eBay's cheapest wire push-connectors (Not for house wiring!)
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- I bought 100 3-way push connectors on eBay for £5 shipped within the UK. That is almost too cheap to be real - but they arrived quickly, carefully packed in a flat package.
This exact connector style has been around for a very long time, and is primarily intended for making fast electrical connections inside things like fluorescent or LED lights. They are NOT rated for high current, and shouldn't be used as general connectors in house wiring.
Despite the listing describing them as having a copper bar, they only make electrical connection between the edge of a springy steel plate and the wire itself.
I'm not sure the exact composition of the metal, but it is very lightly attracted to a strong magnet. That hints they might be stainless steel, especially as they remain shiny.
Since the electrical connection between the two wires is made by current passing through the steel I wonder how the contact resistance of the connection will vary with time.
A contact between two dissimilar metals results in a potential difference like a battery, and in the presence of water this can result in electrolytic corrosion. I'd guess that if these connections are kept dry they should remain stable.
Let me know what you think about the differing metal to metal contact.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.c...
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#ElectronicsCreators
Was hoping you would run some high current through them to failure! :)
Yes, I was looking to see you test with say ten amps or a bread toaster, hair dryer, heat gun. Compared to a Wago connector?
Great information
John Ward did high current testing with a bunch of different connectors, but I don't recall if this type was one of them...
Bet it would have sparked. Not only is the contact just steel but it presses the wire against plastic on the other sidey leafing very very lettle contact surface
Me too! 20 Amps and a thermal camera would be great.
Own lots of these. Depending on the dice roll they are, some will start getting warm around 3A, others will work till 6A before getting seriously hot. I just use them for testing and such, or low current applications with a heat shrink, cuz it works just fine but if you care. Use Wagos or IDEAL connectors. Hell even the knockoff Wagos which are around 10 cents each will often be able to take over 20 amps before they show any problems.
GreatScott and a bunch other people have pretty decent videos comparing a bunch of knockoff Wagos
The main problem with these is that the wire is clamped between the metal and the plastic housing. When they get hot, the plastic softens and releases the wire.
Proper connectors clamp the wire between two metal parts of the same spring, the plastic is just am insulating cover.
I say 100mA. The terminals cannot be expected to do more than that.
But that's enough for an LED on mains with a few watts. 🪔
If there is a short circuit in the LED, the terminal will definitely work as a melting fuse 🔥
Hopefully the housing is connected to PE. 🔩
Came here to say the same thing.
It could have been designed to have a strip of metal at the top to press the wires against but that would have reduced the manufacturer's profit by a fraction of a penny on each one produced.
Also the wire is making a point connect with the metal clamp causing a possible small electrical resistance.
@@simonruszczak5563 "a fraction of a penny". Easy there, that is two hours wages.
the most positive thing one can say about these things is "there are better ways to burn your house down".
You could just use Kerosene and a box of matches, much easier.
Watch out, you might get what you're after
Cool, babies - strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Burning down the house
Just a guess but I'd say you're right. They need to go in a chassis where there's a fuse or breaker so they're not exposed to full mains current, whatever that is where you live. Did Clive say a 10 amp rating? Also he didn't mention any regulatory approval whatsoever so just no.
And similarly with any kind of push fit pipe fittings. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night unless I'd turned off the mains stopcock.
@@davidg4288 i would be suprised if it actually could handle 10 amps sustained in a closed box without melting.
Drilling a big hole through the conductive path reducing it to a resistor is pure genius
Look at the contact patch with the wire... The hole is the least of its' concerns :D
@@boban250 😂
They double as night lights to guide you to safety through your burning house.
As much as I would worry about some type of galvanic reaction....Shitty plastics becoming hard, brittle or otherwise just plain failing is an equal concern. Never quite sure what formulation is being extruded in these cheap fixtures. I could never understand how saving 50 bucks on a 10, 20, 30 thousand dollar kitchen redo made any sense.
