Ideal has launched new Wago-style “In-Sure” lever wire connectors, designed to be a “modern alternative to traditional strip or terminal connectors.”
Ideal stops short of describing these for what they really are, alternatives to wire nuts.
These connectors can be used with stranded and solid copper wires from 12 to 24 AWG.
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The Ideal lever-style wire nuts feature a translucent housing, built-in strip length gauge, and integrated continuity test probe ports on the front and rear.
They’re rated up to 600V and 20A.
Ideal says that their wire connectors have a two-stage wire lock.
The Ideal In-Sure level wire connectors are available in three sizes, to fit 2, 3, or 5 conductors.
Pricing & Availability
- 2-conductor (L22) – $7.48 for 10-pack
- 3-conductor (L23) – $8.48 for 10-pack
- 5-conductor (L25) – $10.98 for 10-pack
Home Depot has the full line on their website, and is offering free shipping.
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Ideal wants everyone to “Think Blue,” but frankly all I see is orange.
It’s obvious that Ideal’s In-Sure product was heavily inspired by Wago 221-series Lever-Nuts wiring connectors.
The Ideal product is different in how it has a milky-white housing, rather than clear, and reverse-direction levers. The Wago 221 levers close in the direction of the wires, and the Ideal In-Sure levers close in the opposite direction.
Wago has various accessories for their Lever-Nuts, such as DIN rail and surface mounting brackets. They also have a more recent inline 2-conductor product. It’s unknown at this time whether Ideal has similar products planned for their new lever-style wire connectors.
Matt
Does it also come with the wagos patented”heavy-spring knuckle-seeking” leavers?
Saulac
Here wishing that the quality will be good and people will use them properly to not giving this type of connectors a bad rap.
Mark M.
Can someone explain the use case for these? I could see in control and possibly machine applications where you are gunning for a super-clean install and you have tons of cabinet space. But I’ve been twisting wires for 30 years and it seems like a proper twist connection 1) Is not hard, 2) Does not take very long, 3) Is more compact in small boxes compared to these.
SWobig
It’s time – time to bend and twist wires. Plus if you have to get them apart, depending on how tight they are twisted, this can be a pain as well. So, for one outlet or one repair, I get it. But, if you are wiring an entire house and can simply strip a wire and insert it, it’s much easier than twisting wires in a wire nut or wrapping them around terminals. I believe that was the idea behind backstabbing devices as well, but that turned out horribly bad and should be outlawed. Hopefully, this method proves to stand the test of time…
YYY
The problem with backstabs is asking to use brass as a spring material. I even remember when the holes were big enough for 12 AWG, and I found a large room wired with them where I redid all of them with screw terminals. I also understand that once a wire is released, the backstab hole should never be reused.
The springs on these lever connectors are permanent and can be used and reused indefinitely. There is absolutely positive pressure against the bus bar at all times when the connector port is closed. I also took apart one of the Ideal lever connectors and it looks like it will maintain a connection even if the shell melts.
Hilton
I bought a bunch of the current line of Wago connectors along with some of the old line. Best thing I’ve done electrically speaking along with boot lace ferrules on all stranded wire. These connectors make it easy to connect wires of different gauge or stranded to solid. You are also not trashing the wires by twisting them. By trash I mean it’s then more difficult to untwist to add an additional wire. The test probe hole is brilliant, allowing you to test without hot wires being exposed.
Mark M.
Great points. Thanks!
Jp
I like these far better than wire nuts. These are great for low skill people like me.
Alex
As an electrician, I use wagos all the time, often on old brittle wire that’s more likely to break if twisted. It also makes splices that are much easier and faster to add or remove wires to later. Also, larger wago splices can actually save space in boxes because four or five conductors twisted together can make for a very large bundle.
TomD
You can also visually verify that your connection is good, that isn’t usually possible with wire nuts (very useful if you’re checking apprentice work or you’re a DIY).
eddie sky
Space. If you have a gang box with several receptacles and switches (3way, 4 way…), it can get crowded fast. I’ve used WAGOs and just much faster/easier.
Are the better than wire nuts? That’s debate. See, I was wiring up a garage for outlets, with every other box, the other circuit of two, 20A. When done, I was finished before my helper was even done on first of three boxes. I used the WAGO and he the wire nuts. On test, one outlet lost a neutral. Duh it was one of my WAGO that I didn’t fully seat. But just power off, open WAGO, reseat neutral, lock, power up and test. Good. Secure recepts and cover.
jamanjeval
These are great for old work. They’re gentile on old wire with fragile insulation or that are very short. Additionally, they save a lot of time when troubleshooting by allowing easy, non destructive connections and probing. The clear backs allow the connection to be inspected.
