Plastic or Brn Resin boxes which is best
My electrician started today and used the brown phenolic resin boxes and I called him and said I thought the blue plastic boxes were more durable and prefered.
His response was that he, and all the electricians he knows use them and they are prefered to the blue plastic for fire resistance and ease of use (if he ever needs to fish a wire again and tap into the box by breaking out a larger hole/corner).
I am not going to argue with him, but what’s your opinion? I just think they strip and break too easily. Thx. P.S. he’s already hung them so weather I want it or not, I am going with the brown boxes he’s installed already.
Replies
I think he is right. The blue ones are the least expensive. That's why you see so many of them.
Bought a bunch of blue boxes a while back for a house I'm doing. They were a lot more rugged than the old blue boxes I had seen. I used all metal in the houses I wired twenty years ago.I read once whar the fire resistance of the various boxes were. But if someone just breaks another hole in whatever is consideresd the best, the fire resistance has to be lessened.Just another 2 cents-Paul
I was brought up with metal boxes and flexible conduit. Alot of the homes we remodeled had steel flexible conduit in them. The aluminum was a step down. I couldn't understand why someone would put romex in a wall.
For fire resistance and ease of use, I think metal is a better way to go. I say that as a homeowner trying to use 50 y.o. phenolic boxes - most of which the threads have stripped out. I've tried blue plastic, and found them way too easy to deform.
Granted, I'm completely incompetent.
Tu stultus es
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
I prefer the resin boxes because they're stiffer and I have a bit more confidence in their fire resistance. But the difference is really minimal -- I say let the guy doing the work pick out what he likes.
I am just a hack, but I have blown threw the side of the blue boxes with a roto zip during the drywall process.
The cheap blue are that, cheap.
Edited 1/22/2009 1:33 pm ET by cameraman