Everybody raves about Wagos but I had a different experience on a service call

I went to a house in Cleveland last month where the homeowner had redone most of their basement with Wagos on everything. Twenty minutes in I found a loose connection on a three-wire splice that was already starting to arc. I'm sure they work fine for most people but between that and the cost I still reach for wire nuts and tape most days. Maybe I just got unlucky with that one batch. Anyone else run into Wago failures on existing work?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelrodriguez1d ago

@perez.christopher I get where you're coming from but I see it differently. A loose connection like that sounds more like user error than a Wago problem. People don't always push the lever down all the way or strip the wire right. I've pulled apart hundreds of Wagos on old work and found maybe two bad ones. The arcing thing is serious but that happens with wire nuts too if someone doesn't twist them tight enough. You can't judge a whole product line off one bad install.

perez.christopher1d agoTop Commenter

Honestly I had the same thing happen in a condo downtown last year. Found a Wago on a 12 gauge solid wire that was barely gripping one of the conductors, you could pull it out with no resistance. I'm sure the manufacturing tolerances are fine for most people but that one failure made me lose trust in them for anything critical. Ngl I've gone back to twisting my nuts and wrapping them with tape, just feels more reliable to me.