Old wiring repair youtubes

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They are occasionally found loose. Whether that's due to bad installation o r working loose who knows.

NT

Th proper name is 3M Scotchlocks:

EfD_BwE

and would be quite dangerous in such an application.

d wire nuts are banned here. We have less electrical fires then the US as a result.

he U.S. is far larger than the U.K. If you mean less electrical fires by p ercentile I'd like to see a citation.

stats on infant mortality and electrical fires. It's way too late to look t hem up right now.

Well, I'm too lazy to look it up myself...

Assuming the citation was correct, there could be a of factors. The first is one Peter pointed out; the U.S. was wired early and without codes. A lo t of that wiring still exists and even if thoughtfully wired, is still a hu ndred years old. Back in the 80s we rented a store front that was still ca p and tube wiring from the 1920s, and the new owner wanted us to sign a tri ple net lease (which means we were liable for any repairs to this late 19th century building, including the wiring and plumbing). Both still were ser viceable but we left and bought our own building.

The large city closest to me uses special equipment for detecting electrica l fires. The city includes a large percentage of homes that were built in the late 1800s through the early 1900s. The fire department has infrared s canners that they use to detect heat behind walls during a survey of old wi ring.

Second thought is the definition of electrical fire and the cause. I don't know if there's an international watchdog commission that compiles the dat a or if the data is submitted by each country independently. Perhaps the d efinition of what exactly constitutes electrical fires.

I don't know about the U.K., but we have a lot of dullards here that run ex tension cords to high wattage electrical supplemental heaters for when they can't afford a tank of heating oil or propane. So I wonder how many of th ese failures are from external misuse or internal infrastructure failures. I can't tell you how many times I've pointed out worn out wall sockets or melted three way extension cords that were ready to burst into flames to cu stomers when doing home service.

LGEfD_BwE

- and would be quite dangerous in such an application.

and wire nuts are banned here. We have less electrical fires then the US as a result.

the U.S. is far larger than the U.K. If you mean less electrical fires by percentile I'd like to see a citation.

e stats on infant mortality and electrical fires. It's way too late to look them up right now.

t is one Peter pointed out; the U.S. was wired early and without codes. A lot of that wiring still exists and even if thoughtfully wired, is still a hundred years old. Back in the 80s we rented a store front that was still cap and tube wiring from the 1920s, and the new owner wanted us to sign a t riple net lease (which means we were liable for any repairs to this late 19 th century building, including the wiring and plumbing). Both still were s erviceable but we left and bought our own building.

Our pre-50s wiring has pretty much all gone now. The rubber used was eviden tly inferior to the US stuff, when encountering 50s wiring in the 80s it wa s always in a terrible state with a lot of the rubber insulation fallen off . K&T may be ancient but from what I've seen (on the net) of it it appears to be basically sound in design. Our pre-55 wiring generally wasn't.

cal fires. The city includes a large percentage of homes that were built i n the late 1800s through the early 1900s. The fire department has infrared scanners that they use to detect heat behind walls during a survey of old wiring.

We don't have that, but testing resistances of circuits accomplishes much t he same thing. Also the police here do infra red flyovers and sometimes pic k up on excess heat. I assume they're looking for drug farms.

't know if there's an international watchdog commission that compiles the d ata or if the data is submitted by each country independently. Perhaps the definition of what exactly constitutes electrical fires.

extension cords to high wattage electrical supplemental heaters for when th ey can't afford a tank of heating oil or propane. So I wonder how many of these failures are from external misuse or internal infrastructure failures . I can't tell you how many times I've pointed out worn out wall sockets o r melted three way extension cords that were ready to burst into flames to customers when doing home service.

From what I've seen of US wiring the reason seems pretty obvious, most of i t is done to lower safety standards than here. The only odd thing is that A mericans seem unable to accept that. Typically they lapse into being abusiv e when such things are pointed out.

NT

I have no idea what that is based on (other than they aren't listed by UL/equivalent).

Compare to

I believe these are the US equivalent of choc block. They are UL listed. They are, as far as I know, the safest readily available splice method for #12 and #10 (15 and 20 amp) aluminum wire or aluminum to copper. (Also copper to copper.)

------------------------------- Twisting wire with wire nuts - sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I am careful putting wirenuts on and if I don't twist them I still don't have problems. Twisting is not required by manufacturers, UL, or the NEC. Your option.

----------------------------- Most wirenuts have a metal spring that bites into the wires. In some ('live-spring') the spring can expand over the wires. Others it is fixed size in a hard plastic shell. I think the live spring ones are much more reliable and are the only ones I use. (Except not available for signal wires.) Wirenuts have readily available specs for how many wires they are made for, and those specs should be followed religiously.

-------------------------------------- I am real leery about using "push-in' connectors. That comes from "back-stab" switches and receptacles, which are not reliable. (The ones available now only work with #14 wire - #12 was eliminated.)

--------------------------------------------- I find my (whatever) is better than your (whatever) arguments to be boring. And if you look at the details, may be not true.

That can be quite time consuming and expensive. The question of course is whether you can splice safely. If the insulation is not damaged I usually can.

bud-- (licensed electrician)

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Ideal got rid of these Term-a-nuts that I really loved. With mot new work being in plastic boxes, there probably isn't the demand anymore.

