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I'm not an electrician.

Light fixture has terrible installation instructions. I bought two. I pig-tailed one. I used 14-2 Type UF for the pig-tail because I didn't have 2' of Romex at the time.

In the past I've always mounted lights to a box and grounded the box. This fixture wants you to mount their disk and there is no grounding screw.

Can you review my connections for anything blatantly wrong or dangerous?

It works fine. I just fear arcing or something similar.

Fixture 1

Fixture 2

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    I am interested to learn how people come to believe false things about safety systems; can you say a bit about why you thought that putting tape on wire nuts was a good practice? Nov 13, 2019 at 23:03
  • @Eric Lippert I'm not sure what "safety systems" you are referring to, however, I taped this to keep the wire nuts & wires in place hoping to avoid the thin fixture wires from pulling out of the nut and possibly making contact with the plate. It was tight in there. More OCD than any specific safety reason.
    – Marinaio
    Nov 14, 2019 at 2:27
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    Wire nuts are components of a system designed to keep humans and their property safe from damage; as you note, you put tape on them in the belief that doing so was additional mitigation of a potential safety issue. The fact that you did so given your stated reason indicates that you have an interest in safety but lack the knowledge to implement that safety system correctly. The correct mitigation to wires pulling out is never tape. The correct mitigation is using an appropriately-sized nut that the wires will not pull out from! Nov 14, 2019 at 3:06
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    Another explanation I've heard -- that should terrify you -- is "I put tape on because I could see exposed copper wire at the wide end of the nut". Obviously, again, the homeowner there was safety-conscious but not competent to implement the mitigation correctly; the correct mitigation there is to cut the exposed part of the wire short enough that no bare copper is visible, not to put a hunk of tape on it. Nov 14, 2019 at 3:08
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    I just always pull fairly hard on the wires in the wire nut to make sure they stay put. If not, I redo it. Wire nuts can fool you sometimes. I think tape would not effectively secure a wire that was loose. Nov 14, 2019 at 13:43

4 Answers 4

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I'm not going to swear to this but I'm pretty sure you need an electrical box installed and this disk attached to it. The feed wires enter the box with the correct clamps. See photo below. Then ground the box and the disk get grounded when screwed to the box but that's not needed because the fixture has its own ground wire. You don't need to tape the wire nuts

enter image description here

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As Jack noted, you really really need a junction box here. As mounted, the wires could rub against the metal plate. A pancake might be overkill, though (and you do need a NM clamp for those). I would recommend a joist junction box instead

joist junction box

It's fan rated, requires no clamps, and you can attach your plate to it easily. Oh, and you don't need to ground a plastic box.

In the past I've always mounted lights to a box and grounded the box. This fixture wants you to mount their disk and there is no grounding screw.

As long as the fixture itself is grounded (which is has a ground wire in that green/yellow stripe) then the plate will also be grounded through the screws.

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    It has no crossbar, hickey hole, or mounting screws. How do you hang a fixture on it?
    – Mazura
    Nov 14, 2019 at 0:29
  • This box comes with three wood screws, two of which I assume are supposed to pass through the fixture's cross-bar, then through the two oval holes in this box, and into the stud/rafter.
    – X Goodrich
    Nov 14, 2019 at 0:41
  • The third screw goes through the "recessed" hole to attach it to the stud.
    – JACK
    Nov 14, 2019 at 12:56
  • @Mazura - I had the same question. The part number appears to be "s1-16-fan". This PDF is the best I could find for installation directions - static.graybar.com/content-resource/pdf/…
    – Freiheit
    Nov 14, 2019 at 16:22
  • It looks like you're supposed to attach the fixture to the stud or joist through the elongated holes using the screws shown in the picture but I am not sure.
    – Freiheit
    Nov 14, 2019 at 16:22
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Yes, that job as-done is incorrect, though I could see where a novice working with poor instructions might think it is correct.

You need one of the types of boxes mentioned by Jack or Machavity.

In particular, note how you have the Romex or UF coming through the oval holes. I get where that makes sense. However actually those oval holes are variable screw-mount holes, for fixture mounting studs (just like the ones currently in use, but with a narrower range of spacing). They don't have grommets or edge protection so they would eventually chew into the cable sheath.

You must enter the boxes with proper cable clamps, assuming the box doesn't have cable clamps built-in as many do. Note that Jack's box is made for conduit piping, with standard knockouts. You can get cable clamps that fit in a knockout, but they also make metal boxes with cable clamps built-in. Plastic boxes have only cable clamps and don't even have knockouts (since metal conduit grounds through the metal box).

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I hired an electrician...here is what he did:

He used a pancake box with what looks like a one way grommet/clamp that wires can't pull backwards. NOTE: I lucked out that I wanted the light exactly where the studs lie.

Romex ground to green box screw - connected to ground fixture wire - says the two screws of the fixture create the ground for the light.

He screwed fixture plate to the box.

no tape on wire nuts (his wire nuts have a small rubber extension sleeve). - He says 3 turns is to code

My wiring wasn't wrong; He says (as was pointed out in the replies) that someone in the future might pull on the wire further down the line and it prevents it from being yanked off the fixture.

Creds to everyone who replied! - it set me on a course to do it right.

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