I have seen idiots try to make good connections on outlets with stranded wire by twisting it mashing it under a side wire screw. It doesn't work so well with outlets that don't have the back wired clamp connection. That's one of the few cases where I think pigtails should be used on an outlet. Did you see the link I posted to the Leviton commercial grade receptacles with factory pigtails?
TDD
There is nothing like a clamp connector for stranded wires, with the possible exception of those pre-pigtailed jobs
The only outlets I have seen fail are the cheap residential grade ones. Nobody in their right mid would allow that junk in their home.
Jimmie
In this case we are not discussing the failure of the outlet itself, just the fact that if outlets are wired so that the circuit can be broken if one of the connections to it comes loose as when they are pass-through wired on a circuit, it causes a lot of work to locate the failed connection...
Thermal cycling, overload conditions and vibrations from equipment can all cause electrical connections to come loose...
Hence the pigtail vs. pass-through wiring debate...
~~ Evan
I wired a beauty shop years ago with stranded THHN and not only did I use the back wired clamp receptacles, I used Buchanan Splice Cap Crimp Connectors with the Splice Cap Insulators which snap on to the splice.
2006S Copper Crimp Connector:TDD
But not something the average DIY guy is going to have at his disposal.. Are they recommended for solid to solid too?
Agreed that is a superior method for making life-critical circuit connections that are unlikely to ever need to be reconfigured...
I bet that since you use that Buchanan crimping tool all the time you are probably very fast at making them up, yet if someone wasn't making connections that way day in and day out it would take them much longer to make up connections that way as opposed to using wirenuts...
~~ Evan
They work very well with any wire type especially when mixed. If I have a connection that I don't want to fail, I use the crimps. Ideal has another insulator called a Wrap-Cap that I've used on motor lead wires with a set screw connector or crimp cap. They're reusable and with a set screw connector, the connection can be disconnected for equipment swap out without cutting the wires off.
You can actually squeeze the Nylon cap with lineman's pliers bending the metal retaining ring and the cap will come off. The crimp cap can also be squeezed and deformed and it will come off without damaging the wire ends. You don't have to cut the wire shorter to redo or add to the splice. The parts aren't reusable but if a Wrap-Cap insulator is used, all that's wasted is the metal connector.
TDD
Evan
I have forty five years in the craft at this point and I can assure you that daisy chaining outlets in commercial and industrial work is routine practice. Unless the owner has specified pigtailing so that you can bid the job appropriately and install the next size larger boxes you will end up with a worse job then pigtailed because the electricians will have to be pushed hard to bring the job in at a profit. Frequent phrases out of the foreman's mouth will be "hurry up every chance you get'" and "just put it on the wall it only has to last 365 days." If quality receptacles are used and the electricians are permitted to do their jobs carefully daisy chained receptacles have no higher tendency to fail then any other connection.
Using screw pressure clamping receptacles in their feed through configuration is not bad advice and coming across all high and mighty does you no credit. Anyone with real experience in the craft knows that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Perfect installations are financially impracticable and good installations will outlast the buildings in which they are installed.
-- Tom Horne
Like the old MARR wire-nuts? Brass bushing with set screw and screw-on insulator "cap" - looked like a standard wire-nut. Came before the "marrette" twist-on wire-nut.
Ideal sells a lot of those, check their site. The manufacturers of electric conveyor(pizza) ovens use them for the heating element connections.
TDD
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