Extending neutrals with WAGO's in the socket

[Lukaszbjj]

Hi the other day I opened the socket just to find out that 2 neutral wires were damaged with visible copper so I decided to cut them short and put in WAGO 221 and extend just one cable that went back to the socket, and now Im thinking if it's correct or maybe should I extend each wire separately, The socket was in radial and it was basically second last socket, the last one was just above should I worry? Im a newly qualified electrician and as long as I know wagos can be used in sockets if they are accessible which sockets are in that group.

Thanks

 

[Lister1987]

Hi the other day I opened the socket just to find out that 2 neutral wires were damaged with visible copper so I decided to cut them short and put in WAGO 221 and extend just one cable that went back to the socket, and now Im thinking if it's correct or maybe should I extend each wire separately, The socket was in radial and it was basically second last socket, the last one was just above should I worry? Im a newly qualified electrician and as long as I know wagos can be used in sockets if they are accessible which sockets are in that group.

Thanks

Where is the socket before this one in the radial? If it's accessible I'd be inclined to renew that leg of wiring with new, rather than extending with Wago/ideal/crimps.

 

[Lukaszbjj]

Sadly there is no way to renew the entire cable as it was behind that white wall you can see in the pic. Replacing the cable means I would have to damage the wall. I just need to know if it's safe and meets the regs. The other guy told me to put tape on the damaged wires which in my opinion would be plain stupid.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

If the conductors were long enough and only the insulation was damaged, I would probably have put heat-shrink sleeving over the damage and avoided making joints. Good quality thick-wall sleeving can provide equivalent insulation to the original, although not all heat-shrink sold in electrical wholesalers is really up to the task. Tape is a bodge, although if carefully and correctly applied one can insulate things quite well with tape (it is an art that takes practice, not just slapping a few turns around.)

If the conductors were too short then I would extend with Wagos as you have done. In theory, the correct approach is to extend each conductor separately to the socket, but the length is so short that it makes a negligible difference to the resistance and won't cause any problems with testing, to make a tee joint with just one single conductor to the socket as shown in your pic. That reduces the total number of joints. One argument with a circuit that appears to be an unbranched radial is that there should not be any hidden branches in the CPC, so that a single test of CPC at the furthest point should run through all connections upstream and prove continuity throughout. Had this been the CPC, I would probably have been more specific to joint the two cables separately to reach the socket.

As mentioned by @Lister1987, it's better to replace where possible. I would imagine that at least the cable to the socket above could be replaced within minutes, leaving just the inaccessible upstream leg to be jointed.

 

[Lukaszbjj]

If the conductors were long enough and only the insulation was damaged, I would probably have put heat-shrink sleeving over the damage and avoided making joints. Good quality thick-wall sleeving can provide equivalent insulation to the original, although not all heat-shrink sold in electrical wholesalers is really up to the task. Tape is a bodge, although if carefully and correctly applied one can insulate things quite well with tape (it is an art that takes practice, not just slapping a few turns around.)

If the conductors were too short then I would extend with Wagos as you have done. In theory, the correct approach is to extend each conductor separately to the socket, but the length is so short that it makes a negligible difference to the resistance and won't cause any problems with testing, to make a tee joint with just one single conductor to the socket as shown in your pic. That reduces the total number of joints. One argument with a circuit that appears to be an unbranched radial is that there should not be any hidden branches in the CPC, so that a single test of CPC at the furthest point should run through all connections upstream and prove continuity throughout. Had this been the CPC, I would probably have been more specific to joint the two cables separately to reach the socket.

As mentioned by @Lister1987, it's better to replace where possible. I would imagine that at least the cable to the socket above could be replaced within minutes, leaving just the inaccessible upstream leg to be jointed.

Thanks, as a new electrician Im trying to keep things as safe as possible, and don't know why I didn't come up with the idea of at least replacing the short-run cable but well for the next time I will be more cautious. Also other electrician once I've cut damaged cables came to do tests on it and it was fine. Before rcbo wouldn't even let him get ON, I think the damaged neutrals were touching the back box and once I've done that it worked so the guy just came to test it after. I'm asking here for safety reasons because it bugged me for a few days if what I've done was actually safe. Still in the process of learning and as I said making things safe is the most important for me as an electrician.

 

[IAmSparkytus!]

Don’t have sleepless nights thinking about it. There’s no safety issue whatsoever for you to worry about.

 

[Lukaszbjj]

Don’t have sleepless nights thinking about it. There’s no safety issue whatsoever for you to worry about.

thanks and that exactly what I was doing for the past few days ^^

 

[brianmoooore]

Absolutely fine, and shows you are thinking rather than blindly following regs.
I think there's someone on here who claims that he always connects sockets like this. Something to do with testing before second fix.

 

[DPG]

Absolutely fine, and shows you are thinking rather than blindly following regs.
I think there's someone on here who claims that he always connects sockets like this. Something to do with testing before second fix.

Don't say his name 3 times for flips sake!

 

[timhoward]

If anything, using a 221 was the polite and slightly apologetic method.
I reckon most would use a 2273 because it's cheaper, smaller, and would make the next sparks to open it swear even more!

 

[littlespark]

Why sockets above the other and not side by side?
Could get a little crowded with appliance flexes dangling in front of switches of the lower socket.

 

[cliffed]

In cases like these the easiest option is usually taken.. if the cable can’t be replaced or the client not paying the wago’s are the way to go