Lever style electrical receptacles and switches

[y_p_w]

I'm constantly rethinking my work; I guess that's my personality.

I'd originally cut out a soldered connection in a box and reconnected with 3-port WAGO 221. I believe the insulator was slid over for the solder joint (leaving a couple of inches of bare wire) and the other wire wrapped around and then taped. At the time I didn't think I had enough room for wire nuts. After looking it over again there was probably enough room to try, and there was also a bit of solder still left on the ends. Still - 3 12 AWG wires are still kind of hard to get into one red wire nut (the biggest I have), especially if it doesn't extend too far out the box. I wasn't going to twist since it typically requires trimming more wire for any rework. The worst thing was that the wire spring deforms/shortens on tightening, so if one wire didn't get in (but the other wires were tightenend) there it's either harder the next time or it needs a new nut.

I guess lever connectors have their place if there's really no room, but I'm rethinking using them that often. I am using a bunch of 2-port Ideal L2s as quick disconnects, but that's not to bridge downstream power. I'd have to really have to have almost nothing to work with if I were going to use a lever connector for that kind of connection again.

 

[y_p_w]

The Ideal lever connectors have this little window to see the tip of the wire past the bus bar. The label says they’re made in Austria. Overall I think the WAGO 221 is better, but I got the Ideal equivalents for less than 6 cents each.

They do recommend cutting and restripping wires when reusing these, but I’m not sure about doing that. Especially when one big reason to use them is that they don’t cut into wires much, and they can be really useful when there’s almost no wire length to work with. I put a couple in a box where the existing wire extends less than an inch out.

I got bored and took apart one of the Ideal lever connectors. I had a big jar and they were so cheap that sacrificing one for scientific inquiry didn't seem like a big loss. I didn't have great tools to work with, but heavy duty pliers and a flathead screwdriver seemed to do the trick, along with some patience.

This is how a wire gets inserted. The wire is just a piece of grounding wire from some Romex 14/2. Looks like a production date is stamped (02/23) on the backside of the bus bar. It's apparently held in place with a tang from the steel spring. Pulling on the wire, it acts like a barb and will take a lot of force to pull out the wire.

From this angle, the bus bar clearly looks like it's copper, but plated with some silvery metal (Ideal says it's tin). The spring contacts the bus bar, but it isn't fused or riveted to it. I believe it's securely held in place by the way it fits inside the shell along with the mechanical design of the spring against the bus bar. However, it's pretty clear that the spring is part of the electrical contact. There's an opening in the bus bar for each port. When closed, there's wire contact with the bus bar where the spring presses against the opening, and also at the tip of the wire via pressure from the spring. It's hard to describe, but it definitely pushes the tip of the wire into contacting the end of the bus bar. For each port there are two little fingers that serve as the opening mechanism where the design of the lever will push down on those fingers to press down on the spring to keep it open.

This is the way the wire contacts the bus bar. From looking through the window, I thought maybe the bus bar had some sort of finger and/or groove, but it's a solid, flat piece going across the width.

I was skeptical, but I heard that even if the shell melted, the design should keep the connection in place. Looking at the internals, I'm thinking it was designed to do just that, although if the insulation of the shell is gone, that's an opportunity to short. However, if it's hot enough to melt, that's pretty severe.

 

[Kantaro]

Scott did a pretty thorough comparison of the Ideal and Wago lever connectors

 

[y_p_w]

Scott did a pretty thorough comparison of the Ideal and Wago lever connectors

Some people are still rather skeptical about using a lever connector for anything other than low current. I have no concerns. I've seen one discussion with someone who is highly skeptical, claiming that the engineering principles would suggest that lever connectors are way inferior to wire nuts and terminal blocks because of higher resistance and the materials used. I think the amount of resistance is minimal and consistent because of constant spring pressure. The spring should be fine indefinitely because it's not being asked to do much. The big issue with steel springs isn't how long they're in service, but cycles, and who the heck is going to constantly open and close a connector?

Also - the Ideal has a pretty large bus bar, and the design is such that the spring forces the tip of the wire against the end of the bus bar, as well as against a ridge in the bus bar opening. The bus bar is more towards the end of the connector. The WAGO has a bus bar more in the middle and none towards the end of the connector. But they're just different design choices.

 

[Kantaro]

Some people are just stubborn and resistant to anything new or different. Same deal with Sharkbite connectors for plumbing (uh oh, did I just open another can of worms?)

 

[y_p_w]

Some people are just stubborn and resistant to anything new or different. Same deal with Sharkbite connectors for plumbing (uh oh, did I just open another can of worms?)

I've looked at the various arguments. It can get interesting when Americans and Europeans start discussing how to connect wires, where wire nuts aren't considered acceptable in most (but not all) countries there.

The biggest comparison I see is backstabs, but a steel spring pressing down on a wire against a piece of tinned copper seems more secure to me than a brass spring pressing down on a piece of brass formed of the same piece of stamped brass. It's rather odd that UL still certifies switches and receptacles made with backstabs. Backstabs were always a compromise for convenience.

 

[Kantaro]

The comparison of lever connectors to backstabs feels like a knee jerk reaction without understanding how the lever connectors actually work. Wire nuts are cheaper (10c vs 50c here) but far more prone to installation errors. Levers are more or less idiotproof and the way to go for DIYers.

And I am also puzzled about backstabs meeting code. A compromise for builders/industry I assume. The fact that you can't backstab 20A or grounds says enough for me.

 

[y_p_w]

The comparison of lever connectors to backstabs feels like a knee jerk reaction without understanding how the lever connectors actually work. Wire nuts are cheaper (10c vs 50c here) but far more prone to installation errors. Levers are more or less idiotproof and the way to go for DIYers.

And I am also puzzled about backstabs meeting code. A compromise for builders/industry I assume. The fact that you can't backstab 20A or grounds says enough for me.

Oh, one could before. In the past month I’ve taken out a bunch and hooked them up to the screw terminals. Maybe with a lever connector as a quick disconnect for the future. These were from the mid-90s. I suppose the move to 14 AWG only for backstabs was to make for a more consistent connection, even if it was still a poor idea.

I even saw a few receptacles wired where the backstabs were used to connect both upstream and downstream with 12 AWG on a 20A breaker. And that was from the 90s. Ended up replacing those with a wire nut and pigtail.

I’ve been fixing up a couple of old homes and I saw receptacles being used often to bridge the power upstream/downstream. Two pairs of screw terminals were the most solid. But I saw a few (GE) where it was a single screw on each side, but with two wings that would crimp on wires inserted from the back. It was only designed for backwired connections and couldn’t be reused. The screw would bring the wings down to crimp on the wire. That’s actually a pretty secure connection, but it could have been 60-70 years old and looked all funky and/or corroded. I think it was copper and not brass, so the threads in the plate probably weren’t very strong. The screw is removed in this photo.