I've looked at some good push connectors and uh, I thought it'd be time to take a look at some not so good ones. I Mean they're not terrible, but they're not great. And the fact that I got 100 3way connectors shipped for 5 that's everything inclusive suggests that they're going to be very cheap indeed. and they are.

The word copper does not come into play here. So let me show you the principle: Behind These If I zoom up a bit and I've got a cable pre-ripped it's a thin cable cuz these are designed mainly for lighting applications. Unfortunately, some of the feedback suggested that people are using them in their home wiring. Like glowing feedback.

Bargain. Amazing. Great! Just in time for my kitchen refit I Get the feeling that people are using these for much more serious things and they're not suited to that. But the idea is that when you push this in, you may be able to see the little uh Port opening and you can just basically stuff the wire in and and it locks.

It's worth mentioning that there is exposed metal at the side here. it's not as good as the ones that shroud it properly. and there is no copper as I say is literally just a stainless steel Tang that is pushing up against that. and I can show you that because I've taken one apart and I took a picture.

So I shall zoom out a bit for the picture and show you what's inside Focus Down on that. So inside is this little. I'm guessing that it's spring steel? I'm guessing it's kind of stainless steel. It does very, very lightly stick to a powerful magnet.

So I'm getting the feeling it is stainless steel as opposed to um, other metals. but uh, this is slid in from the side, it's pushed in from the end here and there's a little lend stop here during manufacturer that stops at the correct distance and then this blade on top is pushed down. It's got a square shaft and it goes in and it goes through a little hole in there and it locks in place and when you push these down, it basically it's got two little fins here that uh, push that uh spring plate down and allow you to slide the wire in between the Uh fins. and then when you release them, that stainless steel Tang comes up that spring steel Tang comes up and grips the wire but it doesn't go in terribly deep.

I Can probably show you that by uh, grabbing a bit of Wi and just showing you with say, for instance, this is this going to work Put in like that, it's not really showing it, but it's only gripped it by a couple of millimeters. It's less than an eigh of an inch. but that's going to be okay I suppose if I mean it's gripping it, that's the main thing. Um, let's try one of the other connectors cuz unfortunately the listings for these they they rate them at 10 amps so hopefully people will get an idea.

They're not really rated for ring final circuits, but they also say things like suitable for uh, 2.5 mm cable. Is it going to work? It has it's actually pushed in I don't think it'll come out again? Oh, it did come out. What if I just push it in its own without pushing that down. Oh, it does it.

It pushes in and it seems to lock fairly well. That's promising in a way, but not suitable for high current. So I rate these only for lighting type stuff where you've only got maybe one amp or so. they.

it's the sort of thing you'd find inside cheap fluorescent lights and I have to say that uh, some light I got for Studio lighting from CPC did originally come with these as part of the package and it just had a little tiny stub of flex Comm light and one of these for joining onto your chosen cable, but they have since changed to a Wigo style connector. not actually Wigle, but Wigo style now. I Have a question because I wonder about the fact that technically speaking, you're putting copper in here. You've got two dis similar metals and it's not really an issue unless there's water involved.

but I don't know how it's going to change over time. You might actually use some of these, bury it away in a junction box somewhere, and then over time there's going to be potentially a resistance is going to occur. I'm not sure what interaction there is going to be between copper wire and this stainless steel. now.

I Do notice that in these type fittings that you've got this is a Uh 15 mm pipe fitting uh for joining pipes at a right angle and the design is such that you've got the stainless steel tangs in here as she Zoom down this stainless steel tangs and then you've got the little rubber oing behind it. which means that the pipe goes in it pushes past those seals with the rubber uh, o-ring but then because these are on the outside, they're not going to be wet. you couldn't really put them on the inside because uh, if there were submersion was, you would get that electrolytic action H And likewise on this type of Uh fitting, we've got the little em embedded sort of steel teeth in here that bite onto plastic pipe or copper pipe. But then we've got the O-ring at the back there.

So in both these instances, unless it's leaking H it is going to Shield it from water Ingress because that's when you're really going to get issues with electrolytic corrosion. So I'm not really sure the metal experts will be more knowledgeable about this than me, but it is an interesting connector. I Took a look at these like 8 years ago that just that just broke. This is one of the 8-year-old ones.

It just broke. That's a clue. Um, but I Like the fact that the construction is optimized. literally.

you've got this little cap here. you've got the housing and it literally has that little end stop that you just push this in from this end. I Would guess the machine pushes that Tang down the process, pushes it into the end stop and then when this gets press in probably in bulk by a machine, it just locks everything in place. This one has a crack because I've been grinding away it and tempting to open one, but that's basically how they manufacture them so it will be spilling off the end of a machine in.

China H But there we have it. Uh, these connectors. They might be okay inside an enclosure at very low current, but I really wouldn't recommend them for anything like say, a power circuit and uh, they really are just really aimed at uh, fluorescent or LED fixtures the inside of them where there's no risk of them being touched, even a junction box. But that's interesting.

It was, uh, worth taking a look at them. It is interesting to see the options that are available and Ponder where people might actually be using these. Not realizing that there's no Copper at all, it is just Steel on uh, the copper wire that's pushed in and therefore it is going to have a slightly high resistance of the steel itself and also the point of contact since it's not Copper to Copper You might have issues there. So interesting to see what you guys think of that, whether you think there's potentially going to be corrosion issues or interaction between the Uh copper and the stainless steel or the spring steel.

Tang.