I converted all my basement and garage lighting from ballast driven fluorescent to LED tubes. Not sure I could trust these connector even for this low consumption application.
Thanks for all you do and your time, love the channel!
I never understand going cheap on these things. If you're remodeling a kitchen, even nice WAGOs are pretty low on the list of expenses.
Since people just cut every cost.
If you're a manager at a contracting firm, you might force your subordinates to use these to save a few bucks on each project to pay for your own bonus each year, at the expense of your company's future reputation... Especially if you're going to fail upwards to a new job anyway.
It's always the managers.
Hope charcoal look is coming back as a remodeling trend...
£1,000 phone, best get £1 cable to charge it.
People have weird ideas about how they perceive a bargain.
Right? "Let's redo a kitchen (not cheap@), but oh yes let's cheapen-out on these" LOL
Had some of these a few years ago and tested a heated seat element at 12V, 7A. Not surprisingly they softened and warped after a few minutes - wouldn't risk more than 1-2A longterm
Julian or yourself featured these cheap connectors some time ago. As to the question of connectors and damp, the company that I work for uses rail mounting Wago connectors, and when used in an enclosure that suffers from condensation and damp, we have found that the stripped part of the copper conductor (single solid core) corrodes where the spring metal holds it. As well as the corrosion of the copper wire, we think a stress fracture is also part of the failure mode. If then disturbed or if subjected to vibration, the copper wire then breaks. Or eventually, the wire breaks on its own. This happens within five years or less on a new installation. Where these failures have occurred, due to the mess that the corrosion has caused, we also renew the Wago connector block.
Wago has a special insulating paste to be used when mounting terminals in a humid environment. If the wires were corroded, the technological assembly procedure was not followed
Just add a non conductive grease. Easy fix, and cheaper than the specialty filled ones.
@@Edisson. Contractors carried out the installation work. It was part of a much, much larger scheme. We were less than impressed with the standard of workmanship. With far too many Wago terminations, they did not even strip the insulation off to leave the bare copper conductor the correct length. I saw no sign of any paste. The "fix" that we were instructed to try was to put large bags of silica gel to absorb the moisture.
@@michaelhess4825 I know (lubricant is also sold separately, no need to buy filled) but if a layman is reading this, he can stuff anything into the clamp (I've already found silicone from an acetate base - completely eaten away) so I'd rather refer to the original lubricant.
@@Mark1024MAK To do it as cheaply as possible and quickly away, time is money - I come across these procedures very often
Very useful for quick connections in low voltage, low current applications
No good in flexible cable or ferrules, I have tried because lamp fittings have them, Usually end up throwing (literally) in the bin.
Even then they fail. The springs aren't up to the job.
or plastic gets brittle and it just falls apart in service
@@ketas it actually crumbles after a few years.
Oooh. I've orderer these .. twice. on purpose. Very useful for temporary repair/modification of severed three-wire tiny fairy lights. I left some for nearly a year outdoors(Canad-eh), and the resistor and diode leads rusted but the connectors were still good to go. I could identify them in a lineup since they indeed appear to be somewhat stained and Clivehandled.
I like that the CC bot auto-capitalizes the word tang. I love Tang.
Tang dynasty best dynasty
Yeah, all tangs are Tang, obviously!
It is interesting that it assumes it is a proper noun. I haven’t seen the orange flavored powdered drink mix for sale in years. There’s the other definition which just a noun.
wu Tang clan!
@@ketasDoes the Wu Tang Clan drink Tang?
My main concern with these is the wire is being pressed against the plastic - any heating and it will soften, bed into the plastic and lose spring tension
1:13 "through the magic of buying 100 of them"😅
😊 that gets me every time
They probably dont sell less than 100, otherwise its not profitable.
@@tommymack3210 Just so you know, I was making a reference to a common saying from RUclipsr Technology Connections.
