My old boss in Phoenix insisted on twisting grounds by hand with lineman's pliers.

We'd spend 20 minutes on a panel just making perfect pigtails. After I started my own thing, I bought a Greenlee 1900 ground crimper. It's not as pretty, but it's faster and I'm confident it'll pass inspection every single time. Anyone else make the switch to crimping for grounds in residential panels?

3 comments

3 Comments

lindab4920d ago

Yeah, the whole hand-twisted thing... I get it looks nice, but time is money. Did your old boss ever give a real reason for doing it that way, besides just saying it was the "right" way? I've heard some guys say a tight twist makes a better connection than a crimp, but I've never seen a crimp fail if it's done right.

brooke52020d ago

Wait, you've NEVER seen a crimp fail? Seriously? I watched a whole data center go dark because a cheap crimp connector shook loose over time. The hand-twisted ones with solder we did on the old phone lines? Those things outlasted the building. A crimp is fine until vibration or temperature changes work on it. A proper twisted and soldered joint is basically one solid piece of metal.

ruby_rivera7613d ago

My uncle worked on the old Bell System lines and he showed me the difference. They used a lineman's splice with solder that was basically welded copper. A crimp relies on pressure that can relax, especially with cheap metal that gets brittle. I've pulled apart old telecom boxes where the soldered joints from the 70s were still perfect while the crimps from a 90s upgrade just fell apart. It's not about being fancy, it's about the metal actually becoming one piece.