That's a smart design for the outlet. Hopefully they don't wait too long to introduce a "Smart" version of that outlet - you know for home automation and such.😊 I do appreciate the fact that Leviton gives some serious competition to Lutron - however, for some reason, they always seem to be 'lagging' behind them
I would definitely recommend the outlet, but the screwdriver is crap. If you’re a home gamer it’s great but for every day professional use it doesn’t hold up. The ring that makes up the bit holders inside the handle is very thin plastic and will shortly break. Also, a lot of stress is put on the in- handle bit holder due to the fact that it spins with the cap. It’s a good idea, just poor implementation, and I love Wiha tools.
$24.99 for a 10-pack seems like a no-brainer. Never heard of these before this video, so thank you as always for giving out some amazing information! You'll be over a million subscribers in no time!
As an electrician I think you missed one of the most important features. The larger plastic tabs on the top and bottom of the receptacle allow it to sit flush with the wall better.
The tabs look nice. I didn't even notice that at first. So, I watched the promo video video on Home Depot. The outlets also have a tongue and groove for alignment with multiple switches. I'm somewhat disappointed that I don't have an electrical project right now. 😄
@Darth Logicus it depends, if the person who cuts the holes in the drywall did a good job then yeah. If not, you need more drywall meat to grab sometimes.
I had a job of replacing every single outlet, switches in a large house. The customer purchased this type of outlet. I was able to change nearly 200 of these outlets, light switches and other related fixtures in a day. All whilst the system was energized, which facilitated easier testing. Although I'm not a fan of the tamper resistant type outlets, these things are worth there weight in gold. Wago connectors are also a god-send.
@@kichigaisensei The construction of the newer outlets has no exposed metal or set screws. Its all plastic. When changing out the outlets, I cut the wires one at a time to straighten out the copper, then insert into the new outlet and close the lever. As long as your not touching 2 points like a hot and neutral, and most importantly *not grounded* a person can touch an energized line and not get shocked. With these outlets, the risk of electric shock is lessened since there is no exposed metal.
As a DIYer who doens't install outlets often, but just installed 5 of them, these look awesome! I'm going to try these on my next reno. I wish they had more options, like GFI and non-shuttered.
Shuttered are great. They fail younger than standard do, but you won't particularly notice. GFCI are expensive and DIY installers piss that away on the regular. I think STANDARDS down circuit of a GFCI, installed CORRECTLY are a better solution. That's safety and money talking.
Shuttered are required now for residential. I learned the hard way. Added two outlets and the inspector can't sign off until I replaced ALL of my existing outlets with shuttered outlets. Also Arc Fault (AFCI) is required for all new 120 circuits. Guess how I found that out... yep. had to replace the entire box with the exception of a 220 for the AC. Remember that if you are replacing a dud breaker, all 15 and 20 amp circuits must be AFCI now.
@@IdgaradLyracantis that national? How recent was this? Had new electrical done with additional outlets and circuits a year ago in MN and inspector did not make us do this. My house was only 4 yrs old then, so maybe it was not necessary.
I'm not an actual electrician, but I've had to replace a couple of wall outlets. These seem pretty cool! I'm not gonna go out of my way to rip out all of my existing outlets, but if they make one with USB ports as well, I'd genuinely consider grabbing a few.
I see they also have it for their wall switches too. Hard to believe they are the same price as their old style outlets and switches. Great job Leviton!
Screws and threading brass parts is expensive. These are cheap because they've replaced some of those metal parts with plastic. (I always expect plastic stuff to be cheap.)
As an electrician, I like this design. The hold down tabs for wire terminations will need the test of time to see if these really hold up. Wagos initially had issues but I believe they’ve been ironed out over time. The biggest thing here is the time saving during installation, and if you install thousands of these on a project you will save labor. Just need to weigh the costs of labor versus material overall. I’d say this is a win for the industry overall.
It's another variation of the cage clamp. It won't fail. Once the lever is in the closed position the wire is trapped in the cage and can only be pulled out with extreme force. The 'spring' component that forms the bulk of the electrical contact has limited travel so even if you sit there opening and closing it till your fingers fall off the clamp won't break from metal fatigue. The plastic lever will give up before the clamp does. Wago's connectors have been in use for decades with the clamp in essentially the same form as it is seen today. This stuff is all quite reliable. It's so reliable that even the elcheapo Chinese knock offs are quite reliable.
The tabs go brittle over the decades and after 40-50 years they might brake when you try to open them again. But your insulation will do the same. Other countrys use this type or similar and simple push type connections for at least 40 years now and they still work.
I agree, not a huge deal but something additional I like on this outlet not mentionednin the video (or maybe I just missed it) is there's no exposed screws or any current carrying conductor exposed anywhere when installed even without a cover. It's nice if you're ever working in a multi gang box or something and the wires going to this outlet are still hot. Yes I know I know but really, who hasn't taken a cover plate off without killing power first?
These are the best thing ever I bought some for my house last week! I changed 15 outlets in less then an hour. The longest part was removing the old outlets!
Thanks for suggesting this type of outlets, I just changed a whole room and a total of 5 in 20-30 mins. Easiest way ever! Will change it throughout all the house tomorrow
Over the years I have installed at least a 1000 outlets. This style of terminating an outlet is a huge improvement. The shutter that prevents you from just poking something into the outlet, That's what all the outlets in England had when I lived there 45 years ago.
Are you wiling to pay, or bid to your customers the cost of this outlet? Its $32 us per outlet. If it was being sold to the customer it would come out to 45- 60+ It has some good features but they are asking way to much for it. I'll take the extra time (30 seconds) to strip my wires and make a loop to save.
@alexrugowski3051 I'm not an electrician, just an A/C guy, but you can strip those wires in about 30 seconds to a minute at most. the time saved is not worth the cost. I will agree that it is fancy and nice.
I've been an electrician for 11 years now. I really think these lever connectors are far superior everywhere in industry. We have been using them extensively in din rail terminals and they are great. Screw connections tend to come loose and the lever connections stay tight. They apply consistent torque throughout their entire life.
The best part of the lever design is that it's a static design, the only way for the lever to come undone is for an outside force to change its state. With screw terminals just the act of pluging and unplugging things can cause the terminals to loosen over time.
I’m not disputing the usefulness of the levers for increasing the ability of a lay person to do a safer receptacle replacement, but I have _never_ had a screw terminal come “loose”. Maybe that would be possible if one only stuck in a straight wire on one side of the screw instead of properly bending it around.
For small Guage stranded limited load systems the levers work fine but outside of that I would not use them. There are studies that show an increase in resistance and so thermal loss that comes with the lever lock style connections. As to wires coming off post style connections, I have never seen it happen unless done incorrectly.
I've never seen a screw terminal work itself loose. I've seen screw terminals that were improperly tightened, but that's hardly the same thing. That said, I'm generality a fan of lever-locks, although I tend to use them only in lighting fixtures.
@David Voss Electricians will verify. Screws loosen. I know 1 insurance company that gives discounts to industrial customers that hire electricians to perform periodic maintenance on all connections every 5 years. Companies save enough to pay for the inspections.
Wow, this is nifty. As an aggressively inexperienced DIYer, this is the kind of thing that will give huge efficiency gains along with significant safety improvements. Thanks for sharing!
Repent to Jesus Christ “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 NIV H
@loamandil It does if you think about how people will DIY things that they shouldn't DIY. Products should be designed to eliminate the likelihood of installation error. Some people who should be professionals mess up things like this too.
@@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist3 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that whoever DID NOT believe in him, would be TORTURED FOR ETERNITY! Christians have a funny definition of love
You're absolutely right on all three counts for this being well worth the extra spend for a quick, easy and safe installation. I especially liked the gauge on the side to indicate how much should be stripped off the wire. Great stuff! Oh, and I liked the driver utility with all the bits in the handle. Thanks for a great video!!
Sparkies where I live use screws only, connections are visibly varifiable and hand tensioned, this is Commercial and Industrial, I'm not saying its not done, I worked the industry for 18 years. In my house, the insertion style has failed causing shorts but the screw side remains usable and solves the problem. If I were to use this style, I'd want the exact patent the company from Europe uses that many on here are explaining the differences and their proven longetivity. Personally, I'll stick with the screws, I take proven over greatest and best and easiest. Good video, informative.
Thats actually really cool. I am definately going to use these next time I have to replace a receptical or switch. I can't wait for them to come out with a GFCI versions.
Thanks for this video! I never knew about these and like someone else said... "$24.99 for a 10-pack seems like a no-brainer." i agree! Sadly though, home depot is out of stock right now, but when then do come back i plan on getting a few boxes! I love the fact that they are also "baby proof!"
By code at least where I live, all the outlets have to be tamper resistant now. So they shouldn't even be selling ones that aren't, unless it's a single receptacle for like a garbage disposal or other appliances.
I like these even at the higher price than standard outlets and switches. I've been using the Wago connectors for about a year now and they're great. Especially the inline connectors. My house is over fifty years old and a lot of the wires have been cut back over the years during renovations leaving them too short for easy connections. The inline connectors are perfect for correcting that issue.
I would DEFINITELY buy one of these to replace an outlet... thanks for bringing it to my (everyone's) attention! I realize it would cost more... but it SHOULD because of what it offers.
Wow seriously? Welcome from to the 80's America. As an Electrician in Belgium I'm always stunned by how far you are ahead in technology yet so massively behind in just in basic electricity ... Child protection as it is known here is already mandatory since the 80's over here as for the screw less connections we had those since the early 2000's... all and all nice video never the less
Ahh, it was a lesson. Kids do not touch outlets or plugs and when they did, zzap. We are 110 here in the US not 230,. Big difference. 4 kids in the family, we all learned. Later in life I did production electrical 110, 220 mostly. Was pretty careful about not getting zapped. Got careless with the hipot tester. Dropped the positive lead after finishing the test. The lead swung around and zapped my elbow. Only happened once. Ruined a pair of cutters as the inverter was on. Ooops
120V is more of an annoyance when you get whacked compared to 220V. We have 120V just for smaller appliances, lights, phone chargers etc. and use the 220V sockets for AC, Heating, Dryers, EV chargers, garage lifts, etc. The 220V outlets are all much higher off the floor and generally hidden.
The sad part about the tamper resistant feature is that, at least in my home, the feature has jammed on several of our outlets, rendering them completely unusable, as even the proper plugs can't be inserted.
@@andrewtadd4373 I think the British tamper resistant mechanism is disengaged differently. I believe on the US recepticles the shutters move when both prongs are going in. In the UK the ground plug causes the shutters to move.