From the tests I’ve seen, they are trivially worse connections than a properly installed wire nut, but well within specifications. From a productivity point of view, they’re very fast to install because they require less steps to make a proper connection.
Level connectors are now even being built into receptacles to allow easy replacement and the elimination of shorts due to screws touching metal boxes. They’re just really nice to use instead of wire nuts or screws.
YYY
The problem sometimes is that they might not be rated for use with older insulation, which tends to be really thick. The label for the Ideal L22 says “For use on insulation types TFN, TFFN, THHN, XHHW, T90 nylon, or equivalent.” I think they leave out bare copper. However, I’ve been working on the wires in an old house, and some of them can have super thick and/or hard insulation. I’ve seen some that use some kind of spongy plastic, but I think some use rubber insulation that’s really hard to strip. And it can be really thick too. I had a hard time seeing if I was working with 12 or 14 AWG. The insulator on older 14 AWG could be thicker than modern 12 AWG THHN wire and difficult to get into the port of a lever connector.
What I’ve done with older wiring is use a wire nut to extend what little wire there is in the box to a lever connector. With any luck, the wire nut and the extension never need to be replaced and any replacement switch or receptacle can be connected with a short length of wire. Or perhaps one of the newer switches or receptacles that use a lever connection.
John
The basic tradeoff is that wago style connectors are faster to install (especially in tight spaces), and more importantly require less expertise and are almost impossible to install incorrectly. Wire nuts can be installed such that they look ok but one wire isn’t inserted as much leading to a high resistance connection. I’ve seen it happen many times, even with work done by competent electricians.
The only downside to wagos (besides their cost) is they have a slightly higher resistance between the connections. Wire nuts tightly press each wire against the next leading to basically zero resistance, wagos have to conduct it across a fairly small bus bar meaning it will drop a little voltage and create a little heat. Not enough to be dangerous or concerning but it does exist.
Rob
Their benefit is in places that you know fixtures, receptacles, switches, junctions and so forth will be replaced or modified often. Great for commercial. How many businesses manage to make it and resign a lease? I work on a few buildings that were converted from residential. There’s often barely any wire left in the boxes. It’s been snipped off so many times over the years.
For residential, they’re a little bit easier on you when doing ceiling fixtures if it’s just you and an a frame.
Particularly, as a non electrician, I like to not leave anything mangled up for the electrician following me. It doesn’t matter what I know, I presume I know nothing.
Jim B
Wire nuts are fine when splicing solid wires of similar gauge.
WAGO 221 connectors, and maybe these Ideal ones, excel when splicing solid and stranded wires and wires of different gauges, as encountered with light fixtures and dimmers.
As fixtures are often removed when painting, the wires are not mangled line they are with wire nuts. Easy one handed operation so you can hold the fixture with one hand while snapping the connector shut with the other.
SWobig
There are outlets now with these style connectors on them. Although I haven’t used these, I’m curious as to how well they hold. Specifically on outlets, backstabbing is a horrible idea and should be outlawed. I’m not sure how the NEC ever approved this wiring method, but I’ve removed plenty of failed outlets because of this type of connection. The clamp style screws or wrapping the wire around the screw is the only good method now. However, I’m hopeful that this method stands the test of time. I’d be interested to pull or tug on this some and see just how secure the connection is as this is the biggest failure of backstabbing – the outlet moves because people plug stuff in over the years and the connection is not solid enough. People have told me that these are much better in that regard, but I’ve yet to get my hands on them. If it saves twisting and bending wires, it may well be worth it. Time will tell…
SWobig
They also seem kind of pricy. Hopefully, some other options become available at a better price…
Ezzy
I’m not an electrician, but just used those new lever lock outlets and found them amazing. Extremely well thought out. Seemed very secure. Way quicker connections. All plastic housing with no exposed metal to possibly shock yourself on. Bigger top and bottom to easily line up multiple outlets in a box. And when I needed to change how a bunch of 3 way switches were wired it was super quick to disconnect and reconnect them.
Chuck
To me, the big benefit seems to be the completely covered housing. I’ve traced tripping arc fault breakers to outlet boxes where the ground is so long it loops back to the hot side of the outlet. Now that is obviously installer error, but the outlets with the levers would remove that issue.
