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How to distinguish a good self-clamping terminal block from a fake

There are several ways to connect the conductors of wires and cables. Each of them is characterized by its advantages and disadvantages. Recently, a way of connecting conductors with the help of terminal blocks wago. Many people prefer this method of connecting conductors due to such an advantage as ease of connection.

Using these terminal blocks, the process of wiring is greatly simplified: to connect the conductors, you do not need a special tool, nor do you need special skills and experience in conducting electrical work.

WAGO terminal blocks for electrical work

Wago terminals come in several series, each of which has its own design features and method of clamping conductors. The easiest to install are the Wago 773 series self-clamping terminals and the more compact 2273 series terminals. To connect the conductor to the self-clamping terminals, you need to strip it and simply insert it into the terminal block hole until it stops. Contact connection is ready.

As for reliability, judging by customer reviews and test results, it follows that these terminals fully comply with the declared characteristics, namely the rated load current. But it often happens that the wiring installed using these terminal blocks fails.

The main reason is the use of non-original terminal blocks, fakes that do not withstand the specified load current and for this reason fail. How to distinguish a good self-clamping terminal block from a fake?

Firstly, it is necessary to buy terminals exclusively from Wago official representatives and distribution partners. In order to find out the address of the store in your city, you need to go to the official Wago website and see a list of distribution partners in a particular city.

If your city does not have Wago partners, then it is highly likely that in stores specializing in the sale of electrical products, you may be sold a fake that does not match the characteristics of the original terminals. How in this case to check the quality of the terminals?

Electrical installation with self-locking terminal blocks

First of all, it is necessary to turn to the terminal housing. The following data should be shown on it: series, range of acceptable values of the connected conductors, the length of stripping of the connected conductor from insulation, as well as the Wago logo. In addition, the indicated data must correspond to the ones declared by the manufacturer for one or another terminal block of the series.

Therefore, before purchasing the terminals, it is recommended to go to the official website of the manufacturer and select the necessary terminal blocks of a particular series and their corresponding parameters, as well as color, in the product catalog.

You should also pay attention to the presence in the terminals of the test holes characteristic of the original product for test leads, windows for checking the sufficiency of stripping the insulation from the connected conductor.

In addition, the part of the case of the self-clamping terminal block must be transparent so that when connecting the conductors, you can visually verify the reliability and correctness of the contact connection.

If the type of self-clamping terminal block provides for the connection of aluminum conductors, then you need to make sure that it contains a special Alu-Plus paste, which removes the oxidation film from the connected aluminum conductors, and also prevents its reappearance during operation contact resistance.

The above recommendations regarding the selection of original products are subjective, since it is possible to draw a conclusion about the reliability of the terminal strip only on the basis of personal experience in its operation or when conducting appropriate electrical tests.

In addition to the above, it should be noted that the reliability of contact connections of electrical wiring made using self-clamping terminal blocks can be ensured only subject to the rules and recommendations for connecting and operating a particular type of terminal. Therefore, very often an erroneous conclusion is made about the unreliability of the terminals, and in fact the reason for their damage was their incorrect connection or the lack of proper protection of the wiring section from possible overloads.

See also at i.electricianexp.com:

Wago terminal blocks in home wiring

Terminal blocks for connecting wires, junction boxes and din ...

How are the WAGO terminal blocks arranged?

Wago terminals: types, characteristics, how to choose and how to use it correctly

Terminal blocks for connecting wires and cables

Comments:

# 1 wrote: Rome | [quote]

A year ago, I used self-locking terminal blocks and lost money. I had to redo the apartment again. Most of the terminal blocks were heated, but in the kitchen they were generally burned out, the reason was the poor contact of the wiring in the contact. Therefore, now I completely do not trust these terminal blocks. Completely switched to a welded joint. Of course it takes a lot of time, but it works fine and has not failed yet.

Comments:

# 2 wrote: | [quote]

So even under Tsar Gorokh they still talked about the fact that the avaricious pays twice.

Comments:

# 3 wrote: Marina | [quote]

Thanks for the information.

Comments:

# 4 wrote: | [quote]

Nikolay,
Considering the prices for these terminal blocks, they can’t afford it, the crimping will get cheaper there. The sleeve can be divided into two halves.

Comments:

# 5 wrote: MaksimovM | [quote]

Vladimir, the cheapest and at the same time reliable option is soldering. For crimping, it is necessary to purchase sleeves and have the appropriate tool. And almost everyone in the household has a soldering iron and solder.

Comments:

# 6 wrote: Victor | [quote]

And I use Wago, great terminal blocks! ..
For experiments, in other cases - soldering.

Comments:

# 7 wrote: | [quote]

The author correctly expressed his attitude towards the terminal blocks as subjective. I would say that it is very subjective. Most often, of course, I use welding, but when you need a “quick” connection on conditionally low-current (up to 10A) sections, the use of terminal blocks is more than justified. And besides Wago, there is, for example, a very good TDM brand - workmanship at a height, the contact area is even larger than in a car. So I do not agree with the author’s slogan "wagon and only wagon." True, saving on TDM will not work out much, the price usually differs from Wago by 10-15%, but when there is no car, then TDM can be used safely.

Comments:

# 8 wrote: | [quote]

Do you want to sleep peacefully, then only welding and no terminal blocks. Expert specialist 20 years of practice.

In general, it is necessary to carry out electrical installation in accordance with the approved project, based on the calculations of the consumed fixed load and in accordance with the wire cross section and automatic protection (automatic machines) designed for this load. Powerful consumers (for example, a water heater) are best connected without a distributor box with a cable from the panel through a differential machine from the panel to the outlet.

Comments:

# 9 wrote: | [quote]

I usually advise you to kill two birds with one stone. We clean the single-core wires as for twisting, index finger, then put on WAGO and do twisting, twist by the connector. Next, isolate, as usual. True, I always solder, and WAGO only fixtures, very convenient. Powerful consumers as the previous comment. A distribution box in the rosettes in the sense.

Comments:

# 10 wrote: MaksimovM | [quote]

Andrew, I believe that it is better to choose one of the methods - either twist the twist and solder it, or just Wago terminals. If you twist the twist according to your recommendation, then there will be no sense from the Wago connector, since during the twisting process the contact loosens or the connector simply collapses from the mechanical action of the twisted cores.

Comments:

# 11 wrote: | [quote]

When soldering with tin at the time of loading or overloading, the temperature difference of copper and tin is different (tin is melted and a gap results in loosely twisted wires), and self-clamping terminal blocks have not yet come up with a good clamping mechanism (all types of mechanisms overheat faster than copper). Everything written is based on practical experiments.

Comments:

# 12 wrote: MaksimovM | [quote]

Nikolay, the problem of poor soldering of the twist can be easily solved by pre-tinning the connected conductors. We twist the tinned conductors into a twist and they are very quickly soldered, while during the soldering process, when the conductors are heated, the solder spreads throughout the twist, fills all the voids and a very reliable contact connection is obtained.

Comments:

# 13 wrote: Sergei | [quote]

For many years I have been soldering twists in mounts. gas burner boxes - quickly, conveniently and accurately. Flux-rosin on water is sold for radio components and tin 2-3 mm. I WRITCH 5-6 cm, twist the tip quite firmly 1-2 cm very strongly using 2 pliers. When soldering, water evaporates the rosin remains and for the connection there is no risk of corrosion. Tin flows between the twisting wires, isolating the contact point. about the heating of the roll above the pace. melting tin -automatons should correspond to the cross-section. in particularly critical places you can also test with a sleeve.