Almost every USB charging brick I've seen is just two prongs. And many appliances. Having the tamper work using ground pin isn't a good option. The real solution is to install plus at waist height instead of on the ground.
@@bsh0718 I’ve never used either! What’s your point? I plan on using Shark Bite someday, thousands of great reviews! I’m guessing you’re an old timer plumber, and don’t like trying new things. I’m Pro DIY and welcome new innovations!
This appears to be worth every penny. I've moved around a lot throughout the West US and have never seen outlets with features this good. I'm in a very old house so my biggest struggle is the proper use of fine electronics that need a grounded outlet and I do mean they need it. Most of my high current equipment is two-pole non-grounded and my $$$$ electronics are low voltage and current but so complicated that they need a clean electric signal. This also effects my computers and A/C equipment. I can find grounded connections in the living room, back room, master bedroom and dining room but nowhere near my room and the kitchen has weirder stuff going on that makes me wonder if this was really a sign of age or a basic cost cutting measure. Anyone with kids would appreciate the safety features of this thing too. Great stuff.
My electricity is really bad lots of brownouts, lots of short shutoffs, I use ups's in front of everything with electronics in it, good ups's also apc.
As a weekend DYIer $3.68 is a no-brainer this looks awesome. I’m not typically replacing a ton of these at a time so buying one for less than four dollars each time I need to do it count me in. Thanks for bringing this to my awareness.
Very nice. I like that the terminals are color coded so rookies don't need to look up which side gets the black and which side gets the white. But I would normally buy a back wired receptacle, which around here means buying a commercial grade receptacle, and I am not sure I accept that the "Wago" connection is more robust than a back wired connection.
The tabs sound really good but I've always hated those shutters on outlets. I had them in my last apartment and it required an insane level of force to plug something in and I always felt like I was gonna break either the outlet or the wall when doing so
They loosen up as time goes by and it's probably because you're not really supposed to shove them in straight like you would with regular outlets, you got a a slight angle until the shutter starts to open. The whole point of the shutters is that it's supposed to be impossible for small children to stick anything in there, so the outlets are effectively permanently childproofed. And anything that isn't relatively strong metal will never go into one of those outlets.
The "tamper resistant" shutters have been a electrical code requirement in the US for new construction or major renovations about the last 5 years. If you pull a permit for the job, the inspector will look for them.
@@mikespoelker8963 I just had my house built and the local code does not require them and my house does not have them. Though our code requires the house to require GFCI and Arc Faults throughout branch circuits.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade They not always loosen up, in fact sometimes with age, they jamb. Also if you don't have kids and you are aging, they become more frustrating; kind of like those tamper resistant prescription bottles I have to remember to ask for non-tamper resistant caps when getting them filled.
They've improved the design over the years so it's much better. I have some Leviton TR outlets and haven't had any issues plugging stuff in. Of course, that's anecdotal.
Try new receptacles. The older style were awful to plug anything in. The new style are very easy. They have re-designed the safety shutters. I just got a box of brand new Leviton tamper resistant outlets a few days ago and plugs go right into them like the old fashioned outlets - no issues.
I noticed that My building manager in my apartment building recently replaced all the outlets in the hallways with this particular outlet from the older 1970s era outlets that had been there. I can see why they got selected. They do seem useful and easy to install, never mind the fact that as a renter I myself am not really about to be opening up the outlets or switches in my walls anytime soon.
If then building manager in your apartment building was replacing outlet then he was breaking the law. Only a licensed electrician can perform electrical work in an apartment building.
i used to work at a place here in the usa a few years ago , and we often had electric switches stop working,, the maintenance people said it was because of those new style switches,where you strip off a short piece of insulation, push a button down ,insert wire and release button,these type switches were always losing a good connection and had to be re cut and reinserted, Maintenace people hated them...
in germany, there is virtually nothing else except clamps. only that we have been using them on sockets for well over 20 years. as well as switches, dimmers and junction boxes. everywhere we only clamp. even on many fuses. but it's nice to see that you are also making progress in development.
did you guys get air conditioners yet? past 5 years all your old folks died during the summer heat waves bc yall never heard of a/c, good luck this year!
Im fine with 30° in Germany ---- 86° F , for 3 times a year --- In Tucson we are fighting 115° F with super bad "air conditioning", don't start comparing you will lose
@@gladitsnotmedude, I lived in Germany in 2017-18, and 22-23. It was hot enough to need AC for about 3 weeks including one where temps pushed 100 F for a few days. Most houses and apartments don't really need it. They design the buildings to ventilate, do a great job of insulating, and let the thermal mass maintain the temps during the hot day. The lack of high humidity helps. I live in Central Indiana.
I never changed an outlet when I lived in the States. But I did when I lived in Japan in 2015, and this is pretty much how the outlets were. The levers weren't quite as easy to flip, but I didn't deal with any screws 😅
I just finished wiring my new home. I wish I had those when I started. The time saved in installation and in tracking down problems is worth every penny. In fact, the outlets I put in were MORE expensive. Thanks.
As an electrician myself, I saw these and got them because I just redid all the electrical devices in my house, they make replacing devices significantly faster and easier, especially since the extended tabs mean that I don’t have to have a perfect outlet box to set these perfect, I only need to swap the 6-32 screws to a longer one, reducing money spent on spacers. It is noteworthy that if you do keep the extended tabs, you will need to get midway or jumbo device covers, to use the small covers you will have to remove the tabs or the covers won’t sit flush, but they are easy to remove with a simple twist. Also this design does force you to make pigtails, if you have more than three wires in a box, which I believe is the best way anyway, but if you are absolutely focused on speed, it would be nice to have an extra terminal, or even a push in tab just so when replacing existing outlets you don’t have to stop the flow to make pigtails. Otherwise these outlets are phenomenal,
I've seen fixtures that don't require loops. There are two kinds: There are screws that have a small square plate behind them, which is bent up on one edge. You stick the _straight_ wire under the screw along this edge, and tighten the screw. It's difficult if not impossible to make a loop instead. The second kind is a hole in the back that you stick the wire in. There is no lever; it just grabs by itself. You can't pull it out again, ever. These have regular screws also.
Don't pull it out by twisting back and forth. There is a hole adjacent to the wire backstab hole that is used to release the tension on the backstab. Just press a small screwdriver or awl into it and the wire will come right out.
I really wish there was a commercial version of these available now. Commercial is all I will use...heavier duty construction and I believe safer, especially with high-wattage appliances.
I work in commercial as well. I don't see these going inside a cut-in box as the "ears" don't seem to be removable. I did notice that the yolk is still metal and allows for a Stainless Steel Cover Plate to be grounded. That's good
Lic Electrician here.The lever system is an improvement over the old backstabs(never use) in that it puts more pressure on the wire.But the contact area(very impotant to the ampacity of the connection) is still too small.I also never use wagos on anything that might see more than 5 amps ,so for instance, the inside of light fixtures.This should never be used to pass through a circuit.Splice the circuit through with a high pressure conical spring wire nut like a bucannan B2(W/correct wire twist and length) and include a pigtail to connect to the outlet.These terninals do not provide as good a connection as traditional screw terms and the saved time in wiring for me is less than one minute. You mentioned correct wire length,but didnt mention that for this type of connector it is important that the wire also be very straight,clean and unknicked.For screw terms it just needs to be unknicked. These are quite pricey. They are bigger than a traditional style and take up more cubic inches.This might not be an issue but very often it is(depends on the size of the box and what all is in it already) and can make installation a real pain or sometimes impossible. I pass on these.
Agreed! The problem with this outlet and the Wago is all about the total surface area of the connection. This is why a wire wrapped around a screw is still superior because there's a lot more surface area of wire-to-metal contact. We can easily see when he pulls the wires out of those tab levers that there are two small crimps in the wire metal... showing even in the video (3:57) just how small the amount of wire-to-metal contact area is being made.
Completely agree. I wouldn't use the Wago type for the reasons you outlined, but for people who don't know how to cleanly install wire under a screw or properly use a wire nut, Wago type connections at least eliminate poor connection techniques.
EE here, and the issue of surface area of quick-lock/lever/etc. connectors does concern me at higher current. As all of my lighting is LED now, and my load conditions are really low, I'm not concerned about Wago; however, the look-kinda-alike knock-offs are worrysome. There are a lot of DIYers and lowest bid contractors who will end up installing them. My Klien screwdrivers have a little nub by the handle for making shepherd's hooks. Also, the more recent versions of outlets and switches have the ability to 'backwire' that is clamped by torquing the screw, not by an internal lever/spring. Size (depth) of the box is important. I just put in some motion sensor switches and they have a similar form factor as these. Need deep(er) boxes for a lot of the 'smart' stuff. Great for new construction, but no fun for an old lathe and plaster home.
As an up and coming sparky I can certainly see the benefit of these kinds of outlets. I'm not a big fan of tamper resist on a personal level because it makes plugging in harder than it really needs to be, but the time saved is certainly a huge value, made all the more important when you have to replace every outlet in the house (which I'm about to do for one job.) That adds up!
@AlanTheBeast100 they make both 15amp heavy duty light duty and 20 amp heavy duty light duty. It's about the quality of the internals and cutting these open reveal they are designed to replace light duty not heavy duty. The contact area is just standard designed at 3 times the price.
@AlanTheBeast100 you are aware they make many different quality grades at each amp rating, right? Let's not even get into hospital or industrial grades of the same amp ratings. This isn't a new thing. I'm just stating the obvious you're getting a lower grade set of duplex internals at a 3 tines higher cost than it's equivalent.
At first, these receptacles look like a good idea. But the further I look at and think about them I've seen a few weaknesses to the design. First, they only have them in 15A. No 20A yet, but that may change over time. Second, these are residential grade only. I prefer the more rugged contacts in the commercial grade outlets for longer cycles. Especially where I regularly plug and unplug with occasional use appliances (kitchen counter, shop bench, wall outlets where I plug in the vacuum cleaner, etc). Hopefully this will change over time. Third, this is something I recently noticed. How do you check these for voltage with a multi-meter. No exposed metal on the sides, no shrouded test points like the switches have. And the outlet blade slots are security shuttered. You can probably do it by opening the cover over the isolation tab on the hot side, but what about on the neutral side? Is it marked clearly on the receptacle if someone unfamiliar with the receptacle pulls it out if a wall box and needs to make sure that they are actually getting 120VAC (instead of 100 due to a fault or line drop somewhere)? Fourth, and this is a corner case. How do you isolate the neutral sides for complete isolation between the two outlets of the receptacle? I've seen one of these receptacles taken apart and the neutral side does have the breakoff tab, but I haven't seen ant way to access that tab like you can on the hot side. All that said, I like the progress these receptacles indicate. And I hope these lever operated spring cage type connections get incorporated into more product lines and devices.
