AlumiConn are fine and approved, but have to be installed to manufacturer’s very specific instructions including torque on the screws which is way beyond our SoP to determine. Purple wire nuts are UL rated and conform to NEC 110.14, BUT the CPSC considers them to be a temporary repair and to be used for a temporary repair, the wire ends must be abraded and twisted which is beyond the manufacturer’s instructions.
There is the short and not so sweet of it. The not so sweet is what should a HI report? Hard to report that the purple wire nut is bad when they are UL approved. My two cents are to report what you saw with the asterisk that Ideal no.65 purple wire nuts are UL approved, but considered a temporary repair by the CPSC.
Inspectors don’t understand this, how would an ordinary home buyer? Buyers just want to know what to do and or if it is safe. What are the issues with UL listed but considered temporary fix by CPSC? Should they be replaced, looked at by electrician, left alone? What should I do as a homebuyer?
When a client asks me about what I would do if I was them, I say that I would replace purple wire nuts with the Copalum or AlumiConn. I have never seen a melted purple wire nut and only one purple wire nut pigtail splice that was loose, but then I rarely open up receptacles and switches.
Though the Copalum and AlumiConn are far superior, the thing with any of these pigtail fixes, is that the installer (whether electrician or not) has to do it correctly on every single splice when doing 250-300 splices in an average size home. Is the tech or handyman or DIYer going to get every one of them perfect? My experience is that wire nuts in general, are the easiest to screw up among the choices we are discussing.
For us simple home inspectors, it is way beyond not only our SoP but what we are qualified to do, to access every single pigtail and evaluate them. If we go so far as to open up an outlet cover here or there, we simply, report what we see. Purple wire nut splices are more of an observation than a concern IMHO, but since I know what the CPSC says about them, I feel obligated to pass that on.