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Old timer told me to stop using wire nuts on landscape lighting
Some guy who's been doing outdoor lighting for 30 years in Phoenix said I was wasting my time with wire nuts on low voltage stuff because they corrode in like a year out here. I ignored him and sure enough 8 months later half the lights were flickering from bad connections at the splices. Anyone else switch to those silicone-filled connectors for outdoor 12v work?
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annas8726d ago
Hold up, did that submerged connector actually stay sealed? I'm in Mesa and we get dust storms that turn into mud when the rain hits, and I've had regular silicone connectors still let grit in somehow. Did you have to do anything special to prep the wire before shoving it into those gel ones, or did you just strip and push?
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wright.lisa26d ago
8 months? That's actually crazy. I live in Tucson and had the exact same thing happen with a set of path lights I put in. Used regular wire nuts and by the time summer was over I was getting flickering like crazy. It's the heat and the humidity mixed with that dust we get - it just eats the copper up inside those nuts. I switched to those silicone filled ones with the gel inside and they're way better. I actually had one connection that got completely submerged in a puddle after a monsoon and it was still working fine a week later. The old timer was right, those wire nuts just don't hold up in the desert.
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