Home Improvement Today?

Public service announcement for painters , tilers and floor layers

For the love of God , please stop thinking you know how to remove and reinstall interior doors with ball bearing hinges

Thank you

~ the guy that spent 4 hours fixing door hinge screw holes that had been stripped , replacing screws that were installed with the wrong bit in an impact driver set on high and shimming hinges to fix what were perfect door margins a couple days ago

 

Having water leak alarms goes a long way too. I got my dad a set for his new place and they caught a rupture in a new washer a week after install.

Super cheap on Amazon.

 

Link for water leak alarms?

 

Waiting to close on my new house. It has first floor laundry. I think I’m gonna buy new braided hoses after seeing this just as a precaution now. Current hoses are about 11 years old but look good. Don’t want or need any accidents in my new house, especially with the laundry being upstairs.

 

What is the general consensus on these type of push in connectors? I hate back stab switches, so why would I want to use these in a jbox?

For context, I need to bring 5 romex (1 supply, 4 load for outdoor lights) into a box and splice together.

 

Matter of preference, an electrical contractor can save like 5-15 minutes a j-box using these that money adds up when billing out work.


I prefer wago personally but I mostly use them in industrial applications…

 

How else would you splice them? Serious question.

 

You would just need to find the correct size wire nut. Most of the have max and min number of wires with gauges listed on the packaging. I think I've seen the 6 wire 12ga ones at Lowes before but I'm sure a local electrical supply would have a better selection.

 

Standard wire nut.

I thought these push ins might work better instead of cramming all in an appropriate size nut.

I suppose what made me hesitate is the amount of actual surface contact being made inside the push in.

 

Rated for full amperage for the listed wire… need not worry

 

I will also point out that Europe uses these almost exclusively to my knowledge. They don't use wire nuts.

 

For me, I use wireless (zigbee) alarms that connect through a Hubitat which sends push messages to my phone. That is a cool setup but is too involved for my folks' place. For them, I got some of these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IWTCLHA
These are cheap sensors with a really loud beeper when water is detected. Loud enough to wake you up on a different floor when they get wet, which is good.

 

My only gripe with those is you have to have finesse to get the wires back out should you have to. 90% of the time I end up cutting them off. So for home, I like wire nuts. At work I like the Push-In's for certain things as they come in handy when you have to convert several dozen fluorescent light fixtures to to straight wire LED for example.

 

I have, and like, these ladies.

$70 YoLink Smart Home Starter Kit: Hub & Water Leak Sensor 4-Pack, SMS/Text, Email & Push Notifications, LoRa Up to 1/4 Mile Open-Air Range, w/Alexa, IFTTT, Home Assistant

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084WYB8PM?_encoding=UTF8

 

If you’re not gonna use wire nuts. Wago 221 connectors are probably the best option. And with the 221 lever nut style you can use solid or stranded wires. We use them in our plant. Not always the best application for everything but they are nice when you need them in the right application.

 

I too like the Wago connectors Tokyo Joe showed with the levers for disconnecting. They grip tightly and have enough spring action that as the wires get moved around during install that they will maintain a tight connection.

Also, the standard Commercial Electric winged wire nuts in red from Home Depot are rated for five 12 gauge wires.

 

Thanks

 

Ended up ordering some of these. I like the levers, but will still wrap with electrical tape to make sure they stay down.

 

Maybe I put wire nuts on incorrectly, but I have always been leary of the wires in the middle falling out.