to say i'm excited about this review will be an understatement because today we get to
take a look at the wago 221 inline connector and we've had it in the studios for some time but we
weren't allowed to do the review until they had some stock in the uk and by the looks of things
we've got some stock in the uk i'm starting you've scattered it all over the bench in the excitement
opening the box we have actually also sneaked it into some of our earlier videos last year it's
in the background we've been using it for a while and we think it's a great solution you may already
be using but stick around because we've got some accessories you may not have seen and we're also
going to show you how to fit in with some of the existing juego boxes that we use in electrical
installations but thinking of this product obviously the end to end what did we used to use
we've got some down here we used to use the butt or splice crimp that i've got here of course to
join conductors together however a quick look at those i can't see a current or voltage rating on
them and what material are they made out of yeah and that's one of the questions we always have
when it comes to that there's so many different manufacturers of that who don't put the name on
the side try and find a current rating for those try and find approval and yeah say we've taken
some to bits and yeah they may not be made of copper no i saw some brass one tom yeah so hugely
variable quality but obviously with wago we know we're getting great german quality and we've got
bags of approval so i guess we first let's dive in and have a look at approvals first guy because a
lot of people there's a little bit of confusion comes in sometimes on that because this is
has approvals for all over the world and let's start with the one we should be familiar with so
for europe we've got the nx mark there and the product rated at 450 volts 32 amps same for the
us and under there you will see the ul mark moving across to this side so this is where people get a
bit confused because you see this pse mark and then suddenly the the current drops to 20 amps
but that is for japan and obviously where their electrical system works they've approved it for
what they'd typically expect to see and that's obviously their voltage current rating and you can
see conductor sizes 1.6 to 2 millimeters however what is standard across the world regardless where
you are it is an 11 millimeter strip length and that is shown on the side and obviously if you if
you're in america they're in the awg gauge which we don't understand but it always goes in reverse
all right okay thank you for that now when we think about the conductors that can go in
there there is a subtle difference than the other connectors in that two two one series isn't that
there is no we yeah and you have to work hard to uh to spot this or read the instructions on the
front of the box yeah there is and apparently you can win an electric van as well with wagon
depends on when you're watching we may have won it already um but i think the more you
buy the more chances you get to win that's what it says in there so we've got one chance i think
there's another one of those i'll be scanning later on okay so the difference in conductors
is the regular side by side two to one will take four millimeters in any conductor type so solid
stranded and fine stranded okay so it's class one class two and class five conductors we've looked
at before yep there is one slight anomaly with the inline right that it will take a four millimeter
solid and a four millimeter fine stranded okay yeah but it will not accept a four millimeter
stranded conductor so it won't do the class two conductors to form it stops at 2.5 so when
we're thinking those conductors we're probably thinking of conductors in steel or armoured cable
or maybe the conductors that we're pulling in through a conduit system it stops at two five
yeah you've got one there yes got one here but this is a two five so this will
this will go in okay so you can strip that one for me so again i'm just going to
go for our 11 millimeter strip length okay just uh i can check that on the side okay so let's hold it
and as it's class two you're gonna have to lift the levers uh class ones you can just push them
straight in can't you yeah let's tidy that up i don't know who's been messing with this cable
there we go so trimming it back one at a time aren't we
super snips yep okay so we're going to bring those in again yeah lift the lever and again the
great thing about these connectors in visibility you can see you've made a great connection yeah
that's good yeah clear and then obviously you're going to join them together lift the lever insert
the conductor at 11 mil close that off and if i pull that that is an incredible amount of force
to pull them apart and if you try that in a um in a in a butt crimp or a through crimp you do
get varying results and we found that we had a trip to the gym where we even tried it out we
weren't working out we were hanging weights off them but that's a yeah that's a great
great connection so we've got some applications down here we're going to use it in different ways
in order to join conductors together so where do you want to start which one are we going for
first we'll start with the flex okay there's some flex here all made up ready to go yeah
i've done a bit of the prep work for you yeah and we'll start we've got one of the bases yes
so we've got a carrier here so i just want to bring the uh yeah we'll jump in for this okay
um so these come in one two three and five wear variants and when you say way that's the number
of in-line connectors that can be inserted so this is a three-way yes yeah so people immediately said
oh they do it in single way through what they're going to do double and triple where versions
no they're not because you just use this carrier and you click these in just slots well that makes
sense doesn't it yeah so they're not going to make a larger one of these they're just going to
line them up together so click on to the carrier that's great isn't it because then you don't need
to carry loads of different connectors stock variants yeah so again they're in there nice
and secure lifted the levers okay you bring your flex in now so yeah i should have made those off
hopefully i've yeah just about gone for you so okay so drop those in slide them into position
