Socket terminal screws not grabbing cable....

[Tricky Dicky]

To double over or not arguement regularly comes up and I have yet to see a definitive answer. From experience of taking sockets off mostly installed by professionals I would say the majority I have done have not been doubled with the exception of the CPC which I have come across regularly.

Personally I do not double over in case sometime in the future a spur needs to be added. I do tend to use known makes eg MK and have yet to experience any problems of wires not being grabbed in sockets. The last time I had a loose wire was in a wall switch which was a no name make my SiL bought.

So I would really like to know what the current professional opinion is on the subject?

Richard

[Harry Bloomfield]

Tricky Dicky formulated the question :

I was always taught as near as possible to fill the terminal, to minimise resistance. If you double them over, then need to add extra wires, you can always cut off at the fold.

[Steve Walker]

The last time I had a loose wire was also in a wall (light) switch ... last night! I was glad it was a loose wire and not a failing switch, as the switches are no longer available, replacements don't necessarily have the terminals in the same place and it is a 4-gang switch, used for

2-way switching - so lots of cores in there.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

<Snip>

I worked for a company in 1997/8 where some of the staff were involved in the maintenence of security doors in Ashworth High Security Hospital. It took them ages to get in and out, they were only allowed to take a bare minimum of cutting tools in and if they needed something different or broke one, they had to pack everything up and take the long trip out and back in again.

If they weren't finished on time, they had to stay and finish for security reasons. If they were still there after a certain time, they had to stay locked in for the night!

SteveW

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Eh? Just snip of the doubled over part if the spur wire won't fit.

[Terry Casey]

When I worked on the Stock Exchange cable TV system in the early 70s, on a couple of occasions I had to do some work on the distribution system in the bowels of the Bank of England.

I had an escort, naturally, but if I'd known where I wanted to go, I could have gone there without him as there were no security barriers!

That was the basis of their security - make it easy for you penetrate the system as deeply as you like - but make it impossible for you to get out again! Obviously, the further you went, the more barriers there were between you and the outside world!

One thing I particularly remember is walking past an open doorway and seeing a fork lift truck in the room beyond moving gold ingots around. This was, of course, in the days before the Imprudent Gorgon flogged them off at a bargain basement price.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Given the life of most electrical installations, I'd not trust a spring to retain its effectiveness for long enough.

Nothing wrong with a screw terminal connection if you have some common sense.

[Andrew]

Would you trust a 'maintenance free' connector, like Wago ?.

Somehow I suspect that the plastic that these are made of will become brittle with age and silently release its grip, decades down the line.

[Mike Clarke]

They don't appear to depend on the plastic to maintain the pressure on the joint. Even if you strip away the plastic housing it looks like the springy metal would still hold the cable ends securely together.

[ARW]

I still see/find junction boxes (40 years old or more) under floorboards that are fine.

[Swer]

No reason why it should, the cable doesn?t.

[Andrew]

But does the springy metal rely on the integrity of the plastic housing to maintain its pressure on the cables ?.

[Andy Burns]

Even after the plastic housing has caught fire and completely burnt away, the springy metal still connects the wires ...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Does your cable have plastic conductors in OZ, Wodney? Or just in your mind?

[Swer]

Wagos don't either, f****it.