Which is better Wago or wire nuts?

In the end, both connectors work great, with Wagos being more expensive. But if you don’t mind spending the money, Wagos seem to have some real advantage over nuts for ease of use, speed of application, and reusability.

In this GreatScott! video, Scott decides to compare the wire nut connectors, common in the US against Wago connectors, more common in Europe. Scott tests for ease of use, problems, speed of application, reusability, size, price, pull test, resistance, and flammability.

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I have wondered the same thing among more differences in electrical standards and practices.

My hypothesis on wagos has two/three parts:

Backstabs:

Due to bad design the backstab in the standard us outlet, where there is a single point of copper that acts as a mechanical lock, mechanical spring and electrical conductor, there is a high chance of failure when using this port.

Due to the similar mode of operation (push wire in hole) it may be incurrectly assumed that the same issues are present in wago connectors. Here however, the conducting element is pushed on the wire by a spring and a separate element makes sure it can't fall out.

Lower voltage / Higher current

Due to the fact that the us commonly uses 120v, opposed to Europe where 230v is the norm, currents in the US for the same load are doubled.

For the same terminal block, with a low but non-zero resistance, the powerloss in that part is 4 times higher in that part. This will heat up the terminal much more. Especially on a backstab the expansion and contraction of the connector will make a bad connection worse.

Culture

This is just hypothetical, so feel free to disagree.

It seems to me that the US has a much higher valuation of craftmanship in electrical work. The ability to make a proper wirenut connection or to bent the wire for a screw connection are valued.

This combined with much stricter rules on who is allowed to do electrical work keeps the old practices alive. (This statement seems to be false, see comments)

The standardization of outlets and switches may also play a role, I believe the design is pretty much frozen.

In the Netherlands there is, I think, much less faith in the capability of hired craftsman. There are less rules on who is allowed to do electrical work and there is no such thing (anymore) as a mandatory inspection of the electrical work by a homeowner. There are standards to which an outlet has to conform, but the actual design of the device is left to the manufacturer.

This combined with the high costs of labour has lead to easy to install wirenuts, outlets and switches.

The case for wirenuts

When properly made, a wirenut itself has no current running through it, it just makes a wire-to-wire connection by pressing them together. A wago-style bloc actually conducts the current itself and thus consists of a wire-to-nut and a nut-to-wire connection. So in theory a wirenut will have a lower resistance and lower heat-development.

When NOT properly made, however, a wirenut is no more than the wires loosely twisted together.

The case for wago-like terminals

It is very easy to install a wago-like terminal correctly, to the point that almost anyone can do it. Due to the per-wire spring it is less likely that the entire nut fails due to thermal and/or mechanical stress, only a single wire will get loose.

A final advantage is that it is trivial to add a wire (provided you have connection holes left) to an existing terminal.

Personal experience

I am not an electrician, but I have some professional experience in electrical work for high-current systems and a lot of DIY experience rewiring my house.

I would never consider using wirenuts, primarily for ease of use. Wirenuts may have a lower unit price, the extra time needed to install is more expensive.

When visiting this SE I am always surprised by the design of the outlets, with large exposed copper conductors, big screws and still the same, broken, backstab ports.

In contrast the sockets I've installed in my house have spring-loaded terminals and a molded inner cover making them touch-safe even without the coverplate.