Hfs
Just changed 80 wiring devices in friends house. Used Leviton Edge series for everything but GFCI. Appreciated there is no exposed metal on back of device. WORTH relatively small price premium, versus time saved. Correcting 3 way mis-wiring was very quick. Also used Wago for re-wiring. Had to swap out some J boxes. Used some Ideal 4 port push connectors, and Wago 6 port push. I don’t understand why there are no 4 port UL listed lever connectors. Plenty of Chinese 4 port copies on Amazon. Also think Amazon should not list on US site, any wiring device that does not meet NEC requirements!
PETE
I’ve been using these are RV repairs and they’re quite nice to use. With 12v wires in rv’s & autos, when you twist the stranded wire and put a wire nut on it, often times you can’t reuse that piece of wire because it doesn’t really untwist without breaking. Then you might have to cut a piece off and strip it again leaving you with even less to work with than before.
TomD
They’re definitely a huge step above those cheap crimp connectors you always see at auto parts stores.
YYY
Not sure they’re really meant for any kind of environment where they’re going to be bumped or there’s vibration. They’re definitely not suitable for an automotive environment.
Jack S
From Ideal’s spec sheet of the MODEL L2 LEVER CONNECTORS L22, L23, & L25:
FEATURES:
– TRANSPARENT HOUSING ENABLES EASY VERIFICATION OF CONNECTION
– REDUCED LEVER ACTUATION FORCE COMPARED TO COMPETATIVE LEVER CONNECTORS
– 2-, 3-, AND 5- PORT CONFIGURATIONS ALLOW FOR WIDE VARIETY OF APPLICATIONS
– INDIVIDUAL LEVERS OPEN AND CLOSE EACH PORT INDIVIDUALLY
– LEVERS POSITIONED OPPOSITE OF WIRE PORT, REDUCING RISK OF INADVERTENT OPENING
MECHANICAL:
– Compact size to fit into confined junction boxes
– Wide levers ease actuation
– Profiled housing for improved grip
– Added latch feature to secure lever in closed position
– Solid wires may be inserted without opening lever
I won’t be using them anytime soon, but I’m sure they serve some good purpose.
Aaron SD
Wago is easy to use. I like the clear much better and wonder what advantage milky-white could be for the Ideal connector. Maybe to just avoid a design patent lawsuit…
Jim Felt
The two types of plastic maybe have strength and/or longevity advantages? But as you suggest most likely product design/patent/marketing differentiation.
Regardless “we” simply can’t know how long these will last before plastic failure. Personally I’ve never seen a wire nut (especially the spiral interior metal!) fail.
Has any one?
Peter
We just had this discussion over at GarageJournal, shameless plug, and you can find as many failed wire nuts as you like.
Daniel L
Ayup.
I’ve seen wire nuts split at the sides in motor peckerheads from over-torquing. I’ve seen with nuts burned to a crisp…likely due to a less than ideal splice that built resistance over time.
Sometimes, even if following best practices, a wire nut can absolutely fail. That’s part of why code requires wire nut splices always have to be accessible…you can’t just bury them in a wall. Part of my job involves checking all wire-nut connections in a piece of mechanical equipment: I come across bad connections *all the time*.
I’m a huge fan of these types of connectors. They work great as impromptu bus strips, are super easy to re-configure, and do not damage, mar, or warp the conductors like wire nuts do.
As an HVAC guy, these are fantastic for basic controls work. Troubleshooting and reworking is easier, install takes less time, and I’ve never had a Wago lever nut fail on me.
I’ve noticed on jobsites nowadays that these have essentially replaced wire nuts in a large portion of basic lighting and convenience outlet work. That represents a significant premium in material costs for a job, but the math works out for large companies doing large, multi-story commercial buildings: likely for the same reasons I mentioned above. The sparkles seem to love em.
Honestly, they’re worth the extra cost. They likely will never completely replace wire nuts, but they’re the better option in many scenarios.
TomD
I don’t think the wire clips here are rated for inaccessible use, but there ARE splices so rated. Not that I can remember them offhand …
Munklepunk
I’m just hoping that hacks working on their car stereo will move on to these instead of wire nuts. Wanna talk about failure? Wire nuts and vibration.
jamanjeval
“Regardless “we” simply can’t know how long these will last before plastic failure. Personally I’ve never seen a wire nut (especially the spiral interior metal!) fail.”
Lever nuts do not use plastic to make the connection, so if it were to somehow fail it would be no worse than a wire nut. The actual connection, just just a wire nut, is made with metal. The levers are just there to lift the connection and not to apply pressure to make it.
I have seen wire nuts fail from bad connections, even when all the conductors are twisted. What I’ve seen is one of the wires slipping backwards while twisting and not making a good connection. The wires heated up, ruining the temper of the spring in the wire nut. Yes, this is user error. A similar thing can happen with lever nuts but the difference is the connection can be inspected to insure the wire is fully inserted.