@@biondatiziana I saw the test features clearly marked on the back of the switches, but I don't see any on the receptacle. Even the website claims the "convenient openings for circuit testers" are on the switches only.
@Phillip Banes This isn't being marketed to your average electrician. This is marketed towards your diy friend who seems like they are doing a different project every weekend. It's also just simpler and almost fool proof.
@Phillip Banes idk I think most guys in the trade are looking for easier and more efficient ways to do stuff. Plus the very little added cost goes to the customer anyway. I think it's gonna catch on more like propress or pex. But you'll still have guys saying it should be done the old fashioned way
For only a buck more it ain't bad. If anything I'd get one for novelty's sake but I've put in umpteen standard outlets and they're no big deal to me. Pretty cool you found that antique receptacle though!
Agreed, I love the old tech and stuff. If you haven't seen my video on mercury light switches you might enjoy that marvelous engineering simplicity: th-cam.com/video/y59h-9rXALY/w-d-xo.html
@@SilverCymbal Yes! I did and a few folks and I rapped about early mercury lamps as well. Mercury arc rectifiers are another amazing/dangerous piece of history too; there's a few videos of those beasts to be found.
I have installed about 100 new outlets in the SFHs I have purchased. I sometimes spend as much as 10 minutes struggling with one outlet. If I could change 15 outlets in an hour, the time savings would far exceed the minor cost difference.
Large contractors use them mostly as a way to prevent loose splices and are faster to install than twisting them and then capping them a wire nut. 2 mins an Outlet is usually the Standard they expect you wire it in. I can wire up an outlet in about 90 seconds with Wagos it takes me about 2 to 3 mins to wire an outlet without the Wagos. So they pay a little more in Material cost but they save it in Labour which is a companies #1 cost.
I bought a Leviton 10 pack and doing my 50 year old houses outlets. These are fantastic and provide greater safety as the wires go all the way to the insulation before you lock the lever. There is a strip guage molded in near one corner to give you a guide.
Every time I use them, I am still in awe of how simple they are. Wonderful little things. I couldn't confirm if they are licensing the tech from Wago but Leviton has been a good company for ages and I believe whatever they are using in there, it feels rock solid.
I've always found it ironic that we shove wire through a metal box, clamp it down with a metal clamp, then attach it to an exposed metal screw with bare wire exposed as well. Yes i realize there are plastic boxes that dont use the metal clamps but the irony still stands at the outlet itself until this new design.
Which is why the "Sparky" channel always recommends wrapping electrical tape around new outlets after connecting them up, to prevent metal screws from contacting metal boxes. Of course, many of us now have plastic boxes, thus making Sparky's safer but time consuming e-tape job unnecessary.
It looks like a great outlet. I'm assuming that if you isolate one receptacle from the other the ground connection is common to both since there is only one place to land a ground wire. Seeing as you only disconnected one connection when isolating them it looks like the neutral is also common to both.
pretty sure you can disconnect both seperately using the same system.. not needed ifthe switched and non-switched outlet is on the same circuit, but probably required if they are on diffrent circuits.. though not familiar enough with US electrical code, so cannot say for certain if this would be actually allowed..
@@shockcoach just for clarification: i reffered to neutral when i meant splitting both in the outlet, not ground... in the video only splitting the hot is shown, but the outlet is basically mirrored (except the ground), so splitting neutral should work the same way as spitting hot
I started about a year ago switching all the outlets and switches in my house to these. The old one were 35 year old ivory ones, that had yellowed even more with age and made the place feel ancient. It's amazing how much newer the rooms link just be changing the outlets. and switches.
I just can't see any negatives (other than price) and your summary of positives are solid. I never expected to be impressed by a wall outlet, but there it is.
Definitely cool, but don’t forgot you still need to pigtail your wires from inside the box so as to not affect other devices down the line if one fails. Would definitely save some time on trim out though!
Sure, if you really want to do it right. Then again, the people who would use an outlet as a bridge/tap rather than pigtailing the line are the same people who would buy the 79 cent specials and backstab them.
In Europe we have this system for at least 20 years already. The screw thing is a reason i have seen electricians in the US put tape around the outlets. Strange that it took so long to evolve or someone to take a look at the other side of the ocean.
I still question how much actual contact the wire has with the internals of the outlet. The biggest benefit of the old style is that you have a good inch of contact curling around the screw and it makes contact against both the screw and the plate it screws into.
Cost per unit of these is $3.06 while a normal tamper resistant outlet is 70 cents. While they could be an okay option for a casual homeowner replacing one or two, I don't see them replacing regular screw terminals for any larger projects. It would be interesting to see if these connections suffer from the regular higher resistance that wago connectors tend to suffer from (I suspect so). In that case, using a screw terminal still might be preferable for all but the lowest expected load situations.
Oh HELL YEA! How did we go so many years without improvements like this!! I'm so tired of twisting wires around screws. Finished my basement using Wagu connectors last year. Not a single wire nut. I only wish these outlets were avalible then.
I hope they make the older style of outlet face for their Edge line. (The one that is sometimes called duplex) Not sure why, but I prefer that style myself. And it would make it about a dollar per outlet cheaper to swap out, if someone's upgrading all of their house's original outlets to these, since they wouldn't have to buy new wall plates.
In Mexico Leviton has been doing so many different forms of this since at least 20 years. From interchangeable sockets to styles and designs. The US is so antique. In mexico the traditional outlet is considered unsafe
The removable tabs on each ends are also there to snap a leviton screwless plate directly on the outlet. also the small nobs on the left side is to aligh all your switches or outlets togheter to make it simpler to install a multi gang plate.
I just discovered these. Had to order them as Lowe’s and Home Depot didn’t have any in stock. I have a dual outlet in our garage that’s tough to access due to a freezer being close to it. Replacing the receptacles is a nightmare. These will make it easier since no screwdrivers in tight place is needed. I’ll see how good they are once they arrive.
I am not an electrician. I love physics. I wrap the wires around the screws clockwise. I squeeze the wires tight around the screws with long jaw pliers and of course tighten the screws. More surface contact area. Better connection.
A physics buff should know that any bolted joint experiencing thermal expansion will loosen over time. And copper, and especially aluminum, has fluidity under load. This is also why the code prohibits re-compression of bolted connections. There's no such thing as “better” in engineering. There's “enough.” Any bolted connection is an installment fire and is not reliable. Wagos and connections like the one in the video provide constant force due to the spring, plus save a tremendous amount of time.
I don't like the "Tamper resistant doors".. I feel like their heart is in the right place, but I feel like this is a "failure point"... where it doesn't get used much, then binds up with dust or crud at some point randomly down the line, or some little plastic mechanism breaks & then won't be usable... Other than that, I liked it a lot, and thought it was a really cool product. The screw driver you showed, was also pretty dang cool!
Spec grade and higher outlets have had back wired (not stabs) terminals for as long as I have been in the industry (30 years) The screw clamps provide more clamping force and surface area contact than any stab or lever mechanism. Not to mention they have brass terminals, nylon bodies, full length grounding straps, nuts to receive screws, etc. While these new lever design outlets may be convenient to install they are mediocre at best for durability and build quality.
I own a 100 year old house (with a 100 year old electrical system. ) The Decora outlets and switches are a no go in my house. I do have a duplex Edition outlet, with hinged brass covers. The first floor has toggle switches and the second floor has push button switches. I have three three-way switches on the Carter system.
For those that don’t know, the “safety” shutters on this type of outlet start to stick after some time and become a nuisance when routine plugging things in and out(hair dryers, vacuums, drill chargers, etc. If no unsupervised baby kids in the house, this feature just isn’t needed here in the states with 110v, but people “feel” better about what they don’t know. And wire wrapping for installing new outlets isn’t a college level thing but still provides the best actual 15amp connection to match the outlets rating, my 5th grade science teacher had a whole section in the semester for basic wiring and circuitry and us kids all did it and mastered it…and got yelled at for doing it lazy wrong…cause it’s elementary stuff. Anyone needing this wago style outlet probably shouldn’t be touching electricity cause they’re safe on the front operate side of things but obviously not on the back side of the cover plate.
At least with our german plugs/sockets it depends on the quality of the shutter mechanism if it's annoying. My wall sockets are all Busch & Jäger , they were also installed in my parents house in 1994, and they never caused any problems. But some of my cheaper extension strips almost block some of my plugs from going in at all with any amount of force or wiggling. Screw terminals may make a better connection at the best of times when compared to spring clamps, but not all are installed properly and the screw can even loosen over time and create bad contacts, I would rather have a consistent but maybe slightly worse contact than an unreliable contact. And it doesnt have anyting to do with our higher voltage, our plugs are rated at 16A.
@@Heimbasteln anything not installed properly in the first place is a problem. Moral of the story: Don't let people who are not qualified be doing things they shouldn't.
The problem with this outlet and the Wago is all about the total surface area of the connection. This is why a wire wrapped around a screw is still superior because there's a lot more surface area of wire-to-metal contact. We can easily see when you pull the wires out of those tab levers that there are two small crimps in the wire metal... showing even in the video (3:57) just how small the amount of wire-to-metal contact area is being made.
Every test I've seen performed to try to show the difference in voltage drop found no meaningful difference between the two. On the face of it, what you say sort of makes sense. In practice, I've yet to see the wrap around method have any benefit.
Since your wires and grid come with a certain diameter and resistance too there really is no point in making a connection have way more surface area than the cross section of the wire you're installing it on.
For all you "I'm a electrician" people quick question. These use very thin piece or copper those tabs push into the side of the wire. Now getting passed the your all the lasy af for liking the speed at which these can be installed, why hasn't a single one of you tested the resistance or loss from such a thin piece or copper being used as a pressure fit on the side of wire? I'd still use the screwed unit simply for the sheer number of bad connections these and the first gen had/will have. These like most things we're designed from point "A" to point "B", not "Z". If the contact patch was full stripped length of wire inside and out and pressure from the tab was enough to not only hold but straighten the wire when inserted it would be a good product. The child safety part is nice but no way I'm trusting these in my house in current design. James H I salute you for understanding the limitations of these.
