Home Improvement Today?

I was taught twist wires together with pliers (stripped and insulated portions), cut exposed end to flush all wires, nut then tape nut/wires.

edit:
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Ideal-3...for-Wire-Nut-Wing-Nut-Twister-B-CAP-WingTwist

 

This was my old range wiring. Copper runs to aluminum pigtails. I found it when I remodeled the kitchen. The single gang box was replaced with a double gang and polaris lugs where used with Ideal Noalox. I feel much better about the current connection then the OG 1968 one. Those wire nuts fell apart when I removed them,

 

Surely twisting Al and Cu wires together is not to code, right?

And yes anti-ox grease for the blocks or lugs.

 

we put a time capsule of family photos and mementos in a hollow stairway box newel I built for my clients 3 houses back

 

and that's how you get a fire with aluminum wiring

 

I'm not talking about mixing with aluminum wiring, I'm referring to the comments made about vinyl tape and nuts coming loose

 

i think it depends on who does it. a proper splice, regardless of the method, will hold beyond the end of time.

i've never had to return to re-do any of my wire nut splices. but have had to re-do hundreds/thousands of improper splices where people just jam the wires into the wire nut and twist it, or rely on electrical tape to hold the wire nut on top of the loose wires, or just simply 'limp-wrist' all the parts of the splice. loose twist, and loose wire nut on top...

i've tried those tools before. too easy to over-torque the wire nut and blow apart the wire nut.

but a decent splice shouldn't need electrical tape for any reason, with the exception of split bolts--that would be only for insulation purposes.

if electrical tape is needed to hold any connection together, the connection is done wrong, plain and simple.

not really a code against tieing them together, more of a technique specification. aluminum wire needs to be connected with aluminum-rated devices that cost more, and any bare aluminum conductor must be coated in NoAlox or similar to get past the oxide layer that forms when aluminum is exposed to air. without it, the aluminum is pre-corroded, and suffers increased resistance from that oxide layer.

 

My understanding is it's an extra layer of insulation (protection), not to hold together but once again an extra layer of protection as it does aid in keeping together. I think the idea is extra peace of mind.

 

most of the time i'm looking for a failed connection, i tend to look first at the appearance of the splices. if there's a splice with electrical tape, i'm checking it first. the majority of the time tape indicates shortcuts/laziness and just undoing the tape will make things start sparking because the tape was the only thing holding things together to begin with.

it's extremely rare that someone put the time/effort into a proper twisting and cranking the wire nut, only to add tape on top of it-- i've only seen a few, and that's mostly in union-built high rises. residential housing, i've never seen it.

 

So my cooktop has copper 3 conductor on a 30 amp circuit and the oven has aluminum 2 conductor on a 40 amp circuit. I’ll have to check wire gauge. I tossed the cooktop pigtail into the crawlspace and screwed plywood over the vent hole so now it’s time to check out the crawlspace.

Mouse death toll: 4.

 

Dipping my toes into some home automation again. Have a bunch of sonoff s31 lites running esphome and controlled from home assistant. Have a couple extras… maybe I can disembowel one and build a garage door monitor/controller.

 

I'm a DIYer, not a pro so everything I'm doing is for myself. I get what you're saying.

 

And maybe teaching a DIYer to tape everything just-in-case is proper haha

 

Ok, my dreams of recycling the cooktop Romex are dead, it’s 10/3 while the oven currently has 6/2. So I guess I’ll have to pony up some good money on 25’ of 6/3?

 

might only need 8/3
AL should be upped 1 size over CU for a given load

 

fun fact , mice have no bladders and emit a drop of urine per mouse about every square inch

 

I couldn't lug a electric driver around all day. That would be nice for jobs you weren't running all over the building though.
For years I used an Ideal brand screwdriver with a wire nut gripper, looks like the newer version ratchets.

 

Agree, bad workmanship with wire nuts (any splice) results in callbacks.

It is pretty common in industrial applications to use tape on wire nuts, the vibration of equipment that runs 24 hours a day is a challenge for any connector, sometimes the wire nuts will wear through on a motor application. The tape is just extra insurance.

When an industrial guy puts a light fixture in his bathroom he is inclined to tape the wire nuts "just to make sure" he never gets a callback.

 

Industrial guy here. I never use electrical tape, just nuts. Motors up to 20HP get nuts and 25HP + get nuts on the windings and multi-taps for the 480V feed. Only time we use tape is for the 277V lot lighting that is spliced in the ground (think sewer man hole style, concrete underground splice area). Those are wrapped in rubber tape and electrical tape.

 

I’m assuming you haven’t done 700hp motor on 480v with 6 conductors per leg where each conductor needed to be bolted to the next? We had to order custom oversized peckerheads because the wire capacity didn’t fit the bend radius requirements or capacity fill!

It looked mighty Frankenstein by the time we were done.
All that being said split nuts are not uncommon in industrial settings from all I’ve seen.