Best Practice for Too Many Neutrals in a 4-Gang Box

Switches Wiring Discussion
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1

I’m in the process of installing White dimmers throughout our new house and ran into a dilemma. The box in the master bath is a 4-gang with eight 14-2 Romex cables. There is 1 feed, 2 outs, and loads for a fan, and 3 lights. (There are 2 cables for 2 vanity lights which are pigtailed to one switch.)

All 8 neutrals were on one red 432 wire nut, which is not to code. The limit is 6. (My builder is going to hear about that.)

With the other installs so far, I’ve been adding a pigtail to the neutral wire nut and connecting that to either a 3 or 5 position Wago for the switch neutral wires. However in this case that will not work.

I’m considering the following two options. Space is at a minimum, so I’m hoping this all fits.

  1. Put the feed, 2 outs, and 2 pigtails on a wire nut or Wago. Connect one of the pigtails to the 5 load neutrals and the other pigtail to the 4 stranded wires for the switch neutrals.

  2. Put the feed, 2 outs, one load neutral, and 1 pigtail on a wire nut or Wago. Connect the pigtail to one switch and daisy chain the neutrals to the other 3. Connect the other 4 load neutrals to each of the corresponding switches using the 2nd terminal on the switch.

Any advice is appreciated. Nothing is connected and the breaker is off until I figure this out.

2

I’ve done both of these approaches in the past. It depends on how full the box is and how much room you have to work in it.

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3

Stranded wire is a lot easier to deal with than solid (esp in tight boxes), so if you are going to do some new pigtailing / daisy-chaining, it may be worth picking some up – many hardware store (big-box and local) sell it by-the-foot.

4

Either will work, but the daisy chain has the advantage of being able to lay the daisy chain hoops on the bottom of the box, allowing you to fold the bundles on top of them.

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5

This and use Wago lever nuts because they are flat

6

Thanks for the replies. I decided to use option 1 with a 5-position Wago for the switch neutrals. This is what I did with my other 4-gang boxes. It was a tight fit and took a lot of patience. A stool brought everything to eye level and is nightly recommended. :blush:

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7

I just installed around 25 white switches in my new house (just built) and had several 4 gang boxes… (ugh…). I did the same approach and used the daisy-chain on a few where I had to.
I was able to condense one whole switch out of the mix with my Minka ceiling fans using a Minka light/fan combo switch(and fan is wifi enabled with bond so I automate there, the switch is for guests).

It was a challenge in some boxes, Master bathroom for example with 4gang had to daisy chain.

all working very well… outside of the “lazy press” issue I have where you press the switch on the edges and it doesn’t work… requires a good firm middle of button press.

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8

Same here.