Wirenuts vs. Wagos in a house built in 1972 - no contest

I spent last weekend rewiring a 1972 ranch near Cincinnati and swapped an old junction box that had wirenuts older than me. Everything was solid but taking those things off and redoing them took forever. On the next floor I used Wagos and finished the same number of connections in under half the time. I get that some guys swear by wirenuts for permanence, but for service work Wagos are way easier to troubleshoot later. Has anyone else noticed a big time difference switching over or am I just slow with wirenuts?

2 comments

2 Comments

henry_webb681mo ago

Man, I used to be a total wirenut purist. Thought Wagos were some kind of gimmick for lazy people, you know? But last year I had to redo a bunch of old 1970s can lights and gave them a shot. That time difference is REAL. Pulling those old wirenuts off and cleaning up the corrosion was taking me forever, but with Wagos I just clipped and clicked. It honestly changed my mind completely.

wadea531mo ago

My 1978 house had brown wirenuts that were basically fused to the copper. I spent a whole Saturday just fighting with them on a single ceiling fan swap. Wagos saved me like two hours on that project alone. Corrosion is no joke in old wiring and clipping fresh copper is way easier than scraping it clean. I still use wirenuts for big gauge stuff where Wagos don't fit but for standard 14 and 12 gauge its Wagos every time now. Time is money and I'd rather not sweat over connections in an attic.