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Are WAGO Lever Nuts FAA approved?

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Short answer is a question... Why on earth would you want to try to use a residential or automotive wiring product in an aviation environment? We have a hard enough time keeping electrical systems functioning flawlessly (the only acceptable performance standard) over time using tried and true aviation-standard devices. Unless you have extensive experience in using these Wago terminations in applications very similar to aviation, including temperature, humidity, vibration, corrosive environments etc, then I would strongly advise against making yourself a test pilot.
 
Anyone know if WAGA Lever nuts are approved for electrical connectors, splicing, etc. in aircraft?

https://www.amazon.com/Wago-221-413...ocphy=9030262&hvtargid=pla-569290052809&psc=1

Hi Edmondthx1138 I applaud you for reaching out for advice; as others have stated those are not something you want to be putting in your aircraft. The following are a bit pricey but they are about the only butt connector I used in my builds. Electrical gremlins are very frustrating and a away to greatly minimize the issue is quality connectors. The connectors I mentioned above do require a special crimper but IMHO is well worth the price you have to pay.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/d-436raychem.php


Be blessed
Bill
 
I’m the first in line to save money by using commercial grade parts if it makes sense, but I agree the lever nuts look shaky. A lot of automotive parts are robust enough for aeronautical use in our experimental, but I wouldn’t use the lever nuts.
 
I'll offer a dissenting opinion to make your decision more complicated. :D At work, I've used lever nuts in industrial applications that are very vibration prone for years and I used them on my RV-6A to great effect. They are, in my opinion, the bees knees but I'm only one data point.

EDIT: The mounting carriers are great, too, if you want to secure them to a panel or similar.
 
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No experience with them, but I've just about had it with spade connectors (which Van's provides us and are evidently "approved" for aircraft applications). Have had way too many problems with them eventually coming loose which led me to replace virtually all of them with butt connectors.
 
Anyone know if WAGA Lever nuts are approved for electrical connectors, splicing, etc. in aircraft?

https://www.amazon.com/Wago-221-413...ocphy=9030262&hvtargid=pla-569290052809&psc=1

I'll offer a dissenting opinion to make your decision more complicated. :D At work, I've used lever nuts in industrial applications that are very vibration prone for years and I used them on my RV-6A to great effect. They are, in my opinion, the bees knees but I'm only one data point.

EDIT: The mounting carriers are great, too, if you want to secure them to a panel or similar.

It is an EXPERIMENTAL airplane so you are free to try different products or experiment.

I hate splices and will not spice on a new build but will splice a wire for a repair on a flying airplane.

I would love to learn more about WAGO connectors and I know they are big in Europe where as we tend to use Wire Nuts in the USA.

I purchased some WAGO connectors to use as test splices in the future. (home, car, airplane) I also want to know how they hold up on a splice repair on an airplane. I may experiment with one for a splice on my airplane the next time I need to splice a wire. I will end up putting heat sleeving over the connection to create an environmental barrier and strain relief.
 
I guess I'll put my 2 cents in as well...

There are already connectors in our planes which aren't really designed with aircraft in mind. Just look at all of the D-Sub connectors in the legacy RV-12, and to a lesser extent, in the -12iS..

In the RV-12iS, Rotax uses automotive-grade connectors for the fuel pumps, the generators, and the HIC module.. If they're good enough for a car.. they're mostly good enough for our planes.. though I'm sure they emit horrible things when set on fire.

Its not all roses and sunshine though. Anyone with a -12iS is aware that a Molex connector on the HIC module has had vibration issues (I covered that in one of my YouTube videos) and caused a Service Bulletin to be issued.. It was one that had the potential to cause one or both fuel pumps to go intermittent. ..and it caused me to be stuck on an island overnight.

I think my point is to choose your level of risk wisely.. maybe for flight-critical fuel pumps, do things the tried-and-true way. For other things, sure.. experiment.. and test on the ground.. can you pull on the wired and wiggle them out of the connectors? will they experience that level of abuse in real life? Water-tight like some of the heat-shrinks to prevent long-term corrosion? Will the WAGO along with heat-shrink provide better protection?

Electrical problems can be very time consuming to troubleshoot.. spending some time/money up front can help avoid days worth of downtime years in the future.
 
