Such a poor connection would probably asl show signs of having been very hot. In such case, you would have measured somewhere around half voltage across the element and the other half across the bad connection. Wago) connectors and the and neutral wires are more physically separate from each other, I regard the pig-tail method of feeding outlets to have a much larger margin of safety than using the receptacle for feeding the next downstream outlet. You must have had a bad connection that was dropping about half of the voltage and so lowering the heat capacity. Since outlet pig tails and branch circuit feeders are held together with wire-nuts or push-in (e.g. They sell a bag with an assortment of sizes, I'd experiment until they work right for you. When they work right, they bind pretty tight and the wires will not pull out of the nut. Something is wrong with how you are using them. (As AC electricity it is actually two legs that are 180 degrees out of phase but they work in a push/pull effect.) If you remove either of the legs from that element, the result is that no current can flow so no heat. 1 Yes, wire nuts are very reliable and I've never had one fall off spontaneously like that. Your water heater element has what amounts to +120V on one end of the element and -120Vtothe other, giving you an effective voltage of 240V. A house has two legs from a 240V transformer that has a center tap tied to neutral and each phase is then 120v to the neutral line. The reason that I asked for the explanation is that as a career electrical service technician, I think you missed something. My hot water heater would only get warm because was only getting 110 and not 220. John T Longggggggggggg retired n rusty electrical engineer NOT up on the latest Codes and practices SO NO WARRANTY, things may have changed grrrrrrrrrrrrrr lol While typically not required a person could solder wires then then use wire nuts for added coverage, mechanical strength and protection, with tape to follow, but proper wire nut installation with added twists and expansion loops for vibration and expansion/contraction was all "usually" necessary.……. In the workshops and seminars and when we instructed our electricians and contractors we stressed for added mechanical strength there be a few extra wire turns outside the nuts themselves and where room allowed there be adequate slack and loops to allow for vibration and expansion/contraction. As an alternative, the Amphenol FCI Clincher connectors were designed with thicker leads. If installed PROPERLY I saw few failures. Connectors are used to join subsections of circuits together. In my professional life in the electrical industry (Power Distribution) it was my experience and observation that when such a failure occurred, IT WAS OFTEN "NOT" THE WIRE NUTS THEMSELVES BUT THEIR IMPROPER INSTALLATION. My question is, is wire nuts a good practice in this area
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