Snapped earth behind socket, options?

[R D S]

Long story short, trying to do a better job than the bodge-it kitchen fitter from a few years ago and wondering why I bother.

Swapping a back box and socket, the earth in the 2.5 T&E has broken and i'm about 2 inches shy of the terminal.

I could put another socket below on the good part of the cable with a new piece of cable between the two but i'm not sure i'd like how that looks.

What are my options for joining a new piece, crimp, chock block, wago?

FWIW I could 'fix' this and bury it in a way that nobody would notice without fairly major renovation but i'd rather it was 'right'.

Ta.

[Jack Harry Teesdale]

Simplest and safest is to crimp a length of e/w on to existing and reconnect. Job done!

[spuorgelgoog]

Can you use the earth terminal in the back box for joining the earth to the socket?

If it's a plastic box replace it with one that has an earth terminal; some do, some don't.

Owain

[Scott]

Personally, I think you can never have too many sockets, so I would go for another socket but give a bit of thought to the best position.

[Dave Plowman (News]

Crimp or solder joint is is usually the best option where space is tight. Although personally I'd be happy using a decent quality choc block with the conductors overlapping to both screws, and them tightened till they groan. That, after all, is no different to the connection to the socket.

[Davidm]

Solder, as long as you can do it without melting insulation on other wires.

[The Natural Philosopher]

solder heatshrink

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Probably not the way to do it but many moons ago I soldered a bit on, then put green heatshrink over the join. grin, from that you can tell it was a long time ago, and its in this house up in a bedroom and is still ok. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Was not a problem in my case I simply took the socket off and bent them away from the bit being worked on. Brian

[Andrew]

[Andrew]

Since it is accessible, just use a single section of a choc-block to join an extra bit of CPC ?. machanically twist the two ends and use the choc-block as a 'crimp'

(assuming you don't have a decent crimp).

[williamwright]

Solder, then heatshrink. Makes a small tidy perfect connection.

Bill

[John Rumm]

Yes, yes, & yes :-)

[Dave Plowman (News]

Do you need that heatshrink on an ECC, which should be sleeved anyway?

[Andrew]

Rewire entire house with this stuff -

to be sure, to be sure ...

[Scott]

Are the regulations in RoI same as UK?

[spuorgelgoog]

No. Similar but not the same.

I think most of Europe uses insulated cpc in cables.

Owain

[Scott]

RoHS approved BASEC and BS6004 approved 100 metre coil. Insulated earth which meets regualtions in the Republic of Ireland.

This implies the earth needs to be insulated in RoI but not in UK. Why is this? What is the point of insulating the earth - unless maybe in case someone connects it to the live by mistake. However, does insulating it not make such mistake more likely as at present the earth is clearly distinguishable by *not* being insulated.

Is an insulated earth permitted in the UK?

[newshound]

Dunno. I always thought the uninsulated earth in T&E was so that, if a screw or nail went through it and nicked the insulation on live, there was a good chance it would catch the earth and so trip the circuit one way or the other.

[John Rumm]

Can't see why not - you sleeve it whenever its exposed anyway, so it just saves a job (but increases the price).

(the 18A rating for the cable seems wrong for 2.5mm^2 T&E)