Hi Edmondthx1138 I applaud you for reaching out for advice; as others have stated those are not something you want to be putting in your aircraft. The following are a bit pricey but they are about the only butt connector I used in my builds. Electrical gremlins are very frustrating and a away to greatly minimize the issue is quality connectors. The connectors I mentioned above do require a special crimper but IMHO is well worth the price you have to pay.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/d-436raychem.php


Be blessed
Bill

do you have the 300 dollar raychem ad-1377 crimp tool to go with those?
 
do you have the 300 dollar raychem ad-1377 crimp tool to go with those?

Yes…but I didn’t pay $300 for them; I found mine second hand on ebay. With the raychem tool the mechanical connection of the wires and the strain relief provided by the shrink tubing provide a excellent connection and a short in a wire could cause a fire and that is the last thing anyone wants. These butt connectors may not be for everyone, and I understand they are expensive, but I believe they are well worth the expense.

Bill
 
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I’ve used standard amp butt splices for decades, which included use on Boeing/Douglas, environmental splices were only required in certain locations like pylons/engines/wheel wells etc.. Don’t see a requirement for environmental splices being needed anywhere on an RV unless you plan on cruising in the flt levels.
It all about good quality terminals used with the correct tools.
 
WAGO

To all who have made comments toward NOT using WAGO lever nuts, thank for your feedback.

I am aware of the possible limitations, especially due to vibrations, of the WAGO lever nuts. Some of you have made some other good points

I am actually trying to locate better and more reliable connectors, splicings, etc. not just make my installs easier.

There are problems with crimping wires to butt connectors, D-Sub ports, etc. It takes care and good technique. But short of soldering connections, any connector that is not locked in place with some sort of secure mechanism, can FAIL.

A closer look at these lever nuts, or other state-of-the-art connectors, might just yield some valid solutions for easier, more stable, more secure connector techniques.

As Rob pointed out, the RV-12 is an EXPERIMENTAL aircraft. We can develop new and better techniques.
 
Hi Edmondthx1138 I applaud you for reaching out for advice; as others have stated those are not something you want to be putting in your aircraft. The following are a bit pricey but they are about the only butt connector I used in my builds. Electrical gremlins are very frustrating and a away to greatly minimize the issue is quality connectors. The connectors I mentioned above do require a special crimper but IMHO is well worth the price you have to pay.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/d-436raychem.php


Be blessed
Bill

Bill, I've also seen some butt connectors that have solder wrapped and surrounded by heat shrink. Once you crimp each end, you run a hot air gun over the connector, and it not only melts the solder into the crimp, but provides excellent strain relief and sealing to the whole butt.
 
Short answer is a question... Why on earth would you want to try to use a residential or automotive wiring product in an aviation environment? We have a hard enough time keeping electrical systems functioning flawlessly (the only acceptable performance standard) over time using tried and true aviation-standard devices. Unless you have extensive experience in using these Wago terminations in applications very similar to aviation, including temperature, humidity, vibration, corrosive environments etc, then I would strongly advise against making yourself a test pilot.

Thank you for this feedback. I believe if you could search for accident causes and maintenance issues across all of GA, you'd find many instances of "tried and true aviation-standard devices" failing due to shorts, loose connectors, intermittent connection, and wires that have fallen out and causing many electrical failures.
 
Interesting thread - I first learned of Wago connectors during some modifications I made to a new travel trailer, which uses them everywhere (if you want an example of how not to wire something, have a look at the wiring in a travel trailer!). I am not impressed with the Wago connectors, despite all the raving one can find about them on the 'net. Think of a knife blade holding the wire, which can still move some, and you are not far off. I certainly would never use them for stranded wire.

Simple question - where in an airplane does one need to splice wires? I could see it being necessary for some repairs of 12v accessories here and there, but using high quality crimp splices from a known avionics shop (I get them from Steinair) is a much better solution IMO. Almost all crimp fittings sold by non-avionics shops are junk.
 
Simple question - where in an airplane does one need to splice wires?

Plenty of places if you have a significant avionics installation: multi-drop communication buses, one-to-many serial data outputs, etc. Basically any place where a single D-sub pin needs to connect to more than one other thing.

Not to mention the fuselage-to-wing junction, if you choose not to use connectors.

For my project I used AMP PIDG crimped butt splices almost everywhere. For the small-signal stuff at the wing roots, where I was just joining one wire to another, I used loose D-sub pins joined by heatshrink tubing simply to save a little space and weight.
 
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Almost all crimp fittings sold by non-avionics shops are junk.