The ones with the wire ends work nicely with ceiling fixtures, giving you t hree easy flexible drop wires.

The ones with the spade lugs help with outlets and it gets rid of the outle t making the daisy chain connections at least for N and ground. It was pla in ole easy.

Upgrades were done in the house for polarized two prong with a grounded box to polarized 3 prong, but there are no threaded ground holes on the metal boxes of the 1960's. So, with the necessity to ground both the box and the outlet, it's a messy connection. You could use the term a nut and put the two grounds together from the daisy chain (Stranded #12) which terminates with a fork terminal which goes to the outlet. A sold pigtail with a groun d clip makes a 3-wire ground connection with the other end under the ground clip.

The builders basically twisted the Romex grounds from two pieces of Romex (non plastic insulated) and placed then under a screw that moved the Romex strain relief plate.

That connection may not be gas tight (no wirenut), so you can loose that gr ound. It's not nice to loose grounds.

So, that's happened. Another thing that recently happened is I replaced an duplex outlet with a high quality tamper-proof one (electrical supply stor e) and the box was a mm too small and the wires touched the side of the box 2 years later. It was really stupid the way the outlet was designed. The mfr said, it has to allow a #12 under the screw and not touch the sides. But a mm short was too short. The duplex outlet could move from side to si de and touch the screws. The Term-a-nut reduces that distance too.

I mounted a small string level on an go/no-go outlet tester (The neon wired correctly kind) and that very easily allows me to set the duplex receptacl es level.

Ther term-a-nuts make it easy to remove the outlets before painting too. T he wires are easier to stuff in the box.

Now, the NEC requires neutrals in every box. So, you need neutrals in the boxes that contain switches.

This video is perfect, except I'm worried I may not have room to strip. But I can strip with a razor blade.

I got scotch lock (the traditional twist connectors, which I sometimes tape to stabilise - and I have used since I was a toddler) and "chocolate bars" (the plug in crimps) confused. I am also curious about straight thru crimps, which may be the best for this job. I don't remember these things, am I right

12 guage will do?

I was a toddler when my mom's brothers were studying electrical engineering, just before we all moved into this house in 1965. So I have a feel for these things, just that I don't do it often enough and I need to be more careful because I live here. The wirings is therefore 1965. Hey, I've seen worse: I was part of a committee that chose computers for a hundred year old building in the 1980s and we needed UPS because everything was blowing.

Thanks to all

*+-> I got a switch that needs replacing but I'm afraid because the last time I *+-> replaced it the wires were old and the tips broke and i had almost no wire to *+-> use. An electrician chum told me about scothclock and I got two spools of *+-> wire (I didn't last time) but I'd like to see some videos to build up my *+-> confidence. BION last time I was so lost, it was late at night and I prayed *+-> for half an hour before I got it to work. Much obliged *+->

*+-

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus blog: panix.com/~vjp2/ruminatn.htm - = - web: panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm facebook.com/vasjpan2 - linkedin.com/in/vasjpan02 - biostrategist.com ---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---

There are these. Would not be my first choice, but might get you out of trouble.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

Where I worked we had many thousands of connectors of the screw down types. During an upgrade to equipment close to 1000 of the connectors were used on # 14 wire. During the checkout part we found about 30 to

40 of them loose enough the equipment would not work. Several were found that either the insulation was not stripped far enough back the wires would not make connection or not at all .

There are contless thousands of wire nuts used. Seldom a problem with them. They are on wires from about # 22 to about # 8 wire. Used from

24 volts to 480 volt 3 phase wiring.

I never twist the wires before putting the wire nuts on. The instructions say they can be twisted,but not needed for the ones we use.

Both types cause fires, the US with wire nuts has worse stats, or did last time I looked.

I very much suspect the future will be spot welding.

NT

I would throw in the 240V and 120V difference, you have 1/2 the current heating up any poor connections that may cause a fire. I once created a problem that could have been a fire. I added two freezers at the end of a circuit, There was not many other loads on the branch, a TV and some lights. It al worked fine, and never popped a breaker. One evening I got a whiff of a burning smell, but could not locate anything. A day or two later, I got it again, and it last a little longer. I found the plug on my TV was hot, from there I tore the panel off the wall and found the bakelite box crumbling. The box had two wires on the screw terminals and after 30 years, developed a poor connection. When the two freezers ran at the same time the poor connection heated the outlet, the box and what was plugged into the box. I had to cut the wire back about 12 inches because of the over heating. Mikek

The twisted connection ought ALSO to have a pigtail that goes to the socket or ground screw on the switch. When the socket or switch is installed, the box is grounded THAT way. So, even if 'loose' attacks the relief-plate connection, we can hope for safe grounding.

ors?

tion or working loose who knows.

e.

ast time I looked.

there are several differences, making it hard to pin down what causes what. Rings versus radials, different connectors, different breaker profiles, di fferent levels of RCD/GFCI coverage, different margins, different plug/sock et designs etc etc. Ring circuits give us a real safety advantage and our p lugs are much better, the other differences are less clear.

NT