Keinokuorma
Fellow, Academy of Sublime Masters of Appliantology
| Joined: | Mon Jun 26th, 2006 |
| Location: | Finland |
| Posts: | 1248 |
| Flavorite Brew: | Karjala - reilusti luonnetta! |
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I must confess that I use wire nuts too, but only on solid wires up to 2,5 SQmm. Well, although 4 and 6 SQmm are somewhat stranded, they consist of 5 to 7 thick strands which are hardly ever cut by the nut, the nut isn't very safe with those sizes. Screw connectors are recommended for them (perhaps mandatory now, haven't checked recently).
For 10 and 16A circuits we use 1,5 and 2,5 SQmm respectively, and stranded wires of those sizes will not cope well with the nuts. There are conversion connectors available here for transition from solid to stranded, but I use a screw connector in most cases, it costs less, and I feel it's safer.
One thing the nuts aren't good for, is a connection that you have to undo and redo more than once. It twirls the wires together, so if you need to take the connection apart and add or remove a wire, you will have to snip and strip, or try and un-twirl by some means. If you remove a wire, you will have to put a new nut because the old one won't hold.
My favorites for 1,5 SQmm are the push-in connectors, they will allow to add or remove wires without undoing the whole connection. For 2,5 SQmm the nut is somewhat safer, but perhaps the most secure is the screw connector... you'll have to open it to add or remove wires, but most push-in connectors will not cope well with 2,5 SQmm.
Between the lines you can read that I don't really like the wire nuts.
Last edited on Wed May 21st, 2008 10:58 pm by Keinokuorma
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