Why all of this fear mongering for anything other than "aviation products?" There are 1000's of VERY high quality crimped connectors out there and when used with the proper tools are as good as and usually better than anything sold in an aviation shop. Do you think the guys wiring up the nuclear reactors or nuclear subs are running to aircraft spruce to get their supplies?

Sure, lots of low quality stuff out there, but to use so wide of a brush in disparaging anything but aviation grade, if you can even find a way to define that, doesn't help anyone. Further, the fact that a component is sold by an aviation supplier DOESN'T make it avaiation grade. If it has an AN rating then I would consider it aviation. Anything else is at the discretion of the person marketing that product. Look at the power plane atlernator. That is considered by most aviation grade, even though it is just a Denso (automotive OEM). You couldn't pay me enough to put one in my plane.

Personally I would trust Toyota over Cessna or Beech any day for specifying high quality wiring components, excluding tefzel stuff as that is unique to aviation and other sectors due to smoke inhalation risks that don't exist in the auto world. Anything Boeing does I would trust implicitly. Pretty sure they are not going to spruce either.

Larry
 
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SNIP

Sure, lots of low quality stuff out there, but to use so wide of a brush in disparaging anything but aviation grade, if you can even find a way to define that, doesn't help anyone. SNIP

Larry

Larry, fair enough. I've just been suckered into buying connectors (prior to the airplane build) from various auto parts places, etc., that simply are constructed of material too thin to be robust enough. Obviously, many non-aviation shops sell high quality crimp connectors as well.
 
Larry, fair enough. I've just been suckered into buying connectors (prior to the airplane build) from various auto parts places, etc., that simply are constructed of material too thin to be robust enough. Obviously, many non-aviation shops sell high quality crimp connectors as well.

hardware store and auto store stuff tends to be low on the quality scale. Places like digi key or mouser sell lots of quality connectors.

Larry
 
I use some "Classic" Wago connectors in my RV6A for secondary circuits (accessories and cabin/instrument lighting).

I probably would not use those for avionics yet, but I am very satisfied. That simplified installation a lot and they are easy to fix in place. The ones I use are like this one: https://newagecanada.com/product/wago-222-413-classic-splicing-connector/

Regarding vibration resistance, someone (forgot who) in another thread discussing Wagos published this link... seems Wago connectors are OK for vibrations ;-) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6edxJpguyX8
 
My experience with these.

Back before 1995 or so residential receptacles were equipped with a stab in hole in the back that captured the conductor the same way these do. Around that time they were discontinued due to a high rate of house fires.

The problem isn't vibration (the spring clamping in these is better than a crimp where vibration is concerned). The tiny contact patch creates heat under high current draw. That heat weakens the spring effect of the knife. creating a looser connection and more heat until it turns to smoke. Much to the surprise of electricians these connector cam out a few years after the outlets went away.

All that said I do use them occasionally. But only for very low current applications. YMMV
 
Kidding?!?

We’ve had those fail in the walls of our home.
(Someone’s mind set needs a bit of an adjustment?)

We ARE talking about aircraft here, yes?

:confused:
 
Yes, we're talking about planes. My example was to illustrate the weakness and strength of these particular connectors. Electricity doesn't know if it's flying, driving, or powering a toaster. Current and vibration are the relevant points to determine what is the appropriate connector to use. One could use these on low draw, low criticality, circuits in a plane and they would perform fine. I personally wouldnt.
 
The spring didn't appear overly snug but hard to tell from here. An option might be to see if you could drill a small hole through the arms and then insert a pin if possible to act as a lock to ensure it doesn't pop up. Tape might work as well but would look cheesy.

Low amp draw would probably be best.
 
The answer to the original question “are WAGOs FAA approved” the answer is no. And, you do not need FAA approval to use them in experimental homebuilts. They do have NEC approval, but that doesn’t address the vibration or temp variations of the aircraft environment. Also, there are plenty of YouTube videos on using these in residential house wiring, some showing their short comings, especially with small stranded wire.
As an Electrical systems DER, I would not use these on my airplane, unless perhaps if it was the only option to do a field repair to fly a couple of hours home. Even then there are lots better temporary repair options available at auto stores, home improvement stores or Walmart.
 
One item to keep in mind, WAGO makes a LOT of different connectors for different applications and the ones you get at Home Depot for house wiring may not be the ones you should use in an aircraft.

I had a Wago rep come by to demo their connector line to see about replacing martix block connectors we use in military craft junction boxes (high vibration). I would have no problem using them to replace the terminal barrier blocks I have in my RV12, or using their in-line splice connectors to replace the wire wrap/solder/heat shrink splice method I used.

