Stop using wagos on every damn connection you see

I swear every new guy I work with just slaps a wago connector on everything without thinking. Had a service call last week at a house in Austin where the homeowner was tripping breakers on their kitchen circuit. Turns out the previous guy used a 5-port wago to join 3 12-gauge wires and a 14-gauge pigtail. That's a code violation right there - mixing wire sizes in the same connector like that. I swapped it out for properly sized wire nuts and torqued them down right. The whole job took 20 minutes. Has anyone else noticed apprentices getting lazy with these things or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

viola_butler1mo ago

...and honestly it's the same everywhere now, not just in electrical work. People see a quick fix online or at the supply house and think it's the magic answer for everything, like how everyone uses those blue zip ties for everything when a proper clamp would be safer. I've noticed it with DIY stuff at home too, my nephew tried using those push in fittings on his plumbing and wondered why it leaked. It's this whole mindset of wanting the easiest option without thinking if it's actually right for the job. Wagons are great tools, but they're not a replacement for knowing when to actually grab a wire nut and do it right.

claireo671mo ago

Oh preach. The push fittings thing drives me nuts, people act like they're magic.