It means the manufacturer used lousy crimp connectors. It's not easy to find
the good ones. The solid colored ones that you see in most places tend to be
cheaper, and turn brittle easily especially when exposed to high
temperatures. Then, there are the translucent ones - same color codes as the
others, but much more flexible at a wide range of temperatures. I wish I
recalled the brand. The wires will melt before those crimps will cause
problems.


"Bob" wrote in message
...
Some heaters come with crimped wire connections. I assume they have a
pretty
good tool. I've seen them turn black after a few years. It looked to me
like
they were burnt. Just because something is approved, doesn't mean it's
safe.

"Mr_bill" wrote in message
oups.com...
I need some wiring advice. I have managed to survive
until now just using wire nuts for my home projects, but
I am at the point where it would be nice to use crimp connections
in a switch or outlet box, connecting 14 or 12 ga copper
wire.

Here's my question. When I go to Home Depot, all they
carry for crimp sleeves appear to be made out of copper
or some copper alloy. Anyway, these sleeves are pretty
soft. They deform pretty easily (too easily, I imagine),
and they fail my pull test. To top it off, the crimping tools
at HD are pretty cheesy.

My only experience crimping wire is non-electrical, but there
you use a "swaging tool" and a steel crimp sleeve. Once it's
set properly, it's almost as strong as the wire.

So far, I've just been staying away from electrical crimping,
as I don't want to burn the house down, but it would be very useful
to be able to do some safe crimp connections.

Any advice gratefully accepted.