When fitting plug socket face plates, should you ‘twist’ the common cores from the ring and any spurs together before connecting into each of the terminals ?

If you ask that question on an electricians forum you’ll get a 300 page thread. Its up there with ‘is 650b better than 26″?’

Not an electrician but I thought twisted wires were a big no, no. Instead cut the wires cleanly so that you can insert them all fully into the terminals on the face plate to get a secure connection when the screws are tightened up.

Personally I don’t twist, cut back just enough insulation on your twin and Earth, tighten the screw, pull each conductor to make sure they don’t come out and you’re good.

As spectraken.

Twisted cores make fault diagnosis difficult should it be necessary to break the ring.

Other electricians may differ.

Rich.

Sinlge core (as a ring main is most liekly to be although it is allowable to be multi core flex) I say NO!. Always give the cable(s) a tug with some needle nose when they are in though to check for a good secure connection.

twisting is useful when you are setting it all up and are going to be leaving the wiring without face plates on for a while to keep it all set up ready but I would say no for a few reasons (bulk into fitting, changes/tests etc). Use a bit of tape to keep the pairs together if leaving them without faceplates on for a while instead.

I’m not an spark and have never twisted and / or seen twisted cores during years of DIY until changing some bits on our current house. However, the general appearance of the exisitng wiring (neat cable runs, etc) gives the impression that the current wiring was done by someone that really cares about their work, so it got me thinking.

I agree that giving the fixing the cores separately and giving each a good tug (phnar) is sensible and is what I have previosuly done. However, presumably by twisting the cores togeter you are not relying on the socket terminal to carry the rest of the currrent /amps to the remaining main and sockets ? IF the face plate termianal screws ever became loose, perhaps by being pulled away from the back box during decorating, etc. (very unlikely I admit) presumably twisted cores would provide better contiunity around the rest of the main and minimise the potential for arcing ??

I’ve put them back how they were, i.e. twisted.

I always twist them together, mainly as the screw can be quite narrow wrt the hole and twisting gives a better chance of getting a bite on each core / compressing the whole lot.

I wouldn’t, but that’s purely on the basis that they could be twisted too much, causing them to break.

No twisting from me, if the copper gets scored when stripping the insulation then it creates a weak point and the conductor can snap if it gets bent/moved a few times. Seen it countless times.

I don’t twist either.