# Service connectors



## boots 211 (Aug 21, 2009)

Do any of you use Ampact wedge connectors for connecting service conductors to triplex, If so where do you purchase them?


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

Never heard of them, I just looked them up, they look interesting. 

Can I ask why you want to use these particular connectors?

For me, I use aluminum barrel reducers (set screw butt splices, they have many names). They are easy to use, Home Depot sells them cheap ($5 each) and they are easy to insulate.


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## boots 211 (Aug 21, 2009)

Its what the local utility companies around us. They say much better connection. Some use the crimp on linkettes, but they don't like them cause water gets in and freeze in winter, can loosen connections.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

boots 211 said:


> Its what the local utility companies around us. They say much better connection. Some use the crimp on linkettes, but they don't like them cause water gets in and freeze in winter, can loosen connections.


Around here the power company no longer uses crimps, they use typical parallel groove connectors. They come back after we change the service and replace our connectors with their own.

The Ampact wedge connector that you are talking about requires a powder actuated tool to install the connector, looks expensive. I can't see anyone here using them to terminate a service, but we'll see


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## boots 211 (Aug 21, 2009)

Tool is expensive, but sometimes they happen to fall off a truck. They do make a great connection. After some experience with the tool they go on fast also


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## cabletie (Feb 12, 2011)

Never heard of them. 

My local supply house stocks the Blackburn WR "H" taps. The WR stands for wide range. There is seven H crimp sizes for every combination up to 4/0. You can use them for butt splices or run and tap. You can buy one crimp tool that has the size O and D built into the head and splice the whole range. The taps are a buck a piece. Easy to rubber tape them or buy the plastic covers. 

You can find the crimp tool on eBay for less than $100. Many O and D crimpers also accept the W dies, so you can also use colored W style dies in the same crimp tool.


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## MechanicalDVR (Dec 29, 2007)

boots 211 said:


> Tool is expensive, but sometimes they happen to fall off a truck. They do make a great connection. After some experience with the tool they go on fast also


You could waste a lot of time following trucks around...


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## mbednarik (Oct 10, 2011)

I actually found a ampact tool in a road ditch a couple of years ago, never actually used it though.


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## drewsserviceco (Aug 1, 2014)

cabletie said:


> Never heard of them.
> 
> My local supply house stocks the Blackburn WR "H" taps. The WR stands for wide range. There is seven H crimp sizes for every combination up to 4/0. You can use them for butt splices or run and tap. You can buy one crimp tool that has the size O and D built into the head and splice the whole range. The taps are a buck a piece. Easy to rubber tape them or buy the plastic covers.
> 
> You can find the crimp tool on eBay for less than $100. Many O and D crimpers also accept the W dies, so you can also use colored W style dies in the same crimp tool.



This is what I use, fast, easy, cheap and it is exactly what the utility co. uses. 

PECO rarely (never) comes behind you to terminate POA and I feel a lot better with a crimp connection.


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## cabletie (Feb 12, 2011)

Without looking at the size chart, I wanted to say that all residential services up to 200A would use one size. I don't know, maybe it's two. 

Here central New Jersey uses JCP&L. The parent company owns utility companies through PA into Ohio. An EC can do his own residential D&R up to 200 amps. So same here, the utility is not inspecting or coming back to splice it. I think JCP&L charges $275.00 to do a residential D&R. 

I started this trade closer to Hacks, with a different utility. I remember having to drive to New Brunswick (where I was born) to pick up the utility supplied meter pan. The permit was also filed there. My boss always used romex connectors as temporary bugs. Split bolts cost to much to be thrown out.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

cabletie said:


> Without looking at the size chart, I wanted to say that all residential services up to 200A would use one size. I don't know, maybe it's two.
> 
> Here central New Jersey uses JCP&L. The parent company owns utility companies through PA into Ohio. An EC can do his own residential D&R up to 200 amps. So same here, the utility is not inspecting or coming back to splice it. I think JCP&L charges $275.00 to do a residential D&R.
> 
> I started this trade closer to Hacks, with a different utility. I remember having to drive to New Brunswick (where I was born) to pick up the utility supplied meter pan. The permit was also filed there. My boss always used romex connectors as temporary bugs. Split bolts cost to much to be thrown out.


I find myself in JCP&L's territory every once in a while, but most of my work is in PSE&G's territory. 

I used to do the romex connector thing a long time ago, but now I use the barrel splices. For $5 each they are easy and work well and I don't have to worry if PSE&G never comes back and upgrades the line or resplices.

IMO, the H taps you use are much more work and add an extra layer of danger to the job. They require both conductors to be in the splice at once, unlike the barrel splices (like Insultaps) in which you can crimp it on each conductor separately. This is important because you also need to have both hands on the large crimp tool, while hanging off an extension ladder. That part is what I don't like so much.

I choose to avoid all of that, the set screw barrel reducer is so easy to install and safer to do off a ladder, IMO. The end result is the same, a block of aluminum pressured against the wires.

PSE&G used to use barrel crimps, but they had the gun to do it making it easier. Now they use parallel groove connectors everywhere.


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## drewsserviceco (Aug 1, 2014)

cabletie said:


> Without looking at the size chart, I wanted to say that all residential services up to 200A would use one size. I don't know, maybe it's two.
> 
> Here central New Jersey uses JCP&L. The parent company owns utility companies through PA into Ohio. An EC can do his own residential D&R up to 200 amps. So same here, the utility is not inspecting or coming back to splice it. I think JCP&L charges $275.00 to do a residential D&R.
> 
> I started this trade closer to Hacks, with a different utility. I remember having to drive to New Brunswick (where I was born) to pick up the utility supplied meter pan. The permit was also filed there. My boss always used romex connectors as temporary bugs. Split bolts cost to much to be thrown out.



I usually stock 3 sizes, (there's a wider range on the package, hence the name, but these are what I'm usually tying together) #2-#6acsr for 100A, 4/0-#6acsr for 200A and 4/0-4/0 for repairs.


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## lightman (Oct 14, 2015)

I'm kinda late to this, but I have used a lot of these. You will need to find a supply house that deals with electrical distribution material. Sometimes the Rep will give you the tool if you stock the connectors. Burndy makes these too. You also need the shell that powers these, so its an expensive connection.

Its more suited for use on a distribution pole than at a weatherhead. Its a big connector and the tool is probably 16+ inches long, and heavy. Theres not much extra room around a weatherhead with 3 or even 4 wires. The tool uses a charge to shoot them on. It looks like a shotgun shell. You can also shoot them off to open a connection and then reuse them. You load the shell into the tool, put the connector with the 2 wires and the wedge into the tool, tighten it up and smack it with something (linemans pliers). Then you open the tool to release the trapped gas from the shell.

The WR type connectors would be a cheaper and better choice for making up services.


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

HackWork said:


> I find myself in JCP&L's territory every once in a while, but most of my work is in PSE&G's territory.
> 
> I used to do the romex connector thing a long time ago, but now I use the barrel splices. For $5 each they are easy and work well and I don't have to worry if PSE&G never comes back and upgrades the line or resplices.
> 
> ...


Join the bucket truck mafia, and it is amazing how less often the extension ladder has to leave the truck. :whistling2:


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