• halcyoncmdr@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    22 hours ago

    Solder is ideal for a permanent connection. Not all connections need to be permanent. For example, installing lighting in your house where the romex is pulled, and you’re needing to connect the fixture. Solder isn’t used for those connections, it would be a wire nut or wago. And the wago is both more secure and easier to verify.

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      21 hours ago

      Oddly solder isn’t best in most situations. Vibration and/or thermal cycling can cause solder to fail where crimps, wago or twist cannot fail. I learned it from Wil Prowse the solar/whole house battery expert where he compared crimps to solder.

      It seemed obvious in retrospect because I have fixed many old electronics where the problem was a cold solder joint that needed a touch up with a soldering iron. Decades of thermal cycling from use cause micro fractures in the solder that get worse and worse.

      • pelya@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        16 hours ago

        By the time your wire reaches 200⁰ needed for your solder to melt, your insulation would already be burning. That’s not a plausible scenario, or you need to deliberately make a bad solder joint, cutting half the strands in the wire so it overheats in that particular place.

        • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          13 hours ago

          No, this is not true. Solder is brittle and any poor joint can cause a lot of heat. You should never use solder in household wiring.

          Crimps, screw terminals, or properly rated electrical connectors only.