and then can we tie right in place can't we use these holes here for tie wrapping yeah you can
do the other air first i'll match the colors that would be handy wouldn't it yeah yeah okay
there we go so we've joined that flex through yeah so where you thinking you might be
mounting this obviously you're going to put some tyre wraps in where would you be mounting
this in relationship to an enclosure i mean i think it could be in a in a control panel
possibly even in some trunking there's a there's a question to answer there putting connections
inside uh trunking that's a question i'm sure that's a question for joe robinson to come up
to yeah so there we go so taurep's going to come in there so that will hold that in place
yeah brilliant so that can be mounted inside an enclosure and we've secured the flex with the
tyre apps yeah so that was a simple process wasn't it it's been quite satisfying as well we've been
playing with them off camera like we said for a while now but actually clipping them into place
and they're very tactile aren't they you know yeah there's a nice sensation when obviously installing
any way go connector but that in long wouldn't uh yeah yeah you know if you think if you were using
butter through crimps it takes quite a bit of time to join them together because you're balancing
using the tool inserting the conductor and then obviously yeah you've got to remember the twist
depend on the crimp tool you've got remember to twist the trim yeah yeah nearly all of them have
to flip you got when they didn't but yeah you have to flip it over no issues there at all so
that's uh that's connecting flexible cam together there's another variant of the carrier as well
okay and is that for anything special well if you bring in the camera so you'll see this one
is it's got those little nibs on it yeah yeah so you can punch this through a sort of prepared steel
work so i'm thinking if you're a light fitting manufacturer you punch some holes in your steel
and these little pins will just click in and so they've got little barbs on so they'll snap into
place okay yeah so that's a nice little useful addition and that that just that doesn't have the
the grips on it but again comes in different size options and they've got one that can go in this uh
wago light box as well have we yeah so one of the uh well a few of the variants on the
back of here you can clip an accessory plate okay yeah then it allows it to mount into the into the
juego juego box light yes which is designed for lighting applications and there's also a din rail
mount version of that as well but here's one you prepared one i prepared earlier so again if i just
cut the tie look in here so this is joining uh one millimeter square between the cpc cable to a flex
yeah something regularly done isn't it yeah and we've got a high bare light on the end of there
so if i just pop this out okay and that that plate ah got an extra plate on the back of it yeah you
can see where those nibs are clipped in yeah the accessory plate and that's held it into position
within the box and it goes off to that high bay light there yeah and that's common because lots
of light things i've got another one here as often you see these these panel lights yeah these things
they always come with a short lens for flexible cable and you've got to find a
a reliable connector and that's a great yeah that that was that was brilliant was it was a
simple process wasn't it in order to make those connections and when it's saturn and you clip
that box down there again it goes back to that words i've used earlier on the presentation
sat is fine isn't it yeah i mean that's it it's lovely yeah really good then one other sort of
difference when you think about the test points right there's two isn't there on these there's
two on the original oh right yeah so on the original two two one if we just uh just bring the
corners on the original one you've got a test point in the front there yes and flip it over
you've got a test point in the back yeah yeah so obviously this one obviously squeeze it into the
single one there's a test point in right in the middle of the connector okay well the only way to
do that is to prove it so we've got a metal light fitting over there aren't we so yeah we could do a
continuity from that protective conductor so i'm just going to turn it right i'm going to use our
way guys oh god of this bit wait for the sound champagne like a champagne bottle opening so
i'll do that just put that on too fizzy all round now with test probes okay let's just
go for the continuity test okay so we're going to measure from the actual way go light box to
the fitting itself that protective conductor you're going to check you've got continuity
press that button then and there we go yeah we'll go with acid here right that's good enough for me
sure right okay so let's have a look where this is going to test probably right in the center
there yes right in the center there the good thing about these probes you just look them well
passing is obviously the insulation goes right up to the end of the almost to the end of the
tip yes so that satisfy your gs38 requirements which for such a fine pointed tip and you're
just going onto a bolt there i am yeah that's a bit of a bare metal so we've got a noise running
beep yep we've got a continuity between the center of the protective conductor there on the wago 221
across the metallic light fitting to prove that test point in there yeah so i would argue
actually in this kind of application having that right in the middle i've opened the box up right
i don't have to go into the end of the connector yeah absolutely it actually makes fault finding
and testing a lot easier just a lot easier yeah good point yeah so that little adapter plate in
there great in that existing wago box yeah i mean that's a it's getting we've all been waiting for
it yeah i think we'll be seeing quite a bit of them on the channel and of course i don't think
anyone out there saying this wasn't something that we wanted and i'm sure we're going to have all
the questions below hopefully all positive about this wago 221 inline connector however it is your
feedback that obviously drives us on and drives the community on we will try and answer as many of
the questions you pose in there as we can however if you've got the answer and you can beat us to it
as always please answer it on our behalf and we'll also read your comments and your feedbacks as well