BC opens the bag: Nice hiss... 😉
@@SharkoonBln now get them out onto a tray
have you seen the Louis Rossmann video about the ebay fuses? great little things, keeps giving power when your overloaded circuit demands most power, without failure
Yeah I'm tired of the weird names of crap on the Amazon. I can't say I watched all of his fuse video but I don't think Louis proved his test setup with at least a known proper brand name fuse. That said yeah he loaded the junk fuses and no blow. Almost as good as sticking a coin under an Edison base fuse. (nickels work best)
I already told him about them and Louis some weeks ago
I like Louis when he goes for the big brands 😂
I saw him use the wrong crimping die on a terminal and then complain and rant that it did not hold
@@earl3358 Thats my main issue with Rossman and why I cant stand watching him anymore.
He's become so good at his craft he forgot to reserve some humility.
He also does a terrible job at hiding his anger/frustration management issues on camera. Can only imagine how nasty he gets off camera.
i think one of the first clive ones i watched was about the sand filled fuses.
Work hardening makes some stainless steels more magnetic. Bend it a few times and see if it sticks better.
I saw something with tubing where only the stamped end was magnetic.
I've been using these as quick connects for testing and little projects. Love them. Very reliable. I am shocked that people think they would replace chocolate blocks in mains wiring though. No way.
I used these to connect 12v car battery to led strip light in the shed and they melted, causing the wire sleeves to catch fire. Needless to say, the cable came from China.
Now I only use them for sub-1 Amp projects such as Pi nano and replacing AA cells with lithium cells from discarded vape thingies.
Copper and stainless are ok - they aren’t very far apart on the galvanic scale and the stainless has a very thin passive oxide layer which prevents corrosion. Both metals are fine in even aggressive marine environments. Plus, of course, there should not be any moisture about, so no electrolyte to facilitate electrolytic corrosion, hopefully.
Don't they use nickel wire for marine applications? Usually for submarines they use silver plated nickel, heavily nickel plated, and I've also seen outright pure nickel wire.
@@linuxguy1199 Given silver's tendency to oxidise (blacken) when used in jewellery (or cutlery) over time, I'm surprised to hear it's OK in marine applications.. I guess that oxidisation doesn't affect its electrical characteristics or make it brittle?
@@snafu2350 That's actually the main motivation behind the reason they use it. Unlike copper and most other metals, Silver oxide is conductive and the oxides electrical effects are mostly negligible, in fact, silver plating is preferred over gold plating in many applications since most gold plating tends to be extremely thin and wear off if a connector is repetitively used. Silver plating though can be caked on pretty much as thick as you want since silver isn't nearly as expensive as an equally thick gold plating.
@@linuxguy1199TVM! I guess it doesn't affect malleability either?
Even without water, there's going to be enough water vapor in the air to facilitate a galvanic reaction, very slowly. Stainless steel will also slow that a bit, but I wouldn't assume it's particularly high-grade stainless. It'd still probably take decades in an in-wall circuit, especially in a junction box, in all but the most humid of environments.
Hell of a time-triggered disaster to, say, leave for the next person to occupy your house.
Generally, copper and stainless steel have a low potential for galvanic reactions. In fact copper can assist in stainless steel's corrosion resistance, particularly in more aggressive environments such as saltwater and certain acids as the molecular breakdown of copper produces a barrier to pitting formations.
Well, that's going to vary with what type of stainless steel is used. Back when I had reason to know the details I found that there were hundreds of different 'corrosion resistant steel' materials just within the aircraft industry. Knife blade, hand tool, and medical devices all have their own ranges of materials considered as "stainless steel".
@@mikebarushok5361 I suppose in your zest to be a quasi-contrarian expert, you missed reading the qualifying FIRST WORD of my statement. But, it's OK, you are not wrong by any means.
@@Dustin2112wasn't trying to criticize you, not even a little. But I used to specify the hardware used in aircraft manufacturing drawings to create grounding points for power grounding and separately for small signal and shielding grounding. We had available CR steel hardware, but never specified stainless steel for these screws, washers, nuts or nut plates because other materials gave better conductivity and better corrosion resistance.
