up well to the overload. :)
There's no direct wire to wire connection in any of these other than the wire nut. Butt connectors have a piece of metal between the crimp ends, the WAGO push-in uses springs (which might provide some conductivity) placing the wires against a bus bar, and a terminal/choc block uses a metal base.
I've seen some testing and one of the highest resistances came from just trying to touch wires together. With a wire nut, the resistance can vary depending on how much twisting there is between wires. Push-in connectors tend to be very stable in terms of how much contact there is using a spring. I've heard criticism that the contact area with the wire is small (and thus resistance is higher), but I don't believe that's so much the issue as much as whether or not it will overheat under rated current.
Don't forget to disconnect the circuit when you play with it at 9:30.
Good video nad very instructive.
You chickened out at 90A. Photonicinduction would have *started* at 90A. More likely he'd have started at 900A.
bdf2718 I popped it
My Power meter is smoking. Well it can take a bit more. Oh, i broke it.
Where that bloke's at, by the way?
Send you wire to photonic !
Where's my 'ammer?
Hi Very interesting. I worked in France for 10 years and I must have fitted thousands of the Wago type connectors. It's nice to know they "work" as advertised! Thanks.
Nice! Would love to see ideal insure nuts / switch / outlet push-in terminals tested after pushed in and out a few times under max load!
you should commentate tennis or cricket
He reminds me more of a weather man!
My dad would turn on NOAA weather radio whenever he had trouble sleeping he said it would put him to sleep in a few minutes.
Very interesting demonstration John.
You could draw a following conclusion: Overloaded cable itself is a much weaker point in a circuit than any of the used connectors on such cable. Never overload cables in the first place.
From practical observations and working with properly designed, non-overloaded cabling, I can say it's almost always cable connectors that go wrong first before the cable does.
Your videos are so informative, thankyou for taking time and effort to make them 👍
Fantastic video! I might add that crimp connectors are designed for stranded wire. I've seen a few burn out with solid core but they are usually in high vibration applications like motors.
I've started using wago. I like them especially for others to use as they can not over tighten the terminal and damage the wire. I've seen a good number of melted choc-bloks from damaged conductor.
my bad experience is rusted choc-blok screws
Same is true of the screw terminals on sockets and light switches. It's usually what causes the wire to break when fitting a new one.
cool test JW, also eastern USA here and ive used those screw in block connectors several times in the past just not for mains voltage. i have used that type of connector for LAN and telephone lines.
That last one that was shown, 3m WingTip is very Common and used in the USA by All Electricians ! They are the best to use because once they are twisted on all the way , no wire is loose . Yellows are for 2-3 # 12AWG , Reds are for 3-4 # 12 AWG
Best case scenario no wire is loose, which is why many regions don't use them.
You should take a look at the WAGO 221 connector. It is the most versatile and user friendly connector I know.
Good to know. I've wondered about the Wago connectors. Now I know. Thanks.
Great demo, thanks for sharing!
the twist nut connector used to be the most common connection here in NL up to the late 80's and 90's and even early 2000's in some installations. these days we majorly use the insert type (WAGO) I like that they are transparent these days as you can see if your connection is correct. this is only since a few Years
Genius test and demo. Well done. Thanks.
I use the push fit connectors sometimes the lever cage type and both are easy to use plus do not stress the copper like the other types that tend to squash or twist the conductor. The new wago connection boxes are fantastic in place of the traditional type junction box.
Nice video.
I think a more comprehensive test would be to heat and cool the wire repeatedly several times (perhaps dozens) to get some expand/contract wear, and THEN see how the connectors handle a high load.
Awesome video John! Great Stewie shirt! New to the channel. Hello from Dallas, TX!
Reviewing this a couple of months later John, one thing strikes me. The actual failure was at the point where the wire would have been stripped to go into the WAGO, and was PROBABLY due to me stripping the wires with a pair of sidecutters rather than the correct tool. A cautionary tale?
TheChipmunk2008
thats why its important to not nick the wire or bend to much or to sharply
nice vid.