Electrician for over 17 years (until a recent career change). This looks like a great product. However, a minor flaw I noticed is that it looks like the ground connection “should” be placed on the other side to match past outlet models. When wiring outlets for so long I always screwed common and ground wires then rotated the outlet in my hand to screw down the lonely hot wire. This may stop some of the old fellers from a neutral/hot reversal lol…At least this is the case of nearly all if not all the outlets I have used in the past. I don’t believe there to be an industry standard or rule on this but I could be mistaken?? In that case, don’t roast me. Super minor inconvenience and easily remedied by paying attention and not being a dumb dumb. But something I noticed right away. Wish these came out years ago. Stay Sparky my friends
The problem with this outlet and the Wago is all about the total surface area of the connection. This is why a wire wrapped around a screw is still superior because there's a lot more surface area of wire-to-metal contact. We can easily see when he pulls the wires out of those tab levers that there are two small crimps in the wire metal... showing even in the video (3:57) just how small the amount of wire-to-metal contact area is being made.
There is metal behind the tabs doing the real work, just like on wago connectors. With a broken tab, at worse you wouldn't be able to release the wires.
I would definitely grab some non-TR versions if these if they exist. I've never met a TR receptacle that accepted a two pronged (ungrounded) plug without an unreasonable amount of resistance, to the point where I feel like I'm going to damage the plug or the outlet itself if I try to force it in any harder. I don't have young children anyway, so I feel like I'd be giving myself a needless headache by installing TR outlets.
Required if job is permitted and inspected no option ....why would TR outlet matter to you if not your property. My thoughts about them...I hate them too. But have none in my personal prooerty
As a master electrician, this looks pretty great and with the advent of the Wago connectors, I have a feeling that the industry will move towards this kind of product…. Unless they fail regularly and/or cause fires. My experience in residential solar, where the inverters do have pressure connections similar to these in the video, would also seem to indicate that the industry is moving in a smart direction.
They have been in use for at least a decade in Europe, they are perfectly fine. On a general note, when talking about electric hardware, I seem to notice that the US kinda lag behind with "good enough/borderline dangerous" equipment at times: - flimsy wall plugs that disconnect too easily with prongs that can be touched by toddlers and adults alike (instead of partly insulated prongs and tamper-proof sockets like the UK plugs that will prevent you from touching live prongs, or even better, recessed tamper-proof sockets that will prevent you from touching the prongs at all - that's the continental Europe sockets ; all these things have been around for at least half a century) - 120V which implies thicker wiring in the house for the same power and vastly limits the electrification of power uses (electrical clothes dryers, electrical water heaters are the vast majority in Europe and you usually just have a regular 1.5mm² wiring and a regular socket dedicated to them)
@@takix2007 Every house is 240v and only uses 120v for intermittent appliances and lighting. All our high-power stuff uses 240v circuits and is run the exact same as Europe. Our plugs aren't nearly as bad as some would lead you to believe given they're half the voltage. Japan though, THEIR system is even worse than people think ours is, lol.
My house was built in 1980 and it came with "split outlets." A lot of people would rather use lamps than overhead ceiling lights, so the top part of the outlet is controlled by a wall light switch in the living room and bedrooms. So the split outlet is nothing new. (The downside is when I wanted ceiling fans in the living room and bedrooms. I had to cut a hole in the ceilings and install the electrical boxes and ceiling braces, run wiring, and have no on/off switch for them, but remote control fans are better to have anyway.)
They definitely look easier, faster and safer to use, but they also have a few downsides: more expensive, doesn't accept larger gauge wires and slightly bulkier than regular TR outlets, plus they are kind of hard to find at the moment. Personally, I think I'll stick with the regular TR outlets until they become more widely available and go down in price.
Agreed. I love this idea, but way too often I've run into a situation where the wire gauge is too big to insert into a receptacle, even though it's the correct rated receptacle for the situation.
What do you mean by larger gauge? A 15A receptacle should only be wired with 14 or 12 gauge wire and these Decora Edge models accept 14 gauge AND 12 gauge solid and stranded copper wire.
A 15A receptacle should only be wired with 14 or 12 gauge wire, not many use 10 GA wire! My house is wired with all 12 GA and that's hard enough to work with but good for 20 amps, 10 is even worse to work with.
As an European I am constantly sceptical towards the American building industry, especially electric standards. In Europe most of these safety funktions these offer are a standard, but the wago clips on the back is something I haven't heard of. Glad to see these and hope they become the us standard!
It would be interesting to see someone do a pull test using a standard electrical outlet using the screw type connector where the wire is stripped to the right length and inserted into the capture slot under a screw that is tightened down. Compare the amount of force to pull the wire out vs this new type of outlet as well as the Wago connectors. Just how much force does it take to pull out the wires in each. I saw this at a local Lowe's last week but didn't buy it and went with the old fashion outlet instead.
I will be wiring a 12X16 shed with several outlets, lighting, HCAV, etc. It will be my production shop running two laser cutters as well as my day, IT job. I will absolutely be using WAGO connectors and these outlets! I am a model railroad and have used WAGO's in the past for electrical connections. They make trouble shooting a breeze as you can disconnect segments and make sure everything is electrically sound in that segment before adding the next back in.
Just moved. My new house is 40 years old, and has the old, stained 'ivory' receptacles and switches, which do not go well with the wall colors. I have started switching the entire house over to these outlets and switches. When I first started installing them, I pulled, using a lair of lineman's pliers on each wire. None of them so much as jiggled-the clamping is real, solid. With a few months, I will have all new outlets and switches.
I can change an outlet in about 5 minutes. That being said, I'd still replace them all with these Edge outlets. For $1.50 more, it's worth my children's protection. 👍
Pretty much every outlet on the market today has those stupid plastic gates in there. So your "children's protection" is unavoidable, without spending extra for their gimmick. (which is certain they patented so no one else can make them)
Look at the outlet at 0:32. Notice how much thicker the "new and improved" outlet is? It is as thick as a GFCI but without the GFCI protection. I will be happy to stick to the traditional one, especially for replacement.
As an electrician, I don’t really see the practicality of them. Unless it’s a dead end receptacle or in series. But, usually we make receptacles parallel to isolate device failure with “pigtails”. That still requires time for joints which isn’t much of a time saver.
The one thing I like about all the old-school products is they were made to do a job right, and last "forever". All the new plastic stuff falls apart in no time. I have to wonder how those latches will hold up 20-30+ years down the line. If one fails, you've got live wires in your walls.
you wouldnt have any live wires... these are a new product, new code everywhere mandates some sort of enclosure you mount it in, typically of the fire resistant UL listed type. then you have to also remember that when installed correctly this product has no exposed metal of any kind. it seems well engineered but i only wonder about the cost vs a cheap one.
Thanks for watching - Would you use one of these? Tools: Wiha: amzn.to/3mmb7HH Edge is currently only available at Home Depot
When i saw this on the leviton website, I knew it was only a matter of time before you made a video
I would probably snag that screwdriver (on sale) if it came with ECX bits.
That's a smart design for the outlet. Hopefully they don't wait too long to introduce a "Smart" version of that outlet - you know for home automation and such.😊 I do appreciate the fact that Leviton gives some serious competition to Lutron - however, for some reason, they always seem to be 'lagging' behind them
Wiha is a good brand, but I have a hard time paying what I would pay for a good drill/driver or impact driver kit on sale.
I would definitely recommend the outlet, but the screwdriver is crap. If you’re a home gamer it’s great but for every day professional use it doesn’t hold up. The ring that makes up the bit holders inside the handle is very thin plastic and will shortly break. Also, a lot of stress is put on the in- handle bit holder due to the fact that it spins with the cap. It’s a good idea, just poor implementation, and I love Wiha tools.
$24.99 for a 10-pack seems like a no-brainer. Never heard of these before this video, so thank you as always for giving out some amazing information! You'll be over a million subscribers in no time!
Thank you, I really apprecite the kind words too.
2.5$ each is indeed affordable !
Not bad, def worth the price.
I did not find the link for $24.99 for 10 , could someone help me out . Thanks
Great channel,
As an electrician I think you missed one of the most important features. The larger plastic tabs on the top and bottom of the receptacle allow it to sit flush with the wall better.
The tabs look nice. I didn't even notice that at first. So, I watched the promo video video on Home Depot. The outlets also have a tongue and groove for alignment with multiple switches.
I'm somewhat disappointed that I don't have an electrical project right now. 😄
The tongue and groove feature for alignment in multi gang boxes seems like a great idea.
Good point. Every one in my home sits crooked. I will be changing to these for that reason alone.
Oh, you mean exactly like the metal ears on the old type?
@Darth Logicus it depends, if the person who cuts the holes in the drywall did a good job then yeah. If not, you need more drywall meat to grab sometimes.
I had a job of replacing every single outlet, switches in a large house. The customer purchased this type of outlet. I was able to change nearly 200 of these outlets, light switches and other related fixtures in a day. All whilst the system was energized, which facilitated easier testing. Although I'm not a fan of the tamper resistant type outlets, these things are worth there weight in gold. Wago connectors are also a god-send.
How did these assist in changing outlets while energized?
Way smaller risk of being zapped probably @@kichigaisensei
@@kichigaisensei The construction of the newer outlets has no exposed metal or set screws. Its all plastic. When changing out the outlets, I cut the wires one at a time to straighten out the copper, then insert into the new outlet and close the lever. As long as your not touching 2 points like a hot and neutral, and most importantly *not grounded* a person can touch an energized line and not get shocked. With these outlets, the risk of electric shock is lessened since there is no exposed metal.
You had a long day!
*Why would any electrician in their right mind, want to change 200 outlets while they're all hot?*
As a DIYer who doens't install outlets often, but just installed 5 of them, these look awesome! I'm going to try these on my next reno. I wish they had more options, like GFI and non-shuttered.
Shuttered are great. They fail younger than standard do, but you won't particularly notice. GFCI are expensive and DIY installers piss that away on the regular. I think STANDARDS down circuit of a GFCI, installed CORRECTLY are a better solution. That's safety and money talking.
Give it time. This is the wave of outlets and switches.
Shuttered are required now for residential. I learned the hard way. Added two outlets and the inspector can't sign off until I replaced ALL of my existing outlets with shuttered outlets. Also Arc Fault (AFCI) is required for all new 120 circuits. Guess how I found that out... yep. had to replace the entire box with the exception of a 220 for the AC.
Remember that if you are replacing a dud breaker, all 15 and 20 amp circuits must be AFCI now.
@@IdgaradLyracantis that national? How recent was this? Had new electrical done with additional outlets and circuits a year ago in MN and inspector did not make us do this. My house was only 4 yrs old then, so maybe it was not necessary.
I'm not an actual electrician, but I've had to replace a couple of wall outlets. These seem pretty cool! I'm not gonna go out of my way to rip out all of my existing outlets, but if they make one with USB ports as well, I'd genuinely consider grabbing a few.
I see they also have it for their wall switches too. Hard to believe they are the same price as their old style outlets and switches. Great job Leviton!