It is always so funny to me....Either you film stuff that I then want to buy, or I get stuff and it suddenly pops up in your clips....Happens A LOT!!
Your videos seriously have potential to be life-savers!
i bought a load of similar ones some time ago, to use in the days before i learned to not be shite at soldering. mine have a lever atop them, and a little bit of copper inside. i have had few 'interesting' events while using them, the sort that leave a purple inverse image of what you were doing at the time, on your eyeballs for a few minutes. i agree, not for house wiring! a particularly valuable lesson was the one that taught me to ensure a single strand of wire hasn't escaped into the neighbouring hole.
My dad would have loved these in 1976 to connect speaker wire and run it round the house. Seem to remember loads of terminal blocks at various locations under the bookcase and settee.
So the disassembly goes like this, "breath intensely near it". Sounds safe.
Bought some LED lights with these already in the fittings. Removed them and replaced with WAGO connectors as I didn’t trust them.
Hi I bought them a month ago,for DIY and decided not to use them , I wasn't aware low amps until I had purchased them ,i switched to screw up connector blocks rated for 15 amps better safety in mind ,I enjoy your tests cheers
Thanks Big Clive.
I got some double ones years ago and have used them for a couple of LED projects here and there. Maybe 1.5 amps at 12 VDC. That's before I knew about the Wago type connectors.
10 amps on these? Yow!
Oh i got those a couple of years ago. They started melting after i used them for a few things. They are still around and come in use every now and then.
I bought some of these a couple of years ago and they're fine for testing. I would never use them for anything permanent. Neither would I use Wagos. I am often surprised at some of the types of connectors used in permanent installations. Of particular note is UK assembled stuff, but then UK is a proponent of the absurd and dangerous "ring main" system. I have even seen connectors similar to wagos used on PCBs in German-made space heaters.
I do work on imported caravans to make them meet the standards we have in the antipodes; and, I must say, there's no cause for bragging that "it's designed (or made) in Europe".
Glad to see someone warning people of the limitations of these things; well done. Though I would've thought that anyone knowing how to connect electrical items, would be able to figure out that these are not going to be able to carry any reasonable current or used as a permanent connection.
I think the SS should electrolytically protect the copper in damp situations. Though anyone who uses any type of open (or unsealed) connection in that situation needs to rethink what they're doing with their time.
As a Sparky, if I see them in a supplied light fitting, they go straight in the bin!!
Those springs press that copper lead against plastic. When current goes through that junction it gets hot and melt that plastic. An automatic thermal fuse...
I bought some of these from eBay years ago. I'm not sure if they were exactly the same but the ones I received gripped the wire so loosely they weren't suitable even for low voltage low current. I'm SO GLAD I eventually found the Wago terminals.
They resemble, in shape, to the old fahnstock connectors on our crystal receivers. Plagued with intermittent contact, we were frequently wiggling them. Love the content! senior from Toronto
Corrosion resistant North American plugs and receptacles use stainless steel contacts. They're required for use in Weather Resistant (WR) receptacles used outdoors. I think there are different kinds of stainless steel, so it's likely a higher quality stainless steel for use with receptacles.
Really handy for us hobbyists for our models to add lighting 👍
I first came across these things, in an "LED conversation kit" for a kind of DD bulkhead fitting. The idea was that you rip out the balast for the fluorescent tube, pop in the led panel, and then use one of these to connect to the power. At the time I didn't have any alternative, but like you I concluded that it's not really a high power application, and it's well out of the way inside the light fitting. It's not brilliant but it's probably OK as long as no one messes about with it. I definitely wouldn't want to use them on anything with more power.
A potentially serious flaw with this design is the plastic being under constant tension. Unless reinforced, plastics love to fail under tension; a good example are screw caps on containers that eventually crack from being constantly tightened. Cheers.
Oh good, I have always wanted those to connect up my big 3-phase water boiler, spot on.....