Comparing to the untested wire, it looks like it was a little way from where you would have stripped the wire. In fact, there's still some insulation on the bit that's in the connector. It is where the wire is bent but not sure if that's relevant.
Looks like it failed at a hard bend. Assuming that was AC, that would be a high inductive resistance. The Wire nut also has high inductive resistance, but the spring and other material gives it more heat sinking capacity.
+Copper Hamster I don't think inductive effects would be within a bull's roar of being significant at 50Hz.
The inductance of a bend like that wouldn't even be significant at 50MHz, and the wire nut does not form an inductor at all.
Also, the correct term is impedance, not inductive resistance.
+Godfrey Poon
To be fair, I think Copper Hamster meant inductive reactance, which when combined with capacitive reactance, forms the complex component of the electrical impedance vector. Resistance is the real component.
Nice video. Thank you. I tried looking for spects on wire caps about how much amps it carries. Could only find volts.
Just a couple of points John. The Wago connectors are pronounced as Vargo ( German word) Plus I was always taught that crimp connectors are only to be used on multi stand cables, The crimp could be pulled off a solid drawn cable as it didn't bite into the cable.
Every region has their own ideas, and everyone thinks theirs are the best.
I agree with you points Mike. I too was always taught to use crimps only on stranded (I did my apprenticeship in 1977). Having said that a properly crimped connection on solid drawn conductor is going to be fine. A correctly sized and installed screw connection is bomb proof and maintenance free in my book. There are hundreds of screw connections I made 20, or 30 years ago that are still
working safely.
@@canopus101 just consider how many items use screw fittings,sockets,lampholders,lightswitches,plugtops and so on....few will ever get looked at after the day of fitting
Multi strand (Engish word)
Wow that was really cool I’ve always wanted to do that but never had the guts to do so. Great video thanks. Happy new year from the colonies
Thanks, I was just wondering the other day how the Wago would stand up to current stresses.
while it was 90A, its worth mentioning the wago connector was the only one that actually caught fire.
great demo thanks for the info
Excellent video really practical and very conclusive!
Awesome John, we want more videos like this :-)
Love the video. Also can't help but notice the old Hammond in the background. Looks to me an m 100 series. I have an old M3 147 combo that just about burned my house to the ground due to some leaky capacitors. Just had the amp completely rebuilt on it and the Leslie. Thanks for the great video!!!
Yes, it's an M102 from 1965.
@@jwflame oh cool. Thought it looked familiar lol i think mine is a 58
I was quite an early adopter of the wago connectors both push in and lever type and have never seen one fail, choc bloc's on the other hand goodness knows how many failed and loose one I've seen even from "new" installations, glad to see that none of them if connected properly are going to fail. I'd much rather believe a real world test like this than any manufacturer claim, thanks JW, now somebody lend JW a climatic chamber and a thermal camera and we'll see the complete picture as they age.
In one instance I've come across a junction box full of Wagos (2273, the exact type shown in the video) where several wires just fell out when I touched the connectors. The whole box was full of signs of super-sloppy work though, stripped wire length all over the place, lots of exposed live copper and generally a rats nest - imagine a 200x200 mm box with all wires for a large room with five groups of lighting (two of them on two-way switches) and a bunch of sockets crammed in! (In Austria it's acceptable and rather common to mix lights and sockets and the whole box was just one circuit).
My task was to find out why and how all the sockets in the room had ended up being switched with the wall lights and change them to permanently live. Took me a while to figure out the layout and find all the splices behind the sockets but eventually managed.
In the Netherlands chocblocks are forbidden in mainwirering the crimp butt connector also. Before the adoption of wago push in early 1980 we used wirenuts. Wirenuts are better if done correctly but hard to do so with 5 wires.
Wago connectors are fine if you keep the current ratings in mind. Do not reuse them to many times If you think the spring lost his tention do discard them.