I can fit that.
Yes, and no. I service appliances and have seen wire nuts burned, along with the wires. BUT can’t say for certain why or what caused the failure. Assembly seemed to be good, but not sure connected tight enough.
YYY
Both have spec sheets that say it’s polycarbonate. Ideal claims that they have a texture that makes it more resistant to slipping, but I’m skeptical. I saw some early versions of the Ideal lever connectors sold in Europe that were mostly clear. I have some of the US-distributed ones, and they have a clear window that allows visibility of the wire against the end of the bus bar.
Jared
I imagine for these to be practical commercially, the time you save on the install must be more valuable than how much these cost. These may be very tidy looking, but there’s nothing wrong with wire nuts.
At about $1 per connector, they don’t have to save a lot of time. It’s not like wire nuts are slow though so… I guess I have no idea if they’re economical or not.
Jim Felt
Until they’re either NEC mandated or by simple market forces (as in “we” only use the latest and “best”) I doubt their overall NA market penetration will be significant.
Maybe I’ll change my mind upon someday finding a failed in place wire nut?
Sasquatchelectric
Hey I’m definitely on the wirenut bandwagon but let’s not kid ourselves. I’ve found less failed wirenuts than j have of wagos but I’ve still found them
Daniel L
Can confirm that I’ve seen these used in extensively in schools, multiple 6 story commercial buildings, labs, etc.
This is in the heart of Silicon Valley. Contractors like Rosadin Electric, Cupertino Electric, Redwood Electric…not small shops for our area, though I’ve even seen the smaller non-union shops using them as well.
Sparkies make a good wage out here, and it’s not just about how quickly the splices go together. Troubleshooting is much easier as well: thats where they *really* show their value. Being able to pull out one conductor at a time, unmarred from the splicing process, cap, and test works a whole lot better than undoing a wirenut and pulling the coiled conductors apart.
There are significant advantages here over wirenuts and the “in-sure” type connectors.
TomD
Even if they only save one or two callbacks a month, they’re probably worth it – after all, parts is paid for by the customer.
Jared
That’s just from the customer’s perspective. I was also thinking that if they save time on install it might allow companies who adopt it to make money (less wages) or lower bids for more business.
Brian
The vast minority of these being sold will be those small 10 packs that are pricey per unit, the wagos at least are much cheaper when bought in larger quantities (a 50 pack of the 3 connector version is less than $20 for example, I’m sure professionals buying in bulk would be a lot less per connector)
YYY
Might be too late, but I bought a jar of 500 (was actually 509 when I counted) of the Ideal L22 2-port. Amazon was selling them directly for $25.98. It’s currently listed as unavailable, but I’m glad I got it for that price when I could.
I don’t know if I’ll ever run out, but I’ve been using them in all sorts of ways including as quick connects/disconnects where I’m hoping to never have to strip the wire in the box again.
Peter
With the ideal can you still see how far the wire is inserted?
That is one thing I really like about the clear housing of the wago’s.
Mnoswad
Do any of these lever style connectors have the approvals to be used for aluminum solid wire?
Stuart
Ideal: No.
Wago: Not the ones shown.
Anthony Iovanna
Alumiconn connectors would be for aluminum wiring. They are similar in that there are ports but requir a torque screwdriver to tighten them to the manufacture specs.
Mnoswad
Thanks for the info. !
Stephen
I love Wagos. Can’t see any advantage to the Ideal option, but I’m sure they’re just as good.
In any Wago vs. wire nut debate there are always two camps:
1.. I use Wago and love them.
2. I’ve never used Wago and they’re rubbish.
TomD
Or 3. Wire nuts piss me off and I don’t do enough to get good at it, so I go wago.
And the very rare 4. I solder everything but wago is ok I guess
Sasquatchelectric
As a master electrician, I have so many wagos burned up these aren’t something I’d be willing to try out. I’ve been told that it’s because they were most likely installed incorrectly, but I have not been adequately convinced.
I played around with some of the wago 221s, and I noticed there doesn’t seem to be much surface area between the conductors, and that’s my best theory as to why they burn up.
Now since I am a fair guy, there is a foundry by me that swears by wagos and even motors on shaker machines etc are connected with wagos and they don’t seem to have any issues with bad connections. So I’m not convinced either way
Just my two cents
SWobig
Hmm, I’ve not tried these myself, but hearing reports of them being burned up from another electrician doesn’t give me much confidence. Personally, I like the clamp style devices – no bending or twisting of wire and you have a strong mechanical connection you clamp down with a screw. I’ve never had one of these fail and it is quicker than wrapping a wire around a screw terminal. Sounds like these are eqivilant to back stabbing a device…
Sasquatchelectric
From my experience man, I would agree. We all know how much money backstabbed connections have made us in service calls.