I recently had to diagnose a light fitting failier for a family member, the fitting was rated for a 40w bulb but someone had put a 150w bulb in it and it stopped working shortly after, I found the fault was with this style connector, the cable had started to spark and had eroded a lovely semicircle into the spring, I told them the fitting had failed and got them one rated for the light output they required and fitted a propper 30a junction box (nice beefy screw terminals, love it), great video BC
If you use them for what they are intended for, no problem. Great inexpensive design. I use them with my breadboarding and low current/voltage connectons. Of course there are always the folks who put pennies into fuse boxes.
Normally in 230V circuits you are not permitted to connect wires together in such a way that plastic parts are responsible for connection pressure! The fact it is just metal spring in plastic housing means as soon as temperature creeps up over 120-150°C most plastics are coming into their respective "plasticity" temp zone and just derom, give in = higher connection resistance hence exacerbate the temp issues further -it's a thermal self sustaining catastophy. It's a fire hazard waiting for "that day".
Examples from real life: All it takes is one capacitor put in the wrong way; Because of current limiting features prior -the capacitor would not blow, just conduct alot and make a heckton of heat that totally charred the insides of this particular product we where manufacturing. The casing became partially soft and melty... and stinking.. ooh the stank of plastic and circuit boards past boiling point approaching flash point is not nice. The product was actually working fine for well over 20 mins... well, except the display could not be read anymore because a black cloud of burnt plastic soot covered it on inside.
Luckily for us these products never had a chance of reaching acustomer because of a lenghty in-house testing before packing. If a product just been subjected to just a quick test no one would notice until the smoke/potential fire would seep out 20-30 mins in first time use. (During testing no actual fuses where even hurt, and the staff took an paid hour off for the test area to be ventilated)
The problem was traced back to the capacitor batch on the tape reel in PCB manufacturing being taped with polarity flipped compared to normal. So we had 1000's of PCB in manufacturing that now needed manual work to desolder and flip capacitor polarity.
Had this product been connected with these "spring load onto plastic" connectors they would create an extra issue, wires under tension crammed in a tight compartment, residential ceiling light fixture as example, it might break free and do whatever, hopefully the connection would just sever before setting house on fire.
Thanks for another great video, I believe that you are onto a valid point re corrosion due to dissimilar metals in a humid/ damp atmosphere, and even more of an issue in installations/ fittings in locations closer to sea shores, on sea going vessels. The latter examples will most certainly lead to corrosion over time between the copper cable and the steel spring which will degrade /raise the effective contact impedance over time resulting into contact failures. Such failure would be worsened if thinner than minimum recommend copper guage conductors are used.
These things are very useful for applications where you need to change wires quickly.
I've used these in telephone wire when I need to change line fast.
These are REALLY useful for low-voltage prototyping (i.e. arduino & co)
you can easily stuff multiple wires into the connector, then connect that via breadboard wire to a breadboard.
they can also handle much higher power than a breadboard, and you can buy a LOT of them cheaply.
the WAGO-like clamp terminals are way too stiff for such usage
WAGOs are useful for high-voltage low-amp power in hard-to-reach places
i.e. lighting modules and fans installed into the ceiling and such.
Yeah, I also bought them long ago. It was definitely alarming that the sellers claimed that they could handle high current and voltage. It's hard to warn people though when you can't tell them the actual voltage and current something can handle. They are a clever design though for the price. I like the screw down ones that are the same size better though. I've seen videos of electricians opening up boxes and being horrified to see these connectors in them, often the connector is burnt. I just got wago like connectors, would definitely use them instead for seriois projects. I'd probably limit current to about 1 amp with these connectors, but sooner or later I'll use my thermal camera to see how hot they get. I knew dissimilar metals cause problems, but never learned a lot of details. Good topics to bring up.
If they rate them at 10 amps I would suspect it's only about 2 amps max.
The stainless steel would also interact badly with aluminum wiring as well.
I’m sure it will happily handle 10A……
At 1V for a half second every hour. :|
@@ZaphodHarkonnenvoltage doesnt matter
A similar analysis of pcb screw terminals would be useful, the ones which are just a piece of spring steel held down with a screw.