MultiArrie Same in Germany, only I never run Info wire nuts, even in older Installations. Chocblocks are forbidden in junction boxes, but still okay for light fixtures, also mostly today the clamping wago Type ist preferred. Instead of wire nuts in older stuff TH-cam will find Lots of WhatsApp Looks Like half chocblocks with one Screenshot and all wires inserted from one Side.
The only time I've seen fail choc blocks fail is when an idiot doesn't strip the wire ends & relies on the screws to puncture the insulation. This make the choc block act as bridge & if its not rated properly, will overheat melting the plastic, allowing the metal barrel to come into contact with stuff it should not. I would normally strip the wire twice the length of the barrel. Double them over & make sure that the wires are clamped by both screws.
The question is, how long do spring clamp type terminals last in an environment where it is humid?
In Australia, the most common connector is called a "BP" (I have no idea why). It's kind of like the screw nut, but you twist using pliers then shove the result into a one-sided barrel and tighten down a brass screw. They are quite reliable due to the combination of twisting and pressure.
It stands for BluePoint, a company long since bust
@@Bobo-ox7fj - Oh yeah, that's right, I remember now. I worked for Clipsal when they purchased BluePoint. I inspected the factory at Padstow NSW where thick brass/bronze wire was unrolled, stamped and turned into the screws and connector barrels. The machines were many decades old and still ran 24/7... It was incredibly old fashioned and felt like it would have been steam powered when it first started 😃
An important factor for a connector design is how easy is it to do wrong. You did a good so they all worked here. Many people do not put wire nuts on correctly for the type of wire they are using. You correctly pre twisted this solid wire with pliers, which should not be done on small thermostat wire or stranded wire.
On the crimp connector people often use cheap crimper tools or don't get the wire in all the way.
With the push in connector they move it around so much and damage the connector. They strip off too much insulation so wire is exposed, then have to try to pull it out which damages the connector.
For the screw type they don't get tight enough or they don't strip the insulation enough so some insulation is under the screw. In the USA wire nuts are used a lot on smaller wire #10 and smaller but all the connectors are used. Big or serious stuff usually uses the block type connector, so I assume engineers feel those are the best. I like the screw block best because you can test voltage easily on the exposed screw.
Great channel m8!
I always use connector blocks and crimps as I personally think there the safest. I’ve done tests like this myself.
I’ve never used wire nuts and the spring types of connectors as I don’t think you get a proper tight connection.
@9:28
And here we can see I just leave the current running through the wire at 89.43 amps while i inspect 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Im really supprised that the wago did so well, the spring must be really good heat wise :-)
The butt joint and chocolate block connector was no supprise, i didnt expect them to fail.
The nut or i think marette worked but i think it was the tight twist of the wires that took the brunt of the power, not that spiral spring.
Amazing that the wire took so much :-)
My get the slot with screw brass connectors or waygo one wingnut and crimp the issue I have had with screw is plastic melts and screws fall out I don't the waygo connectors assume plastic will melt and cause failure then wingnut as twist with aluminum insert will hold but essentially fail and crimp as they sometimes use steel in place of aluminum in the connectors
I just twist the wire ends and give them a wrap with some duct tape. The fire department and my insurance company keep threatening me with fines and jail time after each fire but it’s my life. Yolo.
The marret/wire nut with tape on top to make it more secure is the way that feel good for an old electrician who think that the young generation has nothing good to teach them. If the wire nut get loose, the tape will keep the wire together, preventing short circuit with the metal enclosure.
The professionals reasoning is: wire nut of the correct size for the number of wire you intend to fix are stronger than this tape which get dry over time and fall by itself.
However, if the wire nut fail and a wire get exposed, we prefer to get a short circuit to the metal box which is always connected to the ground, right? It is better that a fuse blow and the light stop working and force the user to inspect the electrical problem. If electrical tape is holding the wire despite the poor electrical contact, the user may tolerate that intermittent blinking light for years... until the heat from that bad contact finally start a fire.
This cheap electrical tape at $1 dollar store is probably not fireproof I imagine. It just add combustible to your electric box.