I had one last week where banging on the wall I could get all the lights to flicker from a backstabbed outlet in a bedroom.
I have to wholeheartedly agree with a clamp/pinch plate being the best possible connection
TomD
The best backstabbed outlet I ever did find was one that was burning out lightbulbs really fast – turned out the amateur elechicken has said “huh extra wires here might as well connect them” resulting in a 120v outlet on two breakers that would give you 240v ….
Not quite code!
fred
I probably accumulated hundreds (perhaps thousands) of stories about “innovative” and often dangerous ways that amateurs (sometimes calling themselves contractors) had made home “improvements”. But fixing shoddy or sloppy work (carpentry, electrical, masonry, plumbing, roofing etc.) accounted for a portion of our business – so I probably should not complain.
JR Ramos
We had a guy wire up an undercabinet LED fixture with a heavy duty SJOW cord (oversized for the application), proper strain relief, and wagos on the inside (stranded wire). Believe it or not the fire marshal had us undo the whole thing and install a whip instead. I think the fixture on max draws less than 2 amps. Ground wire was even cut longer than the feeds for strain relief backup. He said he’d seen to many burns and melts. Our usual electrician feels the same about them. Maybe they all feel differently about it in a commercial office environment but gosh so many of these are sold with included wagos for those who will hardwire them at home. They seem pretty good to me for solid wire and low to moderate amperage…clamp plate seems to make a lot more sense for stranded wire. I wonder how many of these melts and such are just caused by allowing the connector/wires to wiggle somehow. They seem pretty common on a lot of appliances/devices lately but they always seem well secured with zipties if nothing else.
Al
I hate twisting and folding old solid copper. It will often snap. Wago/lever nuts are easier.
Just installed 4 can-less can lights that are smart LED with wifi. The J-box side was smaller than a pack of Juicy Fruit gum.
Pre-installed Halex clamps and Wago 3-position connectors before heading into the attic. Stuffed 2x 12/2 Romex intoneach mini-j-box.
Connected 2x12AWG solid copper with 1x 18AWG .
There is no way those connections could have been made in an 18-inch crawl space with old-school wire nuts. Especially the boxes that were mounted close to eaves, where clearance was only sufficient for 1 hand.
TomD
I used some super flat LED lights for the kitchen (to minimize the breaks in the insulation) and the remote power boxes for them come with wago-like connectors already. Super easy, even with your hand deep in a hole you can’t see.
Grokew
If Home Depot starts selling them at the local store, I would buy a few to try them. There are a lot of old sockets and switches that need to be replaced at my father’s home, and the wires are quite short. These would make it so much easier.
AG
I’ve tested these and they are very similar to Wagos aside from the backwards lever. Slightly less clamping strength than Wagos but still very strong. The slightly lower price difference would make me think these will do well.
Kingsley
In the UK using this type of connection is pretty much mandatory, for anywhere that isn’t serviceable (in a ceiling for instance).
Twisting wires is considered bad practice, because it makes wires more likely to break as they get old and it makes testing a pain.
I always used to twist, but not anymore.
BA
I do property management as part of my job and like people have said, where these really shine is in old boxes, brittle wire, tight fixtures, and for me especially in rewiring fluorescent fixtures to remove ballasts. Wire nuts on nasty old stranded wire just don’t inspire a lot of confidence, whereas these snap right on and hold really well. No failures yet. I don’t know if we were a test market or what but they’ve been in Home Depot here since at least the beginning of the year. Love the test points as well.
Scott A.
I recently picked up some of these and like them. I’ve only used a few, but so far prefer them to Wago. The biggest improvement I think Ideal made is that levers on these lock, somewhat, down. There is definitely a slight mechanical locking once the lever is fully down, it’s not much but enough to notice. There have been times I’ve wrapped Wagos with electrical tape because I was afraid of the levers coming up in some awkward stuffing situations, Ideal’s feel much more secure to me.
Rob
Found these are less likely to have their levers catch onto something and open when pushing into the box like the newer clear wagos (didn’t have this issue with old ones).
Also found they are over twice my price on wagos. So..pffft.
Jimmy Brandt
This type are a godsend for those of us with older, arthritic hands. It HURTS to twist wire nuts!
Press on, healthfully and prayerfully.