General Pigtail question

When are pigtails required?

It seems like in certain situations where they are recommended all they end up doing is adding another connection that can potentially fail and causing more crowding within the electric box.

 

I believe code requires them for the neutral in multiwire branch circuits and for the equipment grounding conductors.

Other than that I guess I would say that they are required when there aren't enough terminals on the device in question to directly attach all the wires in question in a code compliant manner.

Personally I find it easier to use pigtails as you can fold the big clumps of wires neatly into the back of the box without the device being in the way. Then it's a lot easier to get the device in place while fighting only 3 wires instead of 6 or more.

 

It's my understanding that pig tails are required so that power feed goes through the wire from one receptacle to another without going through the receptacle to feed the other downstream units. One outlet fails the others still work.

However, with a GFCI I think you do in fact daisy chain from outlet to outlet.

Lets wait for Ray to give us the scoop.

 

On a GFCI you can't use pigtails if you are coming off the load side to the next receptacle. Both the neutral and hot must be on the load side. If you are feeding the next receptacle from line then pigtails is an option but the line side of most GFCIs will take two wires so you could connect the next receptacle to the line terminals.

One place I like to use pigtails not mentioned is multiple switches in the same box fed by the same hot. The old way was to use a continuous wire between them with insulation removed from the wire at each terminal. I find using pigtails easier to work with.