I feel better about those wire nuts now, seeing the wire itself failing before any connector.
thanks for this video.
They all work when done correctly but I guess the regulator has to take a view on how easy it is to put the connector on incorrectly/dangerously without realising it. I thought that was the original problem with the 1960s wingnut type in the UK tbh.
Butt crimp should be fantastic but a lot of people are inevitably going to munge them closed with random pliers.
Wago might be the best here in terms of only looking like it's on properly when it really is on properly.
possible idea for a future video would be comparison of crimps made with inappropriate tools vs correct tools - demonstration of the easyness of making a bad joint with the varying types
Oh yeah, crimp connections are extremely awful when you don't have good tools. Many years ago I used to work in clay mining industry and these were used for connecting control circuits to bucket-wheel excavator. We had to solder these (guerilla style - bucket, campfire and lot of solder - these were pretty big connectors, as all the control was based on pretty beefy contactors) because there was no hydraulic crimper available on site and if we used manual one it was failing after a week or two.
I don't believe wire nuts have ever been banned from use in the UK, although obviously they've never been terribly common. My understanding is that they fell out of use because of the older style ceramic caps that didn't contain a metal spiral. They basically had threads cut into the ceramic and the threads cutting into the wires as the thread spiral got smaller is what held wires in place. I understand they weren't always terribly secure and had a tendency to break when overtightened. I can't even get a modern plastic wire nut to crack using pliers.
I've been dealing with older homes and replacing old connections. I've seen some ghastly soldered connections that were covered with vinyl electrical tape, rubber splicing tape, and/or friction tape. I've also encountered wires that were twisted together, then covered with a crimp sleeve, and finally covered with tape. These were variously replaced with wire nuts or lever-style connectors like a WAGO 221 or Ideal In-Sure L2.
Interesting video. I wonder how the Wago Lever nuts would compare to the other connectors? And with a heavier gauge wire say rated for 20 amps....
And this is why I still use connector block even though it would never be subjected to such high load. Done property can build a far stronger join than a wago which relies on tension pressure from a pissy bit of bent brass.
Man I realized you weren’t turning off whatever you were using to supply the high amperage, legend
l purchased a box of the wing nut type in denmark about 25 years ago i saw them in use and thought what a great idea .i just use them as a tempoary connection while working . have never seen them anywherd else in 25 years
Everywhere in America. They were the gold standard here for a long time. Actually not bad if used properly.
Very well done and enlightening. I wonder if you could soak the connectors is some sort of corrosive liquid to see which stand up to long term wear and corrosion. Thanks
i think the issue was that it was a loos connection.
in my experience, over time a loos connection will cause increased temperatures around it even at currents lower than the line is rated. only recently i had to deal with a situation were the wiring had melted and a fuse had blown around a fuse holder where the terminals wear not screwed tightly, with now indication of undercurrent .
I'm putting crimps on all ties and splices or whatever anyone calls it.
Great video 👍
Here in Germany we do mostly use Wagos these days, they are practical and more secure than the screw terminals due to better insulation.
This would be a good video for apprentices showing just how everything will burn when things go wrong. Thank you
A thermal imaging camera would make this analysis much more easy to see!
It certainly would - unfortunately cheap thermal cameras are next to useless, and good ones are £1000+
Excellent video
It helps to create fire hazard awareness !!!
Real Monty Python type experiment. I love it. Let's have some more.
This is a good demonstration on how housefires start when you run a plug-in heater for too long from an outlet it's not the heaters that catch fire it's the wiring inside the wall that is not rated for that constant amps being pulled. so just imagine a wire from that outlet all the way to your breaker doing this inside your walls.
This is actually a bad demonstration. Most electrical fires do not start because of a heavily overloaded wire, but because of dodgy wire connections at currents well wirhin the projected limits of the wire itself. So the connections are the critical pointsm not the wire itself.
