[scottyv81]

Kind of a silly question but here goes. I’m repainting our kitchen and want to get rid of the ugly metal phone jack/mount on our wall. We don’t have a land line, just cell phones. I don’t want to remove the wiring entirely in case we or future homeowners need the jack. My thought was to get rid of the big mounting plate base and just connect the wires to a small Cat3 jack. Then stuff the jack into the box and install a blank face plate instead.

My phone wiring has two sets of all wires (two blue, two white/blue, etc). Is this a phone with DSL setup? Can I connect both wires of the same color to the same connector on the Cat3 jack? Or is there a better/easier way to accomplish what I’m trying to do?

 

[Kevin_Essiambre]

Considering it's an old POTS line, here's what I would do.

Connect the pairs together using small wire nuts, adding a piece of wire to each one as tails to go to the IDC CAT3 connector. You'll end up with 3 wires in each wire nut.

IDC connectors don't like having 2 wires in them together.

As long as you keep the same colors together and match them to the jack, you'll be fine.

Blue to blue, blue white to blue white, etc.

Sent from my new phone. Autocorrect may have changed stuff.

 

[RAL238]

I wouldn't use wire nuts to splice the wires. Rather, get some of these IDC connectors, which are meant for just this purpose.



If you bury the wires and splices in the wall, make a record of where the wire is. Measure the distance to the nearest corner and write it down somewhere where you can't lose it, such as by your main electrical panel.

 

[Kevin_Essiambre]

I wouldn't use wire nuts to splice the wires. Rather, get some of these IDC connectors, which are meant for just this purpose.



If you bury the wires and splices in the wall, make a record of where the wire is. Measure the distance to the nearest corner and write it down somewhere where you can't lose it, such as by your main electrical panel.

I was trying to remember the name of those things.

Yes, use these, not wire nuts.

Sent from my new phone. Autocorrect may have changed stuff.

 

[daveb1]

Your plan will work. I would at most just leave the wires in the box and do nothing with them. Next man up can decide what he wants

Personally I would just abandon them inside the wall.

 

[scottyv81]

Thanks all! I’ll grab some of those connectors and get it hooked up. This is just a repaint so not doing any in depth drywall repair. For now I just plan to put a flat cover on it so the box and wires will still be there. But it’ll look a little better than the metal phone mounting plate. I’ll make a call down the road whether we want to abandon the phone lines and completely patch it over.

 

[joed]

I would just twist the matching colours together and stuff them in the wall.

 

[u3b3rg33k]

where did you find a CAT3 jack? CAT5E/6 are the easy ones to find, and more than adequate for pots lines.

 

[Kevin_Essiambre]

where did you find a CAT3 jack? CAT5E/6 are the easy ones to find, and more than adequate for pots lines.

A few of my supply houses stock them, but they're cheaper on Amazon most of the time...

Amazon would be my best guess.

Sent from my new phone. Autocorrect may have changed stuff.

 

[AllanJ]

I would not just twist the wires together (or use IDC or other insulation piercing connectors), stuff them in the wall, and plaster the hole over.

Excellent way to confuse the next homeowner if the splices oxidize and fail. and any documentation got lost.

Now, soldering the connections is safe enough to allow them to be sealed into the wall although I would still prefer that the splices continue to be accessible.

 

[scottyv81]

Thanks again, I ended up using the IDC connectors, and then wiring to the jack. Then I pushed the wires and jack back into the outlet and covered with a flat outlet plate. That way I can still access them, but looks cleaner than the old phone mount. The jack could be wired as Cat3 or Cat5. I didn’t read the box closely in my original post. I picked it up at a big box store.