Why the extra wire?
#1
Member
Thread Starter
Why the extra wire?
This is a sketch of just the white common wires that are capped together with 2 pigtails inside a switchbox. I found it odd that there's an EXTRA wire joining the two pigtails together. Why would they wire it like that???

#4
The extra pigtail shown is unnecessary. Whoever installed it probably lost track of which wires went where.in the jumble of wires and confined space of the box.
AndyRooney voted this post useful.
#10
Yes, path leads to the same place. Parallel. It's not that it won't work but it is a code violation. NEC must have found that it causes safety issues.
AndyRooney, Norm201 voted this post useful.
#12
Depends on brand. Even winged vs. normal can be different so I look at the box. Usually the colors follow something like this:



Last edited by Astuff; 05-15-20 at 01:20 PM. Reason: Needed to add some color to this thread.
#14
#15
I'm betting a bigger wire nut was not available and using the pigtails did the job.