Old timer told me to ditch the screw terminals for panel connections

Back in 2019 a guy named Pete who'd been installing since the 80s told me to stop using screw terminals on alarm panels and go with punchdown blocks instead. I ignored him for about a year until I had to troubleshoot a residential job in Fresno where three zones kept dropping out, turned out the screws had loosened from vibration. Has anyone else had better luck with one method over the other long term?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_taylor6d agoOG Member

Wait, so the screws literally backed out from vibration? That is insane to me. I have never heard of that happening before, I always figured those screw terminals were solid once you cinched them down good. I have been using punchdowns for years now but I always thought the old screw style was just slower, not actually unreliable. You mean to tell me that a panel vibrates enough to loosen a screw? Was this thing mounted right next to an elevator or a big compressor or something? I would have told Pete he was crazy too but now I am second guessing every screw terminal job I ever did. How long did it take you to find those loose connections?

wyatt_mitchell266d ago

Took me about an hour of wiggling wires before I found the loose ones, check the ones near motors or big pumps first.