> if you were to ask most certified electricians in the United States *

Europe has adopted these en masse.

I personally think it’s just a culture thing. Like plumbers that won’t use PEX or manifolds. Or mechanics that don’t want to work on electric cars. Tradesmen in general don’t like changing their methods as technology advances. Probably because they’re afraid of something breaking and then getting blamed for it down the road.

Automotive wiring and building wiring is totally different 🤣🤣

You’re not going to use wire nuts in your car, right?

Building wiring is 90VAC-240VAC. By definition it has a huge range. Automotive wiring is typically 10.5VDC-15VDC (for cars anyway). Of course it’s more susceptible to resistance.

And as for safety, I watched a video where a WAGO 221 survived 100A. It only started failed at 120A and even then it was the plastic housing that melted, the connection was still fine.

I’m personally of the opinion that wire nuts are just as safe or unsafe. Even when they’re properly terminated they can still fail. This is doubly true when they’re used to terminate more than 2 wires or when they are used to terminate stranded to solid. I have personally removed 2-3 of these where one of the wires just fell right out of the wire nut 😂😂

You’re right that there’s some crap that’s sold on Amazon. If it’s too cheap it’s probably crap.

The push in ones are used by some people but the internet almost exclusively recommends 221s (lever nuts).

The NEC is 99% about safety. Lever nuts have been determined to be safe.

A smaller connection at a specific point will increase the resistance a bit, that’s true. The difference is marginal though. It may get a bit hotter at the connection but that’s not nearly the same thing as getting hot along the entire cable run. The 12AWG cable will still be capable of transmitting 20A safely along the entire run.

I’m not an electrician so I really can’t say with full confidence.

I’m not sure what the backstabbing comment has to do with the WAGOs. The ones usually recommended by the internet are the 221s which are never nuts. No backstabbing with those. Are you referring to specific receptacles? I don’t backstab with those either. I’ll side wire or J-hook then if side wiring isn’t available.

I’ve seen some videos of people satisfied with products like the WAGO 773 but I don’t have experience with them.

I don’t think there’s an issue if wires are snug. As long as they fit in the box it should be fine.

The purpose of electrical tape is basically done insurance to make sure nothing touches the wires accidentally. It does basically nothing for mechanical support.

Soldering is a great way to make an electrical connection but unfortunately it doesn't make a good mechanical one. This is why you shouldn't twist wires together in-line. You should twist them together and then fold the twist over. Much more mechanically strong even if it doesn't look as pretty.

Yeah, that's fine. Wago's only come in 2, 3, and 5 position versions btw.

A soldering gun? What would you want to solder?

Sure, every cent is important in such a setting so it makes sense to not use them.

Why not for permanent installs? Too expensive?

It is very difficult to join stranded and solid wires in a wire nut. What often happens is that the solid wire doesn’t really get twisted and the stranded one kinda wraps around the solid one.

Ever since I’ve learned about Wago 221 wire lever nuts I’ve been using them everywhere. Much easier to use as an amateur and can easily join stranded to solid. You can even join up to 5 wires together which is something that I believe even professional electricians struggle with.

Oh, I missed that!

I’ll update my comment

GFCIs fail over time. Might be time to replace it.

Personally, I don’t like putting a GFCI on a fridge. The motor makes them trip too often.

edit I misunderstood. You just changed your GFCI.

2 things could be happening. You could just have a particularly sensitive GFCI that you’ve installed and may want to consider replacing it again. The other possibility is that the fridge is starting to wear out. That doesn’t mean that the fridge is bad per day but it could be working worse than it used to and the motor might burn out soon. I wouldn’t replace it until that actually happens but it could happen soon.

It was a safe as I could make it but that doesn’t mean it was “safe.” Still working on live wires. Actually in that case they weren’t even protected by a breaker, just what’s coming out of the transformer.

I’ve accidentally snipped a live wire but at least in that case it was protected by a breaker. When you’re dealing with actual unprotected circuits… I don’t think the dread feeling ever goes away.

Working on a car is also kind of nerve wracking no matter how many times I’ve done it. I’m putting all of my faith into jack stands and I need to exert a great amount of torque under the car. It’s not as unsafe as it used to be back in the day (scissor jacks used to be known as widow-makers).

So I don’t agree with you. It’s more important to have a healthy fear of possible dangers and still do everything in your power to protect yourself than it is to get over that fear. When I feel comfortable doing something is when I make more mistakes (like when I snipped a live wire).

I swapped a breaker on a panel that didn’t have a main breaker once so I had to do it live.

My heart-rate at least doubled while I was doing it.

The point of the HSA isn’t to save money on healthcare (although that’s how it’s advertised). The point of it is to save for end of life care which will likely be in the $100k-$200k range and isn’t covered by insurance.