Is this a good practice - one black wire going through three switches?

I opened a 3-gang box and found that the three switches in the box were connected by one black wire, not three black wires coming from one nut to the three switches. One black wire literally goes from the first switch to the second to the third. A section of the wire insulation was removed and the exposed wire circled around the screw of a switch. This is how the three switches wired.

I know it works but wonder whether this is a good practice. Does the code say one has to use a wiring nut?

Reply to
John Smith
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My electrical inspector told me it was ok, but that most people don't do it that way because if you loose one, they all go dead.

Reply to
mark

Reply to
curmudgeon

I was certain that it was improper to pass a hot from switch to switch; it was obligatory to use pigtails. But when I tried to find the code section I couldn't find it. Hopefully someone can do better.

Reply to
toller

They won't. It is legal

Reply to
Greg

i believe in canada its fairly common practice, probably other places too.

randy

Reply to
xrongor

The only problem is when you have to go back in there. It is usually easier to simply remove all of the ganged devices. It does make a less cluttered box when they are on the small side of legal.

Reply to
Greg

I think it is ok. There was a similar discussion on this forum about a month ago.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

you caught my typo. I was just seeing if you were paying attention.

Reply to
mark

Actually, I would think running a pigtail would create the potential for all of them to "go dead". If one were to run a single wire around each screw on multiple switches, and one screw came loose, only that switch would be affected.

On the other hand, if the wire nut were to come loose, multiple switches may be affected. Beside, does it really matter if some or all of the switches are affected? You'd still have to turn off the power and go in there.

Unless of course, you have some life saving equipment plugged into the outlet served by that switch.

--Mike

Reply to
Mike Fritz

My .02 worth: It might be legal, but it's poor workmanship and mechznically unsound. I can't think of a way to wrap a piece of unbroken wire around a screw and tighten it down in a way that won't damage the wire or result in a very poor mechanical hold on the wire. If you "wrap it around" the screw you are crunching the daylights out of the crossover point when you tighten the screw. If you try to "Omega" wrap it, the bends at the bottom of the "loop" are either going to be way too sharp, or they're going to be wider, and that won't keep much of the wire under the screw. I know, that's a lot of words to say "bad connection" but that's how I'm seeing it.

Reply to
I-zheet M'drurz

According to Greg :

It's a lot less cluttered this way than with pigtails. Really.

A 4 or 5 gang switch box looks practically empty when done this way.

Reply to
Chris Lewis

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