Thanks for doing the video John... I'm surprised too, I really expected either the Wago or the Wirenut to fail. The choc blocks as noted by CrimsonTrainer tend to fail over the years due to loosening from heat/cool cycles (That's partly why I included it)
I should have included the 222 type as I had some, but I suspect, as they rely on the plastic lever to supply force, they'd fail pretty fast. Looking forward to stefantrethan's video :D
I don't think the wago 222 type relies on the plastic levers to apply the force, it's the other way round. The levers are used to open the gate and when you release them a spring clamps the wires.
That would make more sense, yes, thanks :D
That is correct; the plastic lever pushes down the metal springy bit to release; when the lever is down, it doesn't touch it and the springy bit clamps the wire. Look at Wago's demonstration video(s).
Actually I think the 222 types have a even stronger connection. Other types you can twist and pullout the wires but doing this on the 222 type is much harder. You need a mechanical lever to insert something while on the other types you can simply push the wire in.
wire nuts dont ever fail thats how we wire all our high power in our houses in the usa you wingnut lol
Great video John! Could you please do a video testing cheap red/yellow/blue crimp connectors such as the 1200Pcs sets on Ebay? I am curious if they are safe.
Thanks great engineering channel
nice video thank you so much
Wonder how the old DCC rubber gutta percha wire would handle this kind of overload test. I have a piece of century plus old DCC wire ( it was used in the building next door, came out of the roof rafters complete with the knob and tube as well, though this one was just pushed through a hole in the wood) that I should try with the welder.
nice thing about inverter welders is they have a pretty good current control, though it will vary a little but you can wind quickly from 20 to 160A with it at least staying within 5% of the setting.
So I don't think the wire would have failed first at the Wago connector if the Wago plastic hadn't caught fire and made a hot spot. So I still blame the connector. Note that in my opinion, the crimp is the most dangerous, since it often happens that a crimp is not carried out correctly.
Great demonstration! Thank you.
Excellent video
I initially scoffed at the spring clip type connectors. I then realised that their benefit is that they maintain a constant clamping force on the wire. Screw type connectors relax over time.
Not sure about how well every spring type works. I've removed one and took it apart and wasn't terribly convinced it was a good design. However, this was from a "lowest bidder" company that made some good products. These did have European and American testing lab approvals, but even then I wasn't convinced the spring material was very good. Now a WAGO or Ideal push-in connector I would trust.
The lever-type connector is another matter. Those use individual springs compared to one piece of stainless steel formed into separate fingers like with most push-in connectors. I would trust those springs to maintain pressure indefinitely.
My take on this test is, that anytime you have a connector that has movement, or not solidly connected together, such as the spring clip connector, you build up more heat at that location due resistance in the connection. Just like in situations in a home where a screw connector on a switch or receptacle is loose, heat builds up at that location when under a load and many times that wire gets hot enough to melt even though the connection itself does not fail. When I first saw the connectors at the start of the video I selected the spring connector to be where the failure would most likely happen. The heat built up in the area near the connector and even though the connector did not fail, the heat was high enough to melt the wire before the connector.
I think a more factor would be the resistance of a connection cause that's what cause the heat and subsequently the failure and fire ?
You got to get a flir one thermal camera.. although I think any of those connectors are perfectly acceptable, just not in the same circuit- You would have easily been able to have a visualization of where the most resistance was originating..
u see in my opinion the screw one holds the most ive seen many kinds of it even harder ones from steel with ceramic hold big ones rly and they did hold lot
It's actually quite interesting how people feel about their preferred connector types. Here in the US, most electricians are skeptical of screw terminal connectors and spring connectors like Wago, and will never stop using wire nuts. And I'm pretty sure that the crimp on butt connectors aren't allowed to be used here for mains wiring. They're often used inside of appliances, but that's about it. There are bare copper crimp connectors used for connecting several ground (earth) wires together, but I've seen more badly terminated connections with those than I've seen properly done ones. (I'm not an electrician, I do general building maintenance as part of my job, so I do sometimes work on existing installations. Can't do new installs or major work such as replacing a circuit breaker panel, however.)
