Unpopular opinion: Wago connectors beat wire nuts for residential work

I swapped from wire nuts to Wagos on a full house rewire in Denver about 6 months ago. That job had 47 junction boxes and the time difference was huge. No more twisting and taping for 5 minutes per connection. I can wire up a 3-way switch in half the time now. Anyone else made the switch or still sticking with nuts for some reason?

3 comments

3 Comments

evannelson1mo ago

My neighbor’s a master electrician and he still swears by the old wire nuts for anything over 15 amps. His argument is that Wagos can loosen up over time if you get vibration from a garbage disposal or a ceiling fan. I’ve seen a couple of those push-in connectors fail in a garage where the temp swings a lot. Not saying nuts are perfect, but they feel more solid to me when you really cinch them down with lineman’s pliers.

nora5351d ago

Old wire nuts are just built DIFFERENT for heavy loads, plain and simple.

willowroberts1mo ago

Your neighbor has a point about vibration. I've seen the same thing with push-in connectors on garbage disposals. It's like they just give up after a while. The bigger pattern I notice is people trusting the newest thing without asking what it's replacing. Wire nuts have been around forever and they do one thing well. They clamp down hard and stay that way. Boat owners are the same way with stainless steel stuff. They'll pay triple for a part that's shiny and new, but an old brass fitting does the same job. @evannelson your neighbor sounds like he knows what works in the real world. I'll take a solid mechanical connection over a plastic clip any day.