Many are completely useless compared to the rising clamp type.
The ones with the metal leaf do press the wire down onto a suitable alloy. I do prefer the rising clamp type.
Interesting Clive. The cross sectional area of the centre of the steel part is significantly reduced by the hole through it and, as copper is about 20 times more conductive than stainless steel, I'd guess that 10A through that connector will cause significant (over?)heating at the centre - it would be good to test it and see if you have a 10A power supply.
Just saw those for the first time today while installing an LED panel. Nice to know a bit more information about them.
Look good for temporary fixing nothing too important, thanks Clive be great to see you run them through there paces current wise 😊
Good to see what not to use highlighted!
Keep up the good work fella and, as always, stay safe!
According to the reduction potentials chart, iron and copper form a cell of around 0.75V. In North America, where we have the fun of aluminum wiring, aluminum and copper form a 2V potential which is why you cannot mix them.
I will sate that I am very surprised by the build quality, it's actually built much better than I thought. It also has synchronous rectification on board as well. It's got a lot more in there than I thought would be in it.
I discovered these and I use them in place of alligator clip leads when lashing prototype circuits together on the bench. They hold much better and you don't have the wiring rats nest due to long leads all over the bench. They have very little conductor exposed too. Much neater hook ups. Neatness counts for added safety on your bench especially when working with mains pixies. I never even considered using these for permanent mains connectivity applications. Great PSA.
I've seen these used as a "tool-less" wiring solution for a low-voltage HVAC device. I'm totally with you Clive, I definitely wouldn't trust them for mains voltage or high power.
That being said, I would love to see them tested to failure.
Although "less than ideal" for 240v high load, these are nevertheless excellent for 12v / 3v modelmaking applications, along with the silicone grease - filled K series IDC connectors, especially at LED voltages (3v). I use these a lot for initial wiring test / set-up, prior to final connection via the K connectors.
I've learned to fear connections wrapped in yards and yards of insulating tape; anything under the tape WILL be a bodge! If it's on a 240 volt circuit, I turn off the supply first, as at least one live wire will be exposed when I take the tape off. In my brother's old house they didn't use insulating tape or even actual terminals when they took a spur off the ring; they thought twisting the ends together and "insulating" the connections with some adhesive fabric tape, the type you find in a first aid box, was a much better idea!
I've bought this type before from Ebay and I won't use them on mains wiring anywhere. I've only used them with low voltage led strips when I'm testing rgb leds and need to remove the wires easily. Good video again Clive. 👍
You have maybe a 0.5mm^2 contact patch between the bite and wire, so about 5A at best. With a Wago 221 or similar, you have contact on at least two sides and one of those sides will have at least three contact points.
I was using one of them with a small (12V 4Ah) LiFePO4 battery to test some T5 and T10 LEDs that I had just soldered some leads to. I accidentally shorted the leads together when trying to test two of the bulbs at the same time and quickly discovered what happens on this connectors when you run too much current through them. I don't know exactly the value that is "too much", but I definitely know what happens when it is well above that value. The spring clip actually acts as a *fuse*... If you look at the clip, you will see a hole in the middle of it, so there is only a small portion on each side of the hole for the current to flow through. I ended up with a small flash and then the connector no longer had power on the other end of it. I cut it apart to dissect it and discovered that the two side pieces had melted on both clips.
If the pipe that is pushed into that fitting sweats (as cold water pipes do on hot, humid days) the water can easily run into the area where the stainless is. That said, galvanic corrosion occurs most when the dissimilar metals are farther apart on the galvanic scale and some stainless alloys are pretty close to copper on the scale so if attention was paid to selecting which stainless was used there shouldn't be much to worry about.
These wiring connectors could be useful for temporary connections when experimenting if nothing else.
Here in NA there are lots of copper to steel connections that are perfectly safe and legal. IIRC in the UK/Ireland most of the connection I remember from the 1960s were copper to brass. I also remember a lot of those being engulfed in a green crust. Perhaps thing have changed.
