My old foreman told me to always pigtail my neutrals. I thought he was being picky.

I was wiring up a bunch of can lights in a house over in Oak Park last week. I didn't see the point in making extra splices, so I just used the screw terminals on the fixtures. After I got the third light up and tested it, the first one flickered and went dead. I pulled it down and found the neutral screw had loosened up from the vibration. I ended up taking every light back down and pigtailing all of them like he said. Has anyone else had a neutral screw back out on them on a job?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_ward511mo ago

Boy howdy, you just reminded me of a whole thing I saw happen on a new build a couple years back. The trim guys were rushing and used the backstab holes on some outlets instead of pigtailing, and I swear half the neutral wires were dancing around loose when we started flipping breakers. It's not just vibration either, it's thermal cycling from the lights heating up and cooling down that makes those screws wanna walk right out on you. Pigtailing is one of those things where it feels like extra work until you're crawling through an attic trying to find the one neutral that decided to ghost the whole circuit.

julia_burns91mo ago

Aw man, I gotta push back a little here! I've been using backstab connections on outlets for years in my own house and rentals and never had a single issue. If you strip the wire right and push it in fully, it's a solid connection that doesn't come loose. The real problem is usually bad installation or cheap outlets, not the method itself. Plus pigtailing adds extra wire nuts and takes way longer, so for a quick job on a standard circuit it's totally fine if you know what you're doing. A properly seated backstab connection can handle vibration and temperature changes just as well as a screw terminal.

the_jason1mo ago

Right, and you know those wires didn't ghost the circuit, they just went out for cigarettes and never came back. Classic move.