Nice demonstration, WAGO insulation started melting from high resistance first, the wire nut wires should be twisted 360 and trimmed before the nut
What's the resistance of those connectors? Intuition suggests the standard brass and crimped tube will be best since they got most contact area and the copper can be squeezed quite hard, meanwhile wago has so tiny area the wire spins freely inside (and the thin plate has less copper?). Not sure about the yolo twist thing, it's too big and funky anyway. Mechanical properties are also important (on the battlefield which is construction site), with inline connectors you avoid the 90 degree kink.
I use wago for neutral (can connect 3-5 together easy), for rest the old screw stuff.
Wagos are fine at the end of a circuit. But I have found that if installed near the beginning of a circuit and with the amount of wattage that goes through them, they eventually burn apart. But when speed comes into play, they rock.
The really interesting test would be to take a 100’ extension cord and cut it at around 10 different places along its length. Splice it with different connections and test for voltage drop.
That wago actually let up a flame. Scary, as the others were self extinguishing and didnt light up and add heat to the fault
On the choc block connector, did you connect it so the two cables were touching one another, one on top of the other and clamped together, or did you just put a short piece in either end so each screw was only connecting one cable and the choc block formed part of the circuit?
I am not a fan of choc blocks as they can sometimes burst open as the screw tightens up.
Screw on wire nuts were used a lot back in the 60’s and I believe they mainly fell out of favour due to the porcelain not having the correct impact resistance.
Realistic test to approx. 4x overload.... Impressive. Was feeling like watching a football match...
I pulled the plug of a little fan under my desk and dropped it on the floor next to the power strip like I did for the past 20 years. About a minute later the fan turned on, I look at the fan and it was running. Electricity was arching from the outlet to the prongs of the plug lying on the floor. The first thing I thought was I could lose my home to something like this. I'll be turning the power strip switch off from now on. But will that be enough?
i love how he speaks
rising inflection
Damn no, it is quite irritating, if you make a video try and keep your voice constant, going up and down like that can make your listeners seasick.
I find it irritating as well. I have been speaking English for 50+ years and still find it difficult to understand the speaker. Anyone else would never finish this video.
This is just nuts! 🤔
Really interesting stuff.
Thanks John, brilliant video as always. Would you use that Wago on a ring main protected by a 32 amp fuse? As long as there wasn’t a break in one leg you’d have less than 20 Amps flowing in any half of the circuit... and even with a break your wire would be operating over rating never mind your connectors.
The Wago connector in the video is a 773 series, rated for 24 amps. A 32A ring final complies if the cable is rated to at least 20A, so using a 24A connector will also comply.
Can't beat A good solder joint 👌
In Portugal we also have all of those. Until a few years ago, inside the walls, the wing-nut twist connector (we call it "Torix") was the type of connection we used most, now the Wago type of connectors have replaced the use of the Torix connectors. We also have a Wago type of connectors which are filled with a gel inside, they say the connections will be protected from the air outside, preventing any type of corrosion. These gel connectors, which are expensive, are mainly used in communication boxes. It would be interesting to do your experiment with these connectors, that have that gel inside, to see if the fire created is attenuated or not. As I can see on your video, I'm not to sure if we are going the right way by replacing the Torix connectors with those Wago. Well thanks for another great and interesting video.
Torix seems to be a Swedish brand name for wire nuts.
Wago sells a gel in a little syringe too (probably vaseline) that has to be used if you've got aluminium wiring, which is quite common in eastern Europe.
When you think about it, it's hardly surprising that the connectors didn't fail, for two reasons.
Firstly, there's more conductive metal for the current to flow through in any properly-made connection through any of those connectors, therefore a lower resistance, therefore less heating inside the connector.
Secondly, there's more metal in the connector than in the wire, therefore more surface area for any heat build-up to be radiated from, therefore keeping the connectors cooler than the wires.
Elementary, my dear Watson (as Sherlock Holmes never said). :)