In Central and Eastern European countties most houses bult in the early 1990s or before and not renovated have aluminium wiring with the wires being connected simply by twisting them with pliers and wrapping them in tape. It lasts decades when done properly.
I bought a bunch of them: the specifications gave them for a million amps and I used them freely to test my projects.
Very useful..... but when one melted and caught fire with less than 1 ampere at 12V I reconsidered my philosophy. (it was a tiny 10 Watt ceramic heater with thin single core wires, almost 0 contact surface)
Only for low voltage signals.
I've seen people use them for home wiring: bad move.
a million amps? That's how you know it's extra sketchy
I got a few of these not long ago from a wee backalley hobby store. They're convenient for prototyping projects, quickly connecting random things on my work bench to check if its even going to work, before I put the effort into soldering it all.
That's about the only use I've found for them so far..
If you understand that these comes with three connectors is because the ground wire is supposed to go inbetween. Any fast connector with any insulator will fail eventually through age.
Have you seen those old wartime self soldering connectors, where they stick two ends of wire inside and scrape across it like a strike-on-box match to set off the firey bits and hopefully create a solid connection for various engineering & de-engineering... really interesting kit
Different metals are definitely a concern. And the comparison with the copper pipe fitting shows that it may be okay, but not all stainless steel is the same and the different alloys behave differently.
I build a lot of custom Bluetooth speakers and other audio stuff, and I use these all the time for quick circuit tests/etc. I wouldn’t use them for anything remotely permanent, but for quick connect tests and whatnot they work great!
The fact that the clamping is against plastic instead of a metal strip at the top... once any heat is involved it would become a run-away as the tension is lost while the heated wire softens the plastic it is clamped to... loosening the clamping, leading to higher resistance, further softening the plastic and so on unti you are lucky and it disconnects, or unlucky and find out whether the plastic is flame retardant... and the rest of whatever this is tucked into...
Looks to be ok for model railway circuitry. They run at typically 12-20v DC or AC and are usually only running at milli-amps.
Cant say id use those even for minor projects, i'm quite fond of my 12/24v Barrel Jack connectors.
I've just taken down a number of LED light fixtures that had similar connectors - can't say the same but they would have been cheap as the whole light fixture was cheap. After a couple of years in situ with heat from the lights all the connectors were brittle and broke before I could remove the wires. I had to use a small flat bladed screwdriver to release the wire. As they say - you get what you pay for.
I use these for my model railway wiring 15V max. They work really well for that, I wouldn't consider them for anything else.
Thanks for this! As earlier said in here, I'd love to see a proper test of these with high current load, not only mains, also 5V, 12V or 24V, since people generally use that for LEDs and tend not to think of current issues if the voltage is low.
I agree, a 50W load at 12V is 10 times the current (4.2A) than 50W at 120V. With 12V they will melt, with mains they could pass the current OK but wouldn't trust safety either in terms of arcing, insulation and fire resistance.
We've been using stainless steel bolts on copper/brass/bronze/aluminium connections in the power industry in the UK for years, both outside and indoors with no issues.
OK for the specific corrosion resistant steel alloys intended for electrical connections. Risky when unknown alloys are in cheap Chinese products.
In 100-120V countries they use the same 14 AWG (1.5mm diameter) wire in lighting as they do on any normal 15 amp breaker. 20 amp breakers need to use 12 AWG (2mm diameter) but they aren't usually for lighting.
These are used in lighting fixtures at mains voltages where load currents are only a few hundred milliamps.
I have literally JUST put up a new light fitting that has one of these 3 way connectors… looks like I need to replace!
Those connectors are actually pretty reasonable for led light fixtures, since leds draw barely any current. I installed loads of PIR led lamps fitted with those connectors from factory, and it's always the motion sensor circuitry failing rather than mains connectors. And they work reasonably well for old aluminum wiring.
the metal part is obviously that special metal "Chinesesium" comes in many forms of copper, I got those a good few years ago and would just use them on LOW voltage temporary projects 🙂
i got a led light kitchen lamp recently and it came with one of those but i must say i am much more comfortable with the older "screw" type
Stainless steel is considered to be a neutral metal when used for lighnig rods here in Germany. You can clamp copper or aluminium with it without getting corrosion issues.