One especially good use of the lever lock splices is for removable electrical components where the wire pigtail is integral to the component (fan wiring for example). If you want additional connection integrity, you can always put some heat shrink tubing over them.

Make sure the WAGO connector matches the wire type (solid/stranded) and gauge (AWG) your are using.

John Salak
RV-12 N896HS
 
WAGO vs Look alike

I have used WAGO terminals in many high-vibration places. HD sells a product that looks like a WAGO but it definitely is not a WAGO. WAGO is a multi-national corp that supplies terminals and other hardware for many industrial applications. If you buy a look-alike from HD or other big box stores, put a piece of wire in it and pull. It will pull out very easily. Do the same thing with a WAGO; you cannot pull it out.
If you go to the WAGO web page, you will find a lot of useful information. They are listed in UL508 for short circuit current rating. https://www.wago.com/us/

No, I don't work for WAGO, but I will use their products. Your milage may vary!
 
If you go to the WAGO web page, you will find a lot of useful information. They are listed in UL508 for short circuit current rating. https://www.wago.com/us/

No, I don't work for WAGO, but I will use their products. Your milage may vary!

Piling on to this: I used to work in industrial automation.

- For an electrical connection that relies on a screw to secure, the torque of the screw is vital for maintaining error-free operation. The correct torque is A lot, and often close to the failure point of the screw. Frequently twists a small plastic housing. Solid wire deforming, and stranded wire shifting can quickly loosen a connection.
- For an electrical connection that relies on a crimp: error free operation relies on a correct crimping tool and pressure, expensive ratcheting tools are required to make ideal connections. Good enough tools can be good enough, but are hard to verify each crimp.
- For spring connectors: Wago brand connectors are perfectly safe to use for stranded wire.
However, this safety depends on the clamp being manufactured without a sharp edge where it grips the wire.
Knock-off connectors may not have this, and may not have it consistently.
The spring will however, make up for any wire deformation over time to maintain a solid connection.


here is some more info on the specifics:
https://www.saddlebrookcontrols.com/wp-content/uploads/10-Cage-Clamp-20-Questions.pdf
 
FAA approved connectors? Anybody have that AC or section calling out the requirements? Must refer to a mil spec or something?
 
FAA approved connectors? Anybody have that AC or section calling out the requirements? Must refer to a mil spec or something?

As far as I am aware the only thing the FAA references for electrical devices is in AC43-13.1B. There are associated Mil Specs. A good reference is Mil-E-5088 or AS50881.
An applicant for a Type Certificate or STC can propose any device that they can provide some sort of appropriate and validated qual data for. For things like IFE the specs could be pretty low. For critical systems, the specs would be more demanding.

As a DER, I could and have approved devices on behalf of the FAA if I was convinced that they were adequate for the application.
WAGOs would not likely be something I wound approve for use on an aircraft.
There is little cost benefit vs well proven wire splicing and termination techniques.
 
As far as I am aware the only thing the FAA references for electrical devices is in AC43-13.1B. There are associated Mil Specs. A good reference is Mil-E-5088 or AS50881.
An applicant for a Type Certificate or STC can propose any device that they can provide some sort of appropriate and validated qual data for. For things like IFE the specs could be pretty low. For critical systems, the specs would be more demanding.

As a DER, I could and have approved devices on behalf of the FAA if I was convinced that they were adequate for the application.
WAGOs would not likely be something I wound approve for use on an aircraft.
There is little cost benefit vs well proven wire splicing and termination techniques.

Thank you. Excellent answer. I’m not sure many of the connectors or terminals carried by our common aircraft suppliers meet those specs, perhaps some of the Canon multi circuit ones. I’ll do some research.
 
Thank you. Excellent answer. I’m not sure many of the connectors or terminals carried by our common aircraft suppliers meet those specs, perhaps some of the Canon multi circuit ones. I’ll do some research.

Typically the crimp terminals carried by ACS are the correct type. Circular Mil connectors are all good for sure, even the Dsubs are available as Mil Spec. They cost a little more than the cheapest versions, but very good.
A funny story. Someone in the FAA put out a memo that Dsubs were not suitable for aircraft. The person was investigating a smoke event in IFE on a part 25 airplane. What he didn’t understand was that much of modern avionics use high quality Dsubs. Letter quickly retracted.
 
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