Oven cable

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Whilst lifting floorboards this weekend I found that my oven 6mm has been joined by the previous owners. They have crimped it, wrapped it in tape and put it in a junction box.

When inspecting I found that the live core was coming out of the yellow crimped sleeve.

How should this be repaired? Can an electrician do the same and crimp it or is there a better and easier way for them to do it? Can he use wagos to make the connection or is the cable too thick for them etc?

Edit: I’ve switched it off at the consumer unit for now. It has a 32A breaker on it by the way. I hope that it’s correct?!

Thanks
 
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Whilst lifting floorboards this weekend I found that my oven 6mm has been joined by the previous owners. They have crimped it, wrapped it in tape and put it in a junction box.
Crimped connections (if done properly!) are acceptable for 'inaccessible' joints (e.g. under floorboards). Insulated crimps within some suitable enclosure (I suppose a JB probably counts!) sounds OK.
When inspecting I found that the live core was coming out of the yellow crimped sleeve. How should this be repaired? Can an electrician do the same and crimp it or is there a better and easier way for them to do it? Can he use wagos to make the connection or is the cable too thick for them etc.
It could be re-crimped. A 773-173 Wago will take 6mm² conductors but Wagos alone are not acceptable if 'not accessible' (e.g. under floorboards).
Edit: It has a 32A breaker on it by the way. I hope that it’s correct?!
That sounds fine.

Kind Regards, John
 
Thanks John.

Using 773-173 Wago connectors in a Wago Junction Box with the correct strain relief and screwed to the side of the joist makes it ok if “not accessible” doesn’t it?
 
Thanks John. Using 773-173 Wago connectors in a Wago Junction Box with the correct strain relief and screwed to the side of the joist makes it ok if “not accessible” doesn’t it?
That's why I wrote "Wagos alone". According to Wago, what you say is correct, although there is some uncertainty in some people's minds.

Kind Regards, John
 
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Perfect, thanks John that makes sense.

Wagos are fine with stranded core cable too? And the junction boxes are fine to use with 6mm cable?
 
Perhaps.


Better would be soldering, although with 6mm cables it would need to be done with a gas flame, so not necessarily easier, and for some would be impossible.

No need for a gas flame. A decent soldering iron of around 75 watts will do it.
 
Don't forget that solder's sole function is electrical - it must not be used in any attempt to provide mechanical strength to the joint.
 
In context, I agree - but, as a general statement, I don't think many plumbers would think the same.
 
Strictly speaking, the joint should be both mechanically and electrically sound before soldering.

The solder protects against oxidising.

Solder wouldn't hold pipes if they weren't overlapping, but merely butted against each other.
 
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Strictly speaking, the joint should be both mechanically and electrically sound before soldering. The solder protects against oxidising.
I agree that the joint should be both electrically and mechanically sound before soldering, but I think the solder is there to do more than just protect against oxidation - it is meant to maintain the mechanical integrity of the joint. The primary 'mechanical' joint has to be created by some sort of twisting/'knotting'/plaiting (or some combination thereof), and hence could therefore probably quite easily 'pull apart' in the absence of the (mechanical) presence of the solder.
Solder wouldn't hold pipes if they weren't overlapping, but merely butted against each other.
I'm not sure about end-to-end soldering of copper pipes (not that anyone would try it), but brazing certainly can be used to join tubes end-to-end.

Solder is certainly pretty soft and of limited mechanical strength, and that can be a problem even with 'overlapped' soldered plumbing joints. During the recent very cold spell, a pipe in a dusty corner of my house froze. However, rather than burst the pipe, the freezing 'blew apart' a soldered joint which had been satisfactorily in service for about 30 years.

Kind Regards, John
 
The primary 'mechanical' joint has to be created by some sort of twisting/'knotting'/plaiting (or some combination thereof), and hence could therefore probably quite easily 'pull apart' in the absence of the (mechanical) presence of the solder.
Noting your "quite easily" I would say that is, therefore, not mechanically sound.

Solder is certainly pretty soft and of limited mechanical strength, and that can be a problem even with 'overlapped' soldered plumbing joints. During the recent very cold spell, a pipe in a dusty corner of my house froze. However, rather than burst the pipe, the freezing 'blew apart' a soldered joint which had been satisfactorily in service for about 30 years.
That presumably depends where the freezing occurred.
I am not sure it is significant given that freezing water can 'blow apart' the copper pipe itself, or indeed almost anything else.
 
Noting your "quite easily" I would say that is, therefore, not mechanically sound.
Well, forgeting the "quite easily" (which is obviously a matter of opinion, if the mechanical joint is (I would think necessarily) based on twisting/knotting/plaiting/splicing etc. (if more than that, it would not really be a 'soldered joint'), then a sufficiently firm 'tug' would pull it apart - in practice, probably a tug no 'firmer' (actually probably 'less firm') than would be necessary to pull a conductor out of a properly-tightened screwed terminal (in the absence of adequate strain relief).
That presumably depends where the freezing occurred. I am not sure it is significant given that freezing water can 'blow apart' the copper pipe itself, or indeed almost anything else.
I obviously do not know what was the extent of the freezing, but it clearly involved some length of the pipe which included (or was close to) a standard soldered joint. As you imply, in the absence of the joint, the pipe itself may well have 'blown apart' ('burst') or, at least 'swelled'. However, my point was that, since this did not happen, I assume that the strength of the (overlapped) soldered joint was less than that of the pipe itself. I suppose that's no great surprise - although I did feel a bit surprised, having previously seemingly assumed (!) that a soldered joint was probably as strong as the pipe (I'm used to compression joints 'blowing apart' with freezing, but that is what I would expect).

Kind Regards, John
 
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