I have some of those! I use them purely for low voltage DC temporary connections in the lab, where the one-handed springy squeeze disconnect is a boon.
If you like, try taking a stainless insert from one and a bit of copper wire, and see which becomes positive when they are dipped (just the end away from the test clips of course) into a mild acid or salt solution. The anode is, I believe, the one that suffers.
Interesting test.
Use in high humidity and or salt laden air will increase galvanic growth. And as others have mentioned and you have shown, the plastic breaks down any way.
At 4:43 I was glad to see that you didn't push your finger any further into the elbow. It can be quite painful but amusing for anyone watching.
For use in logic signal electronics, id imagine these are super useful. Sending 5v 0.2A through these is probably mega safe
Idea for followup video: Connect to 15A heating load. Use timer. Monitor with infrared camera. Fire extinguisher ready.
I served my electrical apprenticeship in late 1980’s. All electrical accessories were stringently regulated and were improving rapidly from previous decades. This evolution saw high quality British made products with design born from many years of experience. Equipment was robust and was tried and tested. The last few years have seen a huge influx of products from Europe which have evolved to facilitate speed of installation. Some products are good, some not so much. Coupled with the mass production from the far east leaves me feeling that the industry is sleep walking into disaster. We are loosing the connection to huge knowledge base that was compiled by electrical engineers of a soon to be forgotten era. As circuit protection methods improve, we seem to be neglecting the necessity of circuit integrity. Perhaps I’m too old 🤷♂️
We're definitely going backwards, with deskilling for profit so that unskilled labour can be used to do electrical work with "qualifications" that are more like a liability transfer document.
I have these and they are mainly usable in testing connections and such, I would never use them in electrical installations because I do not want my connections to fail or my house to burn down.
The wire joiners. I've been using them for over 4yrs now.
DC 12v, 3amps, 1hr, temp increased 2° C above ambient.
Cheerz Clive.
Wago and other good ones are fine, but I've used the exact same type as in the video and they certainly can't cope with 3 Amps, give it a bit longer the plastic will deform, connection worsen then melt.
The science is right there.
Maybe you got a different batch or brand.
Here in the states, we use these for electrically fired fireworks.
Aside from the galvanic corrosion when unpowered in a wet or damp environment I would also be concerned about the problem of metal ion migration when used for DC power wiring. Essentially the equivalent of electroplating, the effect is that depending on the specific metals, the voltage drop and contaminants one side or the other will have the copper slowly being transferred away which is especially dangerous when the 'copper' is a thin plating on steel as is common in Chinese electrical devices, like led lighting fixtures.
A colleague who has a tendancy to buy stuff from wosh et all because its cheap has used this in his shop lighting. The ones he had left were presented to me for use at Great Dorset 2019, most of them went in the bin, we did use a few for 100v line audio though
Glowing feedback is what you'd get if you push proper amperage through these.
I got one of these for a light fixture and ended up not using it. Glad i made the right choice for the job tho 🤙
I've bought a few of these for 12v low voltage projects and they were okay. I tried using them to connect 18v solar panels together. Much less good. They melt a little, but seem to have contact continuously regardless of the plastic shield evaporating.
I definitely see these coming with home LED light fixtures. I installed a bunch of LED light fixtures around my house last year, and most of them came with these. I had no idea what they were at the time and instead just used the old style wire twist caps that's been around seemingly forever.
For high voltage applications, they're probably fine since you're not putting many amps through it, especially with LED lights.
Funny to see these. Had them on an led batten light from screwfix and wickes few weeks ago. Broke it within 5 seconds pushing the earth in. Made me so angry how cheap and unsafe they felt. Ended up treating myself to some wagos, and will never go back