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**It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods.
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Poor connection. This happens when you don't line up your wires properly in the wire nut. Doing so can do one of two things:
The wire nuts have a metal corkscrew in them that bonds the conductors together. If the wires are poorly aligned then it could cause electricity to flow wire to corkscrew to wire instead of just wire to wire. This can cause the wire nut to heat up and melt.
The second, and I think more likely option, is that due to the misalignment of wires they aren't technically connected at all, or barely so, which causes arcing inside the wire nut. Electricity is going to flow wire to air to wire. This again causes the wire nut to melt.
This is a common form of negligence when installing junctions. it's common enough that a special form of breaker called an arc-fault breaker is required by code to be used on certain circuits in your house. Though, this isn't always the case, older houses are grandfathered in, and certain state jurisdictions also didn't require them such as Utah.
I was investigating why my baseboard heaters weren't working and found the wire nut completely melted. There were two solid black wires, one for each baseboard heater, tied to the stranded LOAD wire on the Mysa thermostat, in a red wire nut. This wasn't a DIY job: it was an electrical contractor doing the work as part of a major renovation. Total power is about 3200 W.
Was it appropriate to put two solid-core wires and a stranded wire together in a red wire nut? Did the guy just do it wrong? Is this a freak accident or a negligent installation job?
**Attention!** **It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods. If you comment on this post please only post accurate information to the best of your knowledge. If advice given is thought to be dangerous, you may be permanently banned. There are no obligations for the mods to give warnings or temporary bans. **IF YOU ARE NOT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, you should exercise extreme caution when commenting.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskElectricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Poor connection. This happens when you don't line up your wires properly in the wire nut. Doing so can do one of two things: The wire nuts have a metal corkscrew in them that bonds the conductors together. If the wires are poorly aligned then it could cause electricity to flow wire to corkscrew to wire instead of just wire to wire. This can cause the wire nut to heat up and melt. The second, and I think more likely option, is that due to the misalignment of wires they aren't technically connected at all, or barely so, which causes arcing inside the wire nut. Electricity is going to flow wire to air to wire. This again causes the wire nut to melt. This is a common form of negligence when installing junctions. it's common enough that a special form of breaker called an arc-fault breaker is required by code to be used on certain circuits in your house. Though, this isn't always the case, older houses are grandfathered in, and certain state jurisdictions also didn't require them such as Utah.
I was investigating why my baseboard heaters weren't working and found the wire nut completely melted. There were two solid black wires, one for each baseboard heater, tied to the stranded LOAD wire on the Mysa thermostat, in a red wire nut. This wasn't a DIY job: it was an electrical contractor doing the work as part of a major renovation. Total power is about 3200 W. Was it appropriate to put two solid-core wires and a stranded wire together in a red wire nut? Did the guy just do it wrong? Is this a freak accident or a negligent installation job?
How long ago was the wire run? At same time heaters were installed?
The baseboard heaters have been there for 20 years, but the thermostat was moved, so it's a new box with new connections.
Bad splice.