Screws and threading brass parts is expensive. These are cheap because they've replaced some of those metal parts with plastic. (I always expect plastic stuff to be cheap.)
As an electrician, I like this design. The hold down tabs for wire terminations will need the test of time to see if these really hold up. Wagos initially had issues but I believe they’ve been ironed out over time. The biggest thing here is the time saving during installation, and if you install thousands of these on a project you will save labor. Just need to weigh the costs of labor versus material overall. I’d say this is a win for the industry overall.
It's another variation of the cage clamp. It won't fail. Once the lever is in the closed position the wire is trapped in the cage and can only be pulled out with extreme force. The 'spring' component that forms the bulk of the electrical contact has limited travel so even if you sit there opening and closing it till your fingers fall off the clamp won't break from metal fatigue. The plastic lever will give up before the clamp does. Wago's connectors have been in use for decades with the clamp in essentially the same form as it is seen today. This stuff is all quite reliable. It's so reliable that even the elcheapo Chinese knock offs are quite reliable.
We've been using Wagos for decades and never had an issue.
The tabs go brittle over the decades and after 40-50 years they might brake when you try to open them again. But your insulation will do the same. Other countrys use this type or similar and simple push type connections for at least 40 years now and they still work.
I agree, not a huge deal but something additional I like on this outlet not mentionednin the video (or maybe I just missed it) is there's no exposed screws or any current carrying conductor exposed anywhere when installed even without a cover. It's nice if you're ever working in a multi gang box or something and the wires going to this outlet are still hot.
Yes I know I know but really, who hasn't taken a cover plate off without killing power first?
@@davyc444 Dead test, or be tested dead at the morgue. I'll take the first option thanks.
These are the best thing ever I bought some for my house last week! I changed 15 outlets in less then an hour. The longest part was removing the old outlets!
Thanks for suggesting this type of outlets, I just changed a whole room and a total of 5 in 20-30 mins. Easiest way ever! Will change it throughout all the house tomorrow
Over the years I have installed at least a 1000 outlets. This style of terminating an outlet is a huge improvement. The shutter that prevents you from just poking something into the outlet, That's what all the outlets in England had when I lived there 45 years ago.
Are you wiling to pay, or bid to your customers the cost of this outlet? Its $32 us per outlet. If it was being sold to the customer it would come out to 45- 60+ It has some good features but they are asking way to much for it. I'll take the extra time (30 seconds) to strip my wires and make a loop to save.
@alexrugowski3051 I'm not an electrician, just an A/C guy, but you can strip those wires in about 30 seconds to a minute at most. the time saved is not worth the cost. I will agree that it is fancy and nice.
@@Moose1207 that’s for a 10 pack and that’s the normal cost
@@Moose1207 I bought them for $2.49 each (10 pack = $24.99) at Home Depot.
@@Moose1207 our outlets in the uk cost around £5-10 .... ya chatting shit or being robbed
I've been an electrician for 11 years now. I really think these lever connectors are far superior everywhere in industry. We have been using them extensively in din rail terminals and they are great. Screw connections tend to come loose and the lever connections stay tight. They apply consistent torque throughout their entire life.
The best part of the lever design is that it's a static design, the only way for the lever to come undone is for an outside force to change its state. With screw terminals just the act of pluging and unplugging things can cause the terminals to loosen over time.
I’m not disputing the usefulness of the levers for increasing the ability of a lay person to do a safer receptacle replacement, but I have _never_ had a screw terminal come “loose”. Maybe that would be possible if one only stuck in a straight wire on one side of the screw instead of properly bending it around.
For small Guage stranded limited load systems the levers work fine but outside of that I would not use them. There are studies that show an increase in resistance and so thermal loss that comes with the lever lock style connections. As to wires coming off post style connections, I have never seen it happen unless done incorrectly.
I've never seen a screw terminal work itself loose. I've seen screw terminals that were improperly tightened, but that's hardly the same thing.
That said, I'm generality a fan of lever-locks, although I tend to use them only in lighting fixtures.
@David Voss Electricians will verify. Screws loosen. I know 1 insurance company that gives discounts to industrial customers that hire electricians to perform periodic maintenance on all connections every 5 years. Companies save enough to pay for the inspections.
Wow, this is nifty. As an aggressively inexperienced DIYer, this is the kind of thing that will give huge efficiency gains along with significant safety improvements. Thanks for sharing!
Repent to Jesus Christ “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 NIV
H
@loamandil It does if you think about how people will DIY things that they shouldn't DIY. Products should be designed to eliminate the likelihood of installation error. Some people who should be professionals mess up things like this too.
@loamandil People make mistakes. Professionals are people. Professionals make mistakes.
@@Ha-nz2vy He's never made a mistake, or made an error. He bats perfect games.
@@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist3 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that whoever DID NOT believe in him, would be TORTURED FOR ETERNITY! Christians have a funny definition of love
I think this is a great product. I can see my elderly father still being able to fix problems at his house with these much easier than the old style.
Can you trust him to not get the polarity reversed?
You're absolutely right on all three counts for this being well worth the extra spend for a quick, easy and safe installation. I especially liked the gauge on the side to indicate how much should be stripped off the wire. Great stuff! Oh, and I liked the driver utility with all the bits in the handle. Thanks for a great video!!
Every outlet I've ever bought has stripping gauges. And most even have wire strippers.
@@TEDoddyessie
Sparkies where I live use screws only, connections are visibly varifiable and hand tensioned, this is Commercial and Industrial, I'm not saying its not done, I worked the industry for 18 years. In my house, the insertion style has failed causing shorts but the screw side remains usable and solves the problem. If I were to use this style, I'd want the exact patent the company from Europe uses that many on here are explaining the differences and their proven longetivity. Personally, I'll stick with the screws, I take proven over greatest and best and easiest. Good video, informative.
Problem with screws is it is up to the installer to get the torque right. However, with levers the 'torque' will always be manufacturers spec.
Thats actually really cool. I am definately going to use these next time I have to replace a receptical or switch. I can't wait for them to come out with a GFCI versions.
Thanks for this video! I never knew about these and like someone else said... "$24.99 for a 10-pack seems like a no-brainer." i agree! Sadly though, home depot is out of stock right now, but when then do come back i plan on getting a few boxes! I love the fact that they are also "baby proof!"
Limit is 10.
By code at least where I live, all the outlets have to be tamper resistant now. So they shouldn't even be selling ones that aren't, unless it's a single receptacle for like a garbage disposal or other appliances.
Lol only 2.5 dollars for a double one... In Sweden I am slowly renovating my house and 1 double socket it at least 8 Euros per piece...
I like these even at the higher price than standard outlets and switches. I've been using the Wago connectors for about a year now and they're great. Especially the inline connectors. My house is over fifty years old and a lot of the wires have been cut back over the years during renovations leaving them too short for easy connections. The inline connectors are perfect for correcting that issue.
Why won't anybody here say the price of this outlet out loud?
@@mts7274 actually they're about $2.50 at home depot... odd
I would DEFINITELY buy one of these to replace an outlet... thanks for bringing it to my (everyone's) attention! I realize it would cost more... but it SHOULD because of what it offers.
Wow seriously? Welcome from to the 80's America. As an Electrician in Belgium I'm always stunned by how far you are ahead in technology yet so massively behind in just in basic electricity ... Child protection as it is known here is already mandatory since the 80's over here as for the screw less connections we had those since the early 2000's... all and all nice video never the less
Ahh, it was a lesson. Kids do not touch outlets or plugs and when they did, zzap. We are 110 here in the US not 230,. Big difference. 4 kids in the family, we all learned. Later in life I did production electrical 110, 220 mostly. Was pretty careful about not getting zapped. Got careless with the hipot tester. Dropped the positive lead after finishing the test. The lead swung around and zapped my elbow. Only happened once. Ruined a pair of cutters as the inverter was on. Ooops
120V is more of an annoyance when you get whacked compared to 220V. We have 120V just for smaller appliances, lights, phone chargers etc. and use the 220V sockets for AC, Heating, Dryers, EV chargers, garage lifts, etc. The 220V outlets are all much higher off the floor and generally hidden.
The sad part about the tamper resistant feature is that, at least in my home, the feature has jammed on several of our outlets, rendering them completely unusable, as even the proper plugs can't be inserted.
Yeah that screamed like a point of failure as soon as I saw it.
Brits have been doing them for decades, never a problem here must be down to poor manufacturing standards 😲
Same, hate them. Will replace with old outlets.
@@andrewtadd4373 I think the British tamper resistant mechanism is disengaged differently. I believe on the US recepticles the shutters move when both prongs are going in. In the UK the ground plug causes the shutters to move.
Almost every USB charging brick I've seen is just two prongs. And many appliances. Having the tamper work using ground pin isn't a good option. The real solution is to install plus at waist height instead of on the ground.
I just installed three as replacements for loose outlets. They worked great. I really like these.
Anything that makes electrical or plumbing simpler and better gets an A+ from me! I love this new product! You Mr Silver Cymbal Sir, get an A+ too 😃👍
You are probably a fan of shark bite fittings or even worse using pex
@@bsh0718 I’ve never used either! What’s your point?
I plan on using Shark Bite someday, thousands of great reviews! I’m guessing you’re an old timer plumber, and don’t like trying new things. I’m Pro DIY and welcome new innovations!
@@bsh0718 what's wrong with pex? I get the sharkbite hate though
This appears to be worth every penny. I've moved around a lot throughout the West US and have never seen outlets with features this good.
I'm in a very old house so my biggest struggle is the proper use of fine electronics that need a grounded outlet and I do mean they need it. Most of my high current equipment is two-pole non-grounded and my $$$$ electronics are low voltage and current but so complicated that they need a clean electric signal. This also effects my computers and A/C equipment. I can find grounded connections in the living room, back room, master bedroom and dining room but nowhere near my room and the kitchen has weirder stuff going on that makes me wonder if this was really a sign of age or a basic cost cutting measure. Anyone with kids would appreciate the safety features of this thing too. Great stuff.
My electricity is really bad lots of brownouts, lots of short shutoffs, I use ups's in front of everything with electronics in it, good ups's also apc.
As a weekend DYIer $3.68 is a no-brainer this looks awesome. I’m not typically replacing a ton of these at a time so buying one for less than four dollars each time I need to do it count me in. Thanks for bringing this to my awareness.
Very nice. I like that the terminals are color coded so rookies don't need to look up which side gets the black and which side gets the white. But I would normally buy a back wired receptacle, which around here means buying a commercial grade receptacle, and I am not sure I accept that the "Wago" connection is more robust than a back wired connection.
What do the rookies do when they run into an outlet with black, white and red wires.
