Twisting the wires with linesman pliers before using a wire nut?

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James L

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Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
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Electrician
I made this up today. 4 wires plus a big deal. Nope No pre twisting. Pictures are after I put wire nuts on, then I removed them and the connection is still intact. I use Ideal wire nuts
 

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Little Bill

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Location
Tennessee NEC:2017
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Semi-Retired Electrician
When joining solid and stranded conductors, I often put the wire nut on solid conductors and twist the nut on until I get the twist that I want. Then I hold the wires and take off the wire nut. You can then see the wires are still twisted and acceptable and add the stranded, then put the nut back on.
 
I never have, But a fellow employee tells me I should especially with 277 V. your thoughts? thank you for your help.

I will always do this with wires bigger than 14 especially when more than two individual wires. It's just what has made the most secure joint for me. I also do it when adding the pig tail from a smaller lead wire such as from a relay or lights that don't have a quick connect such as pendants or vanity's but I won't twist the lead wire just the bigger #12's and lead the lead wire ahead of the twisted joint while twisting on the wirenut then I twist the wire but with my klein's. You can hang off it afterwards. Most wirenuts allows pretwisting u will just have to check on bag as some forbid it even tho I've never seen that as we most use 3m and bcaps. In motors where u don't have small polaris lugs, copper crimps, or kerneys I'll usually open up the strands of my power wire and interweave the motor leads to them and then tape the wirenut onto them. I've seen enough equient burnt up and issues over the years from heat cycles on wirenuts causing them to pop off and joints either break loose or slap the side of the enclosure.
 

don_resqcapt19

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Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
Check the box/ bag. Some manufacturers listing is based on "not" twisting the wires.
Please show me a picture of an instruction that says you are not permitted to pre-twist. I don't think that there are any that say that. A lot of them say that pre-twisting in not necessary, but I don't think any say that you can't.
I made this up today. 4 wires plus a big deal. Nope No pre twisting. Pictures are after I put wire nuts on, then I removed them and the connection is still intact. I use Ideal wire nuts
Yes, if you install them correctly they should look like that and look the same as if they were pre-twisted, but is has been rare when I have removed wirenuts to see them look like that.
 

retirede

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Sure you can, different problem same concept. You can’t dismiss someone else’s comment simply because you don’t agree. Everyone’s opinion is valid.

I wasn’t trying to be dismissive, sorry if it came across that way.

The point I was trying to make is that backstabbing has a track record of proven problems.
Properly installed wirenuts are proven to be reliable, pretwisted or not.
 

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
Yes, if you install them correctly they should look like that and look the same as if they were pre-twisted, but is has been rare when I have removed wirenuts to see them look like that.
I remove wire nuts periodically, just to have a random quality test. They look like that every time
👍👍👍

Lots of guys, I call "Tommy two twist" because their connections fall completely apart when taking a wire nut off
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
...
Lots of guys, I call "Tommy two twist" because their connections fall completely apart when taking a wire nut off
That is what I see most of the time when I take off wirenuts that others have installed.

When I was doing work that used solid wire (a long time ago), my guys pre-twisted or they were no longer my guys.
 

jrl5687

Member
Location
Arizona
Occupation
Electrical contractor
I wouldn't think of splicing without twisting. Thats how I was trained. But then again, poor splices without twists makes me a lot of money. Just like the stabs.
 
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