Old electrician told me to stop twisting wires together

Jim, this guy who's been wiring houses since the 70s, saw me twisting solid copper with stranded wire on a ceiling fan install. He yanked it apart and said that connection will fail inside 6 months because the stranded wire crushes down over time. I laughed it off. Thought he was being dramatic. Six months later I was back at my buddy's house fixing that exact same connection. It was loose and arcing. Had to cut it back and use a proper Wago connector instead. Now I never mix wire types without a real connector. Anyone else have an old timer call them out on something that seemed fine at the time?

2 comments

2 Comments

willow24424d ago

Got caught the same way with some landscape lights last summer. Old timer saw me twisting solid copper to stranded and said "that's gonna be your Friday night problem." Sure enough, four months later I was out there in the dark with a headlamp because one connection had completely loosened up and the lights were flickering. Had to chop it back and use those little lever nuts instead. He was right. Those old guys really do know their stuff from all the callbacks they must have fixed over the years.

the_emery23d ago

Man, I learned this one the hard way too. I swapped over to using those little push-in connectors for any time I have to mix solid and stranded wire. It just saves the headache because I know it's not going to loosen up on me later. What really sealed it for me was realizing those old guys aren't just being fussy they've seen every shortcut fail over a 40 year career. Now I don't even bother twisting anything anymore unless it's going straight into a screw terminal. That one change alone stopped me from getting those late night angry calls from friends.