The tabs sound really good but I've always hated those shutters on outlets. I had them in my last apartment and it required an insane level of force to plug something in and I always felt like I was gonna break either the outlet or the wall when doing so
They loosen up as time goes by and it's probably because you're not really supposed to shove them in straight like you would with regular outlets, you got a a slight angle until the shutter starts to open.
The whole point of the shutters is that it's supposed to be impossible for small children to stick anything in there, so the outlets are effectively permanently childproofed. And anything that isn't relatively strong metal will never go into one of those outlets.
The "tamper resistant" shutters have been a electrical code requirement in the US for new construction or major renovations about the last 5 years. If you pull a permit for the job, the inspector will look for them.
@@mikespoelker8963 I just had my house built and the local code does not require them and my house does not have them. Though our code requires the house to require GFCI and Arc Faults throughout branch circuits.
@@jamestopoleski9255 At least with UK outlets, they are bigger and deeper than the Yankee style plugs. Trust me, you got this one easier than us.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade They not always loosen up, in fact sometimes with age, they jamb. Also if you don't have kids and you are aging, they become more frustrating; kind of like those tamper resistant prescription bottles I have to remember to ask for non-tamper resistant caps when getting them filled.
In my experience, the safety shutters are effective at preventing anyone from plugging anything in. Absolutely maddening.
They've improved the design over the years so it's much better. I have some Leviton TR outlets and haven't had any issues plugging stuff in. Of course, that's anecdotal.
The European schuko standard has had these for a while, you do have to wiggle it from side to side sometimes when plugging things in.
I agree. I hate those things. Nothing but a PIA.
Agreed, you have to use way too much force.
Try new receptacles. The older style were awful to plug anything in. The new style are very easy. They have re-designed the safety shutters. I just got a box of brand new Leviton tamper resistant outlets a few days ago and plugs go right into them like the old fashioned outlets - no issues.
I noticed that My building manager in my apartment building recently replaced all the outlets in the hallways with this particular outlet from the older 1970s era outlets that had been there. I can see why they got selected. They do seem useful and easy to install, never mind the fact that as a renter I myself am not really about to be opening up the outlets or switches in my walls anytime soon.
If then building manager in your apartment building was replacing outlet then he was breaking the law. Only a licensed electrician can perform electrical work in an apartment building.
i used to work at a place here in the usa a few years ago , and we often had electric switches stop working,, the maintenance people said it was because of those new style switches,where you strip off a short piece of insulation, push a button down ,insert wire and release button,these type switches were always losing a good connection and had to be re cut and reinserted, Maintenace people hated them...
in germany, there is virtually nothing else except clamps. only that we have been using them on sockets for well over 20 years. as well as switches, dimmers and junction boxes. everywhere we only clamp. even on many fuses. but it's nice to see that you are also making progress in development.
did you guys get air conditioners yet? past 5 years all your old folks died during the summer heat waves bc yall never heard of a/c, good luck this year!
Im fine with 30° in Germany ---- 86° F , for 3 times a year --- In Tucson we are fighting 115° F with super bad "air conditioning", don't start comparing you will lose
@@gerhardweber2043 O that relates
Think he was making a "Typical German engineering superiority complex" statement.
@@gladitsnotmedude, I lived in Germany in 2017-18, and 22-23. It was hot enough to need AC for about 3 weeks including one where temps pushed 100 F for a few days. Most houses and apartments don't really need it. They design the buildings to ventilate, do a great job of insulating, and let the thermal mass maintain the temps during the hot day. The lack of high humidity helps. I live in Central Indiana.
Been in the trade for 48 years, it is about time !!!! Bravo !!! Well Done !!! Leviton and Silver Cymbal
I never changed an outlet when I lived in the States. But I did when I lived in Japan in 2015, and this is pretty much how the outlets were. The levers weren't quite as easy to flip, but I didn't deal with any screws 😅
I just finished wiring my new home. I wish I had those when I started. The time saved in installation and in tracking down problems is worth every penny. In fact, the outlets I put in were MORE expensive. Thanks.
As an electrician myself, I saw these and got them because I just redid all the electrical devices in my house, they make replacing devices significantly faster and easier, especially since the extended tabs mean that I don’t have to have a perfect outlet box to set these perfect, I only need to swap the 6-32 screws to a longer one, reducing money spent on spacers. It is noteworthy that if you do keep the extended tabs, you will need to get midway or jumbo device covers, to use the small covers you will have to remove the tabs or the covers won’t sit flush, but they are easy to remove with a simple twist. Also this design does force you to make pigtails, if you have more than three wires in a box, which I believe is the best way anyway, but if you are absolutely focused on speed, it would be nice to have an extra terminal, or even a push in tab just so when replacing existing outlets you don’t have to stop the flow to make pigtails. Otherwise these outlets are phenomenal,
I've seen fixtures that don't require loops.
There are two kinds: There are screws that have a small square plate behind them, which is bent up on one edge. You stick the _straight_ wire under the screw along this edge, and tighten the screw. It's difficult if not impossible to make a loop instead.
The second kind is a hole in the back that you stick the wire in. There is no lever; it just grabs by itself. You can't pull it out again, ever. These have regular screws also.
you can pull it out. just pull and twist back and forth at the same time
backstabbing (the second way) is most definitely not permanent. doing service work i see them fail all the time
Don't pull it out by twisting back and forth. There is a hole adjacent to the wire backstab hole that is used to release the tension on the backstab. Just press a small screwdriver or awl into it and the wire will come right out.
I really wish there was a commercial version of these available now. Commercial is all I will use...heavier duty construction and I believe safer, especially with high-wattage appliances.
I work in commercial as well. I don't see these going inside a cut-in box as the "ears" don't seem to be removable. I did notice that the yolk is still metal and allows for a Stainless Steel Cover Plate to be grounded. That's good
Lic Electrician here.The lever system is an improvement over the old backstabs(never use) in that it puts more pressure on the wire.But the contact area(very impotant to the ampacity of the connection) is still too small.I also never use wagos on anything that might see more than 5 amps ,so for instance, the inside of light fixtures.This should never be used to pass through a circuit.Splice the circuit through with a high pressure conical spring wire nut like a bucannan B2(W/correct wire twist and length) and include a pigtail to connect to the outlet.These terninals do not provide as good a connection as traditional screw terms and the saved time in wiring for me is less than one minute.
You mentioned correct wire length,but didnt mention that for this type of connector it is important that the wire also be very straight,clean and unknicked.For screw terms it just needs to be unknicked.
These are quite pricey.
They are bigger than a traditional style and take up more cubic inches.This might not be an issue but very often it is(depends on the size of the box and what all is in it already) and can make installation a real pain or sometimes impossible.
I pass on these.
Agreed! The problem with this outlet and the Wago is all about the total surface area of the connection. This is why a wire wrapped around a screw is still superior because there's a lot more surface area of wire-to-metal contact. We can easily see when he pulls the wires out of those tab levers that there are two small crimps in the wire metal... showing even in the video (3:57) just how small the amount of wire-to-metal contact area is being made.
Completely agree. I wouldn't use the Wago type for the reasons you outlined, but for people who don't know how to cleanly install wire under a screw or properly use a wire nut, Wago type connections at least eliminate poor connection techniques.
EE here, and the issue of surface area of quick-lock/lever/etc. connectors does concern me at higher current. As all of my lighting is LED now, and my load conditions are really low, I'm not concerned about Wago; however, the look-kinda-alike knock-offs are worrysome. There are a lot of DIYers and lowest bid contractors who will end up installing them.
My Klien screwdrivers have a little nub by the handle for making shepherd's hooks. Also, the more recent versions of outlets and switches have the ability to 'backwire' that is clamped by torquing the screw, not by an internal lever/spring.
Size (depth) of the box is important. I just put in some motion sensor switches and they have a similar form factor as these.
Need deep(er) boxes for a lot of the 'smart' stuff. Great for new construction, but no fun for an old lathe and plaster home.
I feel cheesy saying it but I love how short and to the point your videos are. I'm actually very interested in this outlet.
As an up and coming sparky I can certainly see the benefit of these kinds of outlets. I'm not a big fan of tamper resist on a personal level because it makes plugging in harder than it really needs to be, but the time saved is certainly a huge value, made all the more important when you have to replace every outlet in the house (which I'm about to do for one job.) That adds up!
Would be awesome to see a load comparison vs normal outlets
It's basically about the same as a normal .99 outlet internally. I'm hoping they make a HD model eventually.
look carefully around @2:10 - clearly marked 15A. Which, since these replace those sockets, is to be expected.
@AlanTheBeast100 they make both 15amp heavy duty light duty and 20 amp heavy duty light duty. It's about the quality of the internals and cutting these open reveal they are designed to replace light duty not heavy duty. The contact area is just standard designed at 3 times the price.
@@lj5773 It's about the rating of the individual part. The one demonstrated is 15A and is FFF to replace ... wait for it ... 15A.
@AlanTheBeast100 you are aware they make many different quality grades at each amp rating, right? Let's not even get into hospital or industrial grades of the same amp ratings. This isn't a new thing. I'm just stating the obvious you're getting a lower grade set of duplex internals at a 3 tines higher cost than it's equivalent.
At first, these receptacles look like a good idea. But the further I look at and think about them I've seen a few weaknesses to the design.
First, they only have them in 15A. No 20A yet, but that may change over time.
Second, these are residential grade only. I prefer the more rugged contacts in the commercial grade outlets for longer cycles. Especially where I regularly plug and unplug with occasional use appliances (kitchen counter, shop bench, wall outlets where I plug in the vacuum cleaner, etc). Hopefully this will change over time.
Third, this is something I recently noticed. How do you check these for voltage with a multi-meter. No exposed metal on the sides, no shrouded test points like the switches have. And the outlet blade slots are security shuttered. You can probably do it by opening the cover over the isolation tab on the hot side, but what about on the neutral side? Is it marked clearly on the receptacle if someone unfamiliar with the receptacle pulls it out if a wall box and needs to make sure that they are actually getting 120VAC (instead of 100 due to a fault or line drop somewhere)?
Fourth, and this is a corner case. How do you isolate the neutral sides for complete isolation between the two outlets of the receptacle? I've seen one of these receptacles taken apart and the neutral side does have the breakoff tab, but I haven't seen ant way to access that tab like you can on the hot side.
All that said, I like the progress these receptacles indicate. And I hope these lever operated spring cage type connections get incorporated into more product lines and devices.
They do have a test feature on the back, but of course that means you'd have to pull the receptacle or switch out of the box to test it.
