Yet Another Electrician Question

[RobS]

Goodguy's post got me thinking...

In a couple of weeks I hope to be finishing out the electical in my basement/shop. Naturally, there are several runs of receps. For light duty (15A) I've always hooked the line and load wires together through the recep and I think this is what I've seen in the wiring throughout the rest of our house. For my shop I ran 12/2 and will use 20A receps. I'm thinking I'll wirenut the load/line wires together in each box with a pigtail for the recep. This way the load from a downstream recep doesn't actually go through an upstream recep but through the wire directly in the wirenut.

Assuming all you experts can understand what I'm saying, is it worth it? Required? Bad? Seems more robust to me but I'm just a weekend warrier. I'll do the same with the grounds and all are plastic boxes except my 220. Glad I read about grounding that box in addition to the recep /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[bky]

The only time you have to pigtail the wires on a device is when you have a multi wire branch circuit (2 -3 hots and one netural wire) other than that you don't have to but its a good habit to get in to
The device should be rated for feed through.and i belive all are. you will have to pigtail the grounds anyway.

 

[BobReeves]

Only my opinion but I would not use a wirenut and pigtail if I only had two wires. I believe the screws on the receptacle are/will be much more secure than wirenuts. I also refuse to use push in connections, every problem I have found in old wiring has either been a wirenut or push in connection gone bad.

 

[Highbeam]

The outlet should be rated for feed through. After all it is AC and a push-pull deal anyway. If using 15 amp outlets on a 15 amp or less circuit, then feed through isn't above the outlet rating.

 

[Inspector507]

RobS,
I agree with the others. Feed-thru is okay, it was tested that way. Back-fed devices will no longer accept #12 wire in case you try that.

 

[_RaT_]

<font color="blue">I believe the screws on the receptacle are/will be much more secure than wirenuts. </font>

I hope this is not the case, if it is, every electrical job I have done is in trouble. For that matter, were all in trouble. A good wire nut connection is extremely secure. I almost always pigtail all of my connections. One thing that it helps besides making a secure connection is that it allows me to make very neat and easy to push electrical makeup back into the box. I have no problem using the screws on outlets either.

 

[VA_Joe]

The other advantage of using a pigtail is that it ensures an uninterrupted neutral to upstream connections in the event that an outlet is either removed or fails.

As far as the outlets go - it is the spring type backwire feeds on the residential grade outlets that only accept #14 wire.

Leviton and Cooper also make commercial grade outlets that have screw-type backwire connections that will accept #12 wire. Although they cost about $2 an outlet (vice 50 cents for residential grade), the advantage of the commercial grade outlets is that the prongs are much sturdier and not as apt to wear out from use (and needing replaced in ten years because the lamp plug keeps falling out).

It is all a matter of cost vs. benefit.

Joe

 

[_RaT_]

VA Joe, two things I just don't skimp on, plumbing and electrical. Both can do severe damage... As an electrician, electricity still scares me, it is an invisible killer. Water damage is just a plain pain in the bum!!!

 

[RobS]

Thanks for the inputs guys, I think I'll go ahead and pigtail the receps. The other thing I picked up is that I need to be sure my GFCIs are rated for 20A feed through as it seems some aren't (even though the GFCI recep itself is rated for 20A).

In my poking around the original construction of the house I find that most of the receps are wired with the push ins. I haven't used those in my own work but will watch for problems there in the future. It also sounds like the commercial grade receps are a cheap upgrade for my shop. Are they a big box item?

Thanks again /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[chim]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="blue">I believe the screws on the receptacle are/will be much more secure than wirenuts. </font>

I hope this is not the case, if it is, every electrical job I have done is in trouble. For that matter, were all in trouble. A good wire nut connection is extremely secure. I almost always pigtail all of my connections. One thing that it helps besides making a secure connection is that it allows me to make very neat and easy to push electrical makeup back into the box. I have no problem using the screws on outlets either. )</font>

I'm with you RaT. I got into this practice many years ago when the "push-in" back wiring receps were the rage, and it's a tough habit to break (like the **** approach I have for device cover screws with all slots straight up and down)..........chim