Electrical

The one that broke was just a standard type

as to taping I checked a number of on-line advice pages and some inspectors insist on wire nuts being taped and others say they shouldn't

No absolute answer one way or the other.

I say if I triple check the integrity to add tape is OK .

FWIW: The broken wire nut I saw was up in an attic and possibly heat was a factor?

I do have to admitt to a special case for me to tape a wire nut. Wiring up motors where there is a lot of viberation I sometimes did tape up the wire nuts. Two reasons. They may viberrate losses, but mainly because being in close contact with the metal junction box it may take longer for it to wear through. Tha this the only time I ever taped any in thousands I installed when working.

That is another case where 2 different sizes of wires may be used. Often the motor wires would be smaller than the feeder wires on those motors.

Just lay the wires next to each other and screw the nut on, then give it a good tug.

You would usually see this to mitigate voltage drop issues on a long run of wire. Say you had a 15a "outside" circuit and you want to extend that to a shed 100 feet away, you might want to run that extension in #12. A place you could see in commercial would be a run of wire through an area with very high ambient temperatures like a roof top, where you have to derate the wire on that run.

Ralph already did. He pointed out that almost all the common light fixtures in use in a house have wire that is smaller than the 14 gauge that comes into it. Wire nuts are used to join the two. Also things like light dimmers have wires that are smaller than the 14 gauge circuit conductors.

If you look at a bag of wire nuts, they will have the combinations of numbers of wires of different gauges that it's listed to be used with. You'll see listed combinations like one #14 with two #18 for example.

Actually, in a lot of situations it is still used today - very successfully. Not used in residential wiring any more, but particularly the 2nd generation stuff is fine, as long as it is used with the proper connections. I had to pigtail the devices that I could not replace with CoAlr devices, and the ACS Marrette is head and shoulders better than the s***ty ideal wirenuts that were sold for the job. There is no "plastic" in them and they are totally non-flamible.

I had all the wiring in the house "recertified" last year.

And I gave 2 answers.

possibly, but usually heat deforms thermoplastic nuts, and discolours thermoset and phenolic long before they crack. Generally broken wirenuts have been physically abused..

On motors I generally like the vibration proof MARR type connectors with the setscrews because you can only twist and untwist the internal wires so many times until they get too short. The set-screw type can be reconnected MANY times without damaging the wire. The 2SHD and 2SHP type

That too.

It was in a junction box and though once I had a squirrel up in the attic, that was one nut he would not have gotten to.

I repaired industrial equipment for 38 years and did see some power transformers that had aluminum windings. After enough of them burned up they went back to copper.

I would never ever use that crap.

Now that makes sense to me.

I would thing a tag of some sort in the breaker box would be a good idea to inform anyone not to put it on a 20 amp circuit.

which I am now getting to, I have cut way back on Usenet

I don't think I've ever seen a motor that was not taped...and they really tape them up well.

OK got it

There is plenty of aluminum wire being used out there but it is in lug terminated devices not binding screws, although they fixed the screw problem 40 years ago. Since most lugs are aluminum themselves it actually can be a better connection than you get with copper wire.

The underground wire from the poco transformer to my meter as well as meter to entrance panel is all aluminum...though I do have it inspected every 5 years...no burnt terminals yet.

We live in different worlds. Buried aluminum wire is common in mine. It's for irrigation well motors generally ranging from 50 to 100 horsepower and the irrigation systems they supply. The farthest run I know of was 3/4 mile and parallel runs of quad. I'm not sure of the size since someone else did it.

Perhaps damaged in installation? Most common cause.