@@biondatiziana I saw the test features clearly marked on the back of the switches, but I don't see any on the receptacle. Even the website claims the "convenient openings for circuit testers" are on the switches only.
@@Sembazuru Thanks for the correction. I just assumed that the receptacles would have them too.
You can use your test lead and plug them in at the same time to replicate a plug going in, it's the same with the standard tamper proof receptacles.
I would definitely buy them going forward if I ever needed an outlet. They may cost more but it looks worth it to me.
I think you will like them a lot. Its not too bad really, its about $1.50 more per outlet.
Yea but what if your copper is stranded
@@ronkali5365 Then you have bigger problems. Most houses in the us, even old ones, use Romex and solid wire.
@Phillip Banes This isn't being marketed to your average electrician. This is marketed towards your diy friend who seems like they are doing a different project every weekend. It's also just simpler and almost fool proof.
@Phillip Banes idk I think most guys in the trade are looking for easier and more efficient ways to do stuff. Plus the very little added cost goes to the customer anyway. I think it's gonna catch on more like propress or pex. But you'll still have guys saying it should be done the old fashioned way
I just had to replace an outlet in my new place and I used one of these Levitons. Easiest possible install, highly recommend
Great outlet, and cheaper than I thought it would be, $3.50 for a 15 amp outlet. Great review.
For only a buck more it ain't bad. If anything I'd get one for novelty's sake but I've put in umpteen standard outlets and they're no big deal to me. Pretty cool you found that antique receptacle though!
Agreed, I love the old tech and stuff. If you haven't seen my video on mercury light switches you might enjoy that marvelous engineering simplicity: th-cam.com/video/y59h-9rXALY/w-d-xo.html
@@SilverCymbal Yes! I did and a few folks and I rapped about early mercury lamps as well. Mercury arc rectifiers are another amazing/dangerous piece of history too; there's a few videos of those beasts to be found.
Very nice, defiantly a must have for a DIY'er. I don't expect to many large contractors to use them for their electrical jobs if they cost more
I have installed about 100 new outlets in the SFHs I have purchased. I sometimes spend as much as 10 minutes struggling with one outlet. If I could change 15 outlets in an hour, the time savings would far exceed the minor cost difference.
Large contractors use them mostly as a way to prevent loose splices and are faster to install than twisting them and then capping them a wire nut. 2 mins an Outlet is usually the Standard they expect you wire it in. I can wire up an outlet in about 90 seconds with Wagos it takes me about 2 to 3 mins to wire an outlet without the Wagos. So they pay a little more in Material cost but they save it in Labour which is a companies #1 cost.
The outlet looks great to me - can't wait until my next project to give them a try - I would absolutely pay the difference. Thanks for the good video!
I bought a Leviton 10 pack and doing my 50 year old houses outlets. These are fantastic and provide greater safety as the wires go all the way to the insulation before you lock the lever. There is a strip guage molded in near one corner to give you a guide.
I'm a huge fan of Wagos and seeing them connected to a receptacle is incredible.
Every time I use them, I am still in awe of how simple they are. Wonderful little things. I couldn't confirm if they are licensing the tech from Wago but Leviton has been a good company for ages and I believe whatever they are using in there, it feels rock solid.
@@SilverCymbalI think they are fakos
@@phillipbanes5484 My home stereo speakers of 50 years ago in the early 70's had them.
I've always found it ironic that we shove wire through a metal box, clamp it down with a metal clamp, then attach it to an exposed metal screw with bare wire exposed as well. Yes i realize there are plastic boxes that dont use the metal clamps but the irony still stands at the outlet itself until this new design.
Which is why the "Sparky" channel always recommends wrapping electrical tape around new outlets after connecting them up, to prevent metal screws from contacting metal boxes. Of course, many of us now have plastic boxes, thus making Sparky's safer but time consuming e-tape job unnecessary.
@@nonelost1 That was exactly what my dad taught me.
Looking inside a typical US home’s wall boxes almost never fails to disappoint.
@tubero911 yea you should see some of mine..every time I work on the electrical i end up rewiring anything I come across cause a lot of it is sketchy.
It looks like a great outlet. I'm assuming that if you isolate one receptacle from the other the ground connection is common to both since there is only one place to land a ground wire. Seeing as you only disconnected one connection when isolating them it looks like the neutral is also common to both.
pretty sure you can disconnect both seperately using the same system.. not needed ifthe switched and non-switched outlet is on the same circuit, but probably required if they are on diffrent circuits.. though not familiar enough with US electrical code, so cannot say for certain if this would be actually allowed..
You don't have two grounds.. ever..
@@MadLadCustoms Isolated grounds exist. They're useless, but they do exist. To your point though, you won't see that in any residential dwelling.
The National Electric Code doesn’t allow you to splice the ground on a wiring device such as a switch or receptacle.
@@shockcoach just for clarification: i reffered to neutral when i meant splitting both in the outlet, not ground... in the video only splitting the hot is shown, but the outlet is basically mirrored (except the ground), so splitting neutral should work the same way as spitting hot
I started about a year ago switching all the outlets and switches in my house to these. The old one were 35 year old ivory ones, that had yellowed even more with age and made the place feel ancient. It's amazing how much newer the rooms link just be changing the outlets. and switches.
I just can't see any negatives (other than price) and your summary of positives are solid. I never expected to be impressed by a wall outlet, but there it is.
Definitely cool, but don’t forgot you still need to pigtail your wires from inside the box so as to not affect other devices down the line if one fails. Would definitely save some time on trim out though!
Sure, if you really want to do it right. Then again, the people who would use an outlet as a bridge/tap rather than pigtailing the line are the same people who would buy the 79 cent specials and backstab them.
Screwless recepticals in the UK and EU have two L, N & ground connectors to avoid pigtailing.
I hope they make a GFCI and one with integrated USB with that design.
It's a great idea but, so far as I know, they're only offered in 15 amps. Hopefully they'll have a 20 amp version soon.
In Europe we have this system for at least 20 years already. The screw thing is a reason i have seen electricians in the US put tape around the outlets. Strange that it took so long to evolve or someone to take a look at the other side of the ocean.
@@phillipbanes5484 🇳🇱 Not one country but EU
Things here sometimes change very slowly. We still have no bullet trains, not even one. The train track width is the same as the roman horse carts.
The thing I hate about this outlet is that it makes the installation skills I was proud of completely moot.
Excellent video!
I still question how much actual contact the wire has with the internals of the outlet. The biggest benefit of the old style is that you have a good inch of contact curling around the screw and it makes contact against both the screw and the plate it screws into.
That is a valid point! I am going to buy some and will dissect one in the name of science. :)
Very nicely made, but still I prefer the screw type for more tightness
Same. When in doubt, I torque everything to 100 ft/lbs.
Wagos are tight. Especially the click ones.
@@DoNotEatPoo and then cake on solder to ensure it stays 100 ft lbs
Cost per unit of these is $3.06 while a normal tamper resistant outlet is 70 cents. While they could be an okay option for a casual homeowner replacing one or two, I don't see them replacing regular screw terminals for any larger projects.
It would be interesting to see if these connections suffer from the regular higher resistance that wago connectors tend to suffer from (I suspect so). In that case, using a screw terminal still might be preferable for all but the lowest expected load situations.
Oh HELL YEA! How did we go so many years without improvements like this!! I'm so tired of twisting wires around screws. Finished my basement using Wagu connectors last year. Not a single wire nut. I only wish these outlets were avalible then.
Using these will make the difference between hiring an electrician and doing it myself. Worth the money for that reason alone.
I am hoping they come out with a commercial duty version
Me too, that would be fantastic!
I hope they make the older style of outlet face for their Edge line. (The one that is sometimes called duplex)
Not sure why, but I prefer that style myself. And it would make it about a dollar per outlet cheaper to swap out, if someone's upgrading all of their house's original outlets to these, since they wouldn't have to buy new wall plates.
Me too, I just don't like the rectangle ones.
In Mexico Leviton has been doing so many different forms of this since at least 20 years. From interchangeable sockets to styles and designs. The US is so antique. In mexico the traditional outlet is considered unsafe
The removable tabs on each ends are also there to snap a leviton screwless plate directly on the outlet. also the small nobs on the left side is to aligh all your switches or outlets togheter to make it simpler to install a multi gang plate.
I just discovered these. Had to order them as Lowe’s and Home Depot didn’t have any in stock. I have a dual outlet in our garage that’s tough to access due to a freezer being close to it. Replacing the receptacles is a nightmare. These will make it easier since no screwdrivers in tight place is needed. I’ll see how good they are once they arrive.
I am not an electrician. I love physics. I wrap the wires around the screws clockwise. I squeeze the wires tight around the screws with long jaw pliers and of course tighten the screws. More surface contact area. Better connection.
A physics buff should know that any bolted joint experiencing thermal expansion will loosen over time. And copper, and especially aluminum, has fluidity under load. This is also why the code prohibits re-compression of bolted connections. There's no such thing as “better” in engineering. There's “enough.” Any bolted connection is an installment fire and is not reliable. Wagos and connections like the one in the video provide constant force due to the spring, plus save a tremendous amount of time.
I don't like the "Tamper resistant doors".. I feel like their heart is in the right place, but I feel like this is a "failure point"... where it doesn't get used much, then binds up with dust or crud at some point randomly down the line, or some little plastic mechanism breaks & then won't be usable...
Other than that, I liked it a lot, and thought it was a really cool product.
The screw driver you showed, was also pretty dang cool!
Yeah. I do not like the TR outlets either. I won't put them in till code requires it
Spec grade and higher outlets have had back wired (not stabs) terminals for as long as I have been in the industry (30 years) The screw clamps provide more clamping force and surface area contact than any stab or lever mechanism. Not to mention they have brass terminals, nylon bodies, full length grounding straps, nuts to receive screws, etc. While these new lever design outlets may be convenient to install they are mediocre at best for durability and build quality.
I will absolutely buy them for an upcoming project. They cost more but the safety is worth it.
I own a 100 year old house (with a 100 year old electrical system. ) The Decora outlets and switches are a no go in my house. I do have a duplex Edition outlet, with hinged brass covers. The first floor has toggle switches and the second floor has push button switches. I have three three-way switches on the Carter system.
For those that don’t know, the “safety” shutters on this type of outlet start to stick after some time and become a nuisance when routine plugging things in and out(hair dryers, vacuums, drill chargers, etc. If no unsupervised baby kids in the house, this feature just isn’t needed here in the states with 110v, but people “feel” better about what they don’t know. And wire wrapping for installing new outlets isn’t a college level thing but still provides the best actual 15amp connection to match the outlets rating, my 5th grade science teacher had a whole section in the semester for basic wiring and circuitry and us kids all did it and mastered it…and got yelled at for doing it lazy wrong…cause it’s elementary stuff. Anyone needing this wago style outlet probably shouldn’t be touching electricity cause they’re safe on the front operate side of things but obviously not on the back side of the cover plate.
