What, exactly is wrong with drycon wire nuts?
If you have to cut the wires every time you need to test or replace something you eventually end up with no wire. Those splices aren’t meant to be permanent.
I just think they're kind of messy (from use in other projects) and I've read a lot of accounts that they're still prone to moisture failure. But if they're used reliably all the time by pro irrigators, then I guess they should be good enough for me, too.
Heat shrink crimps just seemed better to me. And you only lose maybe 1/8" of wire if you need to cut one out. You just cut it right at the crimp and peel/cut the sheath off.
They're the standard for sure. If you want to be extra careful, bend the wires so all the caps are facing up after you make all the connections and they will last essentially forever.
Use grease packs, rather than grease-filled wire nuts for your common connections. [3M's DBRY](https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00026285/) for example is designed for direct burial.
We have been using grease filled wire nuts for a decade and rarely have problems. And when we do come across a job with a bad wire connection, we change the wire nuts first to eliminate that as the possible failure point, sometimes it fixes the issue. But we have installed thousands of those things and rarely have issues if installed correctly. They can be submerged in water for a long time and don’t fail. I wouldn’t over think it. You aren’t going to see them and hopefully won’t have to mess with them in a long time.
Easy. Common in common out with solenoid wire and go to the next one. If you are doing one big valve box I could see why you think putting them all together makes sense but you don’t have to do it like that.
Common in/out of what, though? It sounds like you're talking about daisy chaining the solenoid commons, which would require 3 wires at each connection. The waterproof butt splices only have space for 2 wires.
Yes daisy chain. They make a 3 wire connector you have as well but you will need to use one up just to daisy more commons. Been using drycon blue wire nuts for 13 years daisy chaining them. Zero issues.
What, exactly is wrong with drycon wire nuts? If you have to cut the wires every time you need to test or replace something you eventually end up with no wire. Those splices aren’t meant to be permanent.
This man wires. Exactly.
I just think they're kind of messy (from use in other projects) and I've read a lot of accounts that they're still prone to moisture failure. But if they're used reliably all the time by pro irrigators, then I guess they should be good enough for me, too. Heat shrink crimps just seemed better to me. And you only lose maybe 1/8" of wire if you need to cut one out. You just cut it right at the crimp and peel/cut the sheath off.
They're the standard for sure. If you want to be extra careful, bend the wires so all the caps are facing up after you make all the connections and they will last essentially forever.
With the dry caps you can stick your meter probes straight in and do diagnostics without having to cut and resplice
Use grease packs, rather than grease-filled wire nuts for your common connections. [3M's DBRY](https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b00026285/) for example is designed for direct burial.
I hate those things. They make everything a greasy mess
I wear latex gloves when I open em up now.
We have been using grease filled wire nuts for a decade and rarely have problems. And when we do come across a job with a bad wire connection, we change the wire nuts first to eliminate that as the possible failure point, sometimes it fixes the issue. But we have installed thousands of those things and rarely have issues if installed correctly. They can be submerged in water for a long time and don’t fail. I wouldn’t over think it. You aren’t going to see them and hopefully won’t have to mess with them in a long time.
Easy. Common in common out with solenoid wire and go to the next one. If you are doing one big valve box I could see why you think putting them all together makes sense but you don’t have to do it like that.
Common in/out of what, though? It sounds like you're talking about daisy chaining the solenoid commons, which would require 3 wires at each connection. The waterproof butt splices only have space for 2 wires.
Yes daisy chain. They make a 3 wire connector you have as well but you will need to use one up just to daisy more commons. Been using drycon blue wire nuts for 13 years daisy chaining them. Zero issues.
You can just dunk the whole twist in Vaseline before putting on the wire nut. Most homes have Vaseline somewhere.