Shoutout to the old timer in Phoenix who told me to ditch the screw terminals on outdoor panels

He said they'd corrode in 6 months with the dry heat and dust, and sure enough I went back to a job last week where every single terminal was green and crumbling. Has anyone else found a reliable alternative for exposed box connections?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_john11d ago

I get what you're saying, but I gotta push back on 'cutting corners always comes back to bite you.' That's a pretty blanket statement. Sometimes a shortcut is just a smarter way to do the same job with the same result, not a corner cut. Like the old timer's advice about screw terminals - that's not cutting corners, that's learning from someone who's been there. I've seen plenty of jobs where someone followed the 'right' way by the book and still had failures because they didn't account for the local conditions. If you end up with green corrosion six months later, that's not a shortcut problem, that's a materials problem. Doesn't mean every shortcut is smart, but it also doesn't mean every shortcut is a disaster waiting to happen.

zarat3711d ago

Crazy how cutting corners always comes back to bite you.

casey26811d ago

Depends on what you mean by cutting corners. A lot of times people say that when something takes longer or costs more than they expected. Not every shortcut is a disaster. Sometimes you just find a faster way that works fine. The people who panic about it usually just hate change or want to feel superior about doing things the "right" way. Let's save the drama for when someone actually gets hurt or loses money, not when they skip one step nobody will notice.