At least with our german plugs/sockets it depends on the quality of the shutter mechanism if it's annoying.
My wall sockets are all Busch & Jäger , they were also installed in my parents house in 1994, and they never caused any problems.
But some of my cheaper extension strips almost block some of my plugs from going in at all with any amount of force or wiggling.
Screw terminals may make a better connection at the best of times when compared to spring clamps, but not all are installed properly and the screw can even loosen over time and create bad contacts, I would rather have a consistent but maybe slightly worse contact than an unreliable contact.
And it doesnt have anyting to do with our higher voltage, our plugs are rated at 16A.
Yeap. But we have manufacturers writing the NEC now, so the insanely overpriced nonsense is now the norm.
@@Heimbasteln anything not installed properly in the first place is a problem. Moral of the story: Don't let people who are not qualified be doing things they shouldn't.
I always wanted to get into the electrical trade, but could never get an apprenticeship, so this kinda stuff is really fascinating to me.
The problem with this outlet and the Wago is all about the total surface area of the connection. This is why a wire wrapped around a screw is still superior because there's a lot more surface area of wire-to-metal contact. We can easily see when you pull the wires out of those tab levers that there are two small crimps in the wire metal... showing even in the video (3:57) just how small the amount of wire-to-metal contact area is being made.
Every test I've seen performed to try to show the difference in voltage drop found no meaningful difference between the two. On the face of it, what you say sort of makes sense. In practice, I've yet to see the wrap around method have any benefit.
As long as the surface area is still the same or greater than the area of a cross section of the wire gauge, I don't see how this could matter.
Since your wires and grid come with a certain diameter and resistance too there really is no point in making a connection have way more surface area than the cross section of the wire you're installing it on.
It's not just the surface area, it's also the higher contact pressure that only a *properly* installed wire/screw connection can make.
Those 2 little lines are the edge of the connection. The whole connection is bigger than that.
For all you "I'm a electrician" people quick question. These use very thin piece or copper those tabs push into the side of the wire. Now getting passed the your all the lasy af for liking the speed at which these can be installed, why hasn't a single one of you tested the resistance or loss from such a thin piece or copper being used as a pressure fit on the side of wire? I'd still use the screwed unit simply for the sheer number of bad connections these and the first gen had/will have. These like most things we're designed from point "A" to point "B", not "Z". If the contact patch was full stripped length of wire inside and out and pressure from the tab was enough to not only hold but straighten the wire when inserted it would be a good product. The child safety part is nice but no way I'm trusting these in my house in current design. James H I salute you for understanding the limitations of these.
Electrician for over 17 years (until a recent career change). This looks like a great product. However, a minor flaw I noticed is that it looks like the ground connection “should” be placed on the other side to match past outlet models. When wiring outlets for so long I always screwed common and ground wires then rotated the outlet in my hand to screw down the lonely hot wire. This may stop some of the old fellers from a neutral/hot reversal lol…At least this is the case of nearly all if not all the outlets I have used in the past. I don’t believe there to be an industry standard or rule on this but I could be mistaken?? In that case, don’t roast me.
Super minor inconvenience and easily remedied by paying attention and not being a dumb dumb. But something I noticed right away. Wish these came out years ago.
Stay Sparky my friends
The problem with this outlet and the Wago is all about the total surface area of the connection. This is why a wire wrapped around a screw is still superior because there's a lot more surface area of wire-to-metal contact. We can easily see when he pulls the wires out of those tab levers that there are two small crimps in the wire metal... showing even in the video (3:57) just how small the amount of wire-to-metal contact area is being made.
How long before those tabs oxidize, crack, and stop holding the wire in place?
There is metal behind the tabs doing the real work, just like on wago connectors. With a broken tab, at worse you wouldn't be able to release the wires.
@@Sandriell Thanks for the clarification!
I would definitely grab some non-TR versions if these if they exist. I've never met a TR receptacle that accepted a two pronged (ungrounded) plug without an unreasonable amount of resistance, to the point where I feel like I'm going to damage the plug or the outlet itself if I try to force it in any harder. I don't have young children anyway, so I feel like I'd be giving myself a needless headache by installing TR outlets.
Required if job is permitted and inspected no option ....why would TR outlet matter to you if not your property. My thoughts about them...I hate them too. But have none in my personal prooerty
As a master electrician, this looks pretty great and with the advent of the Wago connectors, I have a feeling that the industry will move towards this kind of product…. Unless they fail regularly and/or cause fires. My experience in residential solar, where the inverters do have pressure connections similar to these in the video, would also seem to indicate that the industry is moving in a smart direction.
They have been in use for at least a decade in Europe, they are perfectly fine.
On a general note, when talking about electric hardware, I seem to notice that the US kinda lag behind with "good enough/borderline dangerous" equipment at times:
- flimsy wall plugs that disconnect too easily with prongs that can be touched by toddlers and adults alike (instead of partly insulated prongs and tamper-proof sockets like the UK plugs that will prevent you from touching live prongs, or even better, recessed tamper-proof sockets that will prevent you from touching the prongs at all - that's the continental Europe sockets ; all these things have been around for at least half a century)
- 120V which implies thicker wiring in the house for the same power and vastly limits the electrification of power uses (electrical clothes dryers, electrical water heaters are the vast majority in Europe and you usually just have a regular 1.5mm² wiring and a regular socket dedicated to them)
@@takix2007 Every house is 240v and only uses 120v for intermittent appliances and lighting. All our high-power stuff uses 240v circuits and is run the exact same as Europe. Our plugs aren't nearly as bad as some would lead you to believe given they're half the voltage. Japan though, THEIR system is even worse than people think ours is, lol.
@@takix2007oZ©
My house was built in 1980 and it came with "split outlets." A lot of people would rather use lamps than overhead ceiling lights, so the top part of the outlet is controlled by a wall light switch in the living room and bedrooms. So the split outlet is nothing new. (The downside is when I wanted ceiling fans in the living room and bedrooms. I had to cut a hole in the ceilings and install the electrical boxes and ceiling braces, run wiring, and have no on/off switch for them, but remote control fans are better to have anyway.)
They definitely look easier, faster and safer to use, but they also have a few downsides: more expensive, doesn't accept larger gauge wires and slightly bulkier than regular TR outlets, plus they are kind of hard to find at the moment. Personally, I think I'll stick with the regular TR outlets until they become more widely available and go down in price.
Agreed. I love this idea, but way too often I've run into a situation where the wire gauge is too big to insert into a receptacle, even though it's the correct rated receptacle for the situation.
Define “larger gauge”
What do you mean by larger gauge? A 15A receptacle should only be wired with 14 or 12 gauge wire and these Decora Edge models accept 14 gauge AND 12 gauge solid and stranded copper wire.
A 15A receptacle should only be wired with 14 or 12 gauge wire, not many use 10 GA wire! My house is wired with all 12 GA and that's hard enough to work with but good for 20 amps, 10 is even worse to work with.
As an European I am constantly sceptical towards the American building industry, especially electric standards. In Europe most of these safety funktions these offer are a standard, but the wago clips on the back is something I haven't heard of. Glad to see these and hope they become the us standard!
It would be interesting to see someone do a pull test using a standard electrical outlet using the screw type connector where the wire is stripped to the right length and inserted into the capture slot under a screw that is tightened down. Compare the amount of force to pull the wire out vs this new type of outlet as well as the Wago connectors. Just how much force does it take to pull out the wires in each.
I saw this at a local Lowe's last week but didn't buy it and went with the old fashion outlet instead.
I’d suspect both would break apart before the wire would come loose. But yes, that would be an interesting test to see!
I will be wiring a 12X16 shed with several outlets, lighting, HCAV, etc. It will be my production shop running two laser cutters as well as my day, IT job. I will absolutely be using WAGO connectors and these outlets! I am a model railroad and have used WAGO's in the past for electrical connections. They make trouble shooting a breeze as you can disconnect segments and make sure everything is electrically sound in that segment before adding the next back in.
Greetings from the Netherlands.
I'm surprised it took took you guys this long for quick connect outlets...we have been using that stuf for years now
Just moved. My new house is 40 years old, and has the old, stained 'ivory' receptacles and switches, which do not go well with the wall colors. I have started switching the entire house over to these outlets and switches. When I first started installing them, I pulled, using a lair of lineman's pliers on each wire. None of them so much as jiggled-the clamping is real, solid. With a few months, I will have all new outlets and switches.
I can change an outlet in about 5 minutes. That being said, I'd still replace them all with these Edge outlets. For $1.50 more, it's worth my children's protection. 👍
Why would kids go behind plate
Tamper resistant plugs aren’t a new thing. The only new feature here is the screwless connection
Pretty much every outlet on the market today has those stupid plastic gates in there. So your "children's protection" is unavoidable, without spending extra for their gimmick. (which is certain they patented so no one else can make them)
No.
Very nice! Makes you wonder what took so long for these things to be updated.
Not really a necessity. The old technology still works even now.
I mean what is there really too upgrade on a plug-in outlet lol
Look at the outlet at 0:32. Notice how much thicker the "new and improved" outlet is? It is as thick as a GFCI but without the GFCI protection. I will be happy to stick to the traditional one, especially for replacement.
MK have been making outlets with Wago connector for several years now. Good to see you are learning from the Brits 😉😃
This is amazing. When I greet my next place, I'm definitely replacing every outlet with these on day one.
As an electrician, I don’t really see the practicality of them. Unless it’s a dead end receptacle or in series. But, usually we make receptacles parallel to isolate device failure with “pigtails”. That still requires time for joints which isn’t much of a time saver.
The one thing I like about all the old-school products is they were made to do a job right, and last "forever". All the new plastic stuff falls apart in no time. I have to wonder how those latches will hold up 20-30+ years down the line. If one fails, you've got live wires in your walls.
you wouldnt have any live wires... these are a new product, new code everywhere mandates some sort of enclosure you mount it in, typically of the fire resistant UL listed type. then you have to also remember that when installed correctly this product has no exposed metal of any kind. it seems well engineered but i only wonder about the cost vs a cheap one.
American electrics always scares me, this socket is a massive improvement and feels like something we would have in Europe
However, you still have exposed metal if you don't push the plug in all the way...
You are getting closer to the safety standards of the UK, still a long way to go though.
It needs a goddamn switch lol
As an electrician, those Leviton devices do deserve consideration. They would be a time saver on a job.