Mike Holt what they do better (review 6)

Mike Holt Built the Benchmark

Mike Holt Enterprises has been teaching the NEC since 1975. If you took a code class in the last three decades, odds are the instructor learned from Mike's books, videos, or seminars. That kind of reach earns respect, and any honest comparison has to start there.

Ask BONBON is built for fast field lookups on a phone. Mike Holt's catalog is built for deep learning, exam prep, and continuing education. Those are different jobs, and pretending otherwise would waste your time. Here is what Mike Holt does better, straight up.

Illustrated Explanations Nobody Else Matches

The Understanding the NEC textbooks are the gold standard for visual code teaching. Cutaway drawings of panels, branch circuits, grounding electrode systems, and bonding paths turn abstract rulebook language into something you can actually see. When a first-year apprentice cannot picture what NEC 250.50 is asking for, Mike's diagram of the grounding electrode system fixes it in about ten seconds.

The same goes for tricky articles like NEC 310.16 ampacity adjustments, NEC 408.36 panelboard overcurrent protection, and NEC 250.122 equipment grounding conductor sizing. The books walk through worked examples with full calculations, not just the rule text.

Keep a used copy of Understanding the NEC Volume 1 in the truck. When a green helper asks what bonding actually does, hand them page 250 and let the pictures do the work.

Exam Prep That Actually Passes People

If you are sitting for a journeyman or master exam, Mike Holt's prep materials are hard to beat. The question banks mirror the format of state and ICC exams, and the timed practice tests teach you how to move through a code book under pressure. That is a skill by itself, separate from knowing the code.

Ask BONBON will answer a code question in seconds, but it will not train you to flip to NEC Chapter 9 Table 8 for conductor properties in under thirty seconds on an open book test. For that, you need repetition with real exam-style questions, and Mike's programs deliver.

• Journeyman and master exam prep bundles with video, workbook, and practice exams
• State-specific prep for Florida, Texas, Georgia, and others
• Business and law review for contractor licensing
• Tab and highlight guides for the code book itself

Continuing Education Credits

Mike Holt is an approved CEU provider in most states. That matters when your license renewal is due and you need 6, 8, or 14 hours of approved code update training. The online courses are tracked, reported, and recognized by state boards, which is a regulatory footprint Ask BONBON does not have and does not try to replicate.

If you hold licenses in multiple states, the ability to get credit in Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, and Oregon from a single provider saves a real amount of admin time. That is a grown-up business problem, and Mike solved it years ago.

Code Change Analysis Between Cycles

Every three years the NEC gets a new edition, and Mike Holt's Changes to the NEC videos and textbooks break down what moved, what got added, and what the substantiation was. The 2023 cycle brought significant changes to NEC 210.8 GFCI protection, NEC 230.85 emergency disconnects, and NEC 625 EV charging. Mike's team had the change summaries out before most AHJs had even adopted the new cycle.

That depth of analysis, with panel history and CMP reasoning, is research work. An app cannot replicate it in a snippet. If you are on a commercial job where the inspector wants to know why the new rule exists, not just what it says, Mike's change analysis is where the answer lives.

Before a jurisdiction adopts a new cycle, watch the Mike Holt change video once. You will walk into the next pre-construction meeting knowing more than the GC about what just shifted.

A Community and a Forum That Outlasts Trends

The Mike Holt forum has been running since the late 1990s and still has working inspectors, master electricians, and engineers answering questions daily. Search the archive for a weird situation, something like parallel feeders in separate raceways under NEC 300.3(B)(1), and you will find a thread from 2008 with a detailed answer that still applies.

That archive is a genuine resource. Reddit threads die, YouTube comments rot, but the Mike Holt forum has stayed technical and moderated for a long time. When you want a second opinion from people who have actually wired the thing you are trying to wire, it is still one of the best places on the internet.

Where Each Tool Fits

Use Mike Holt when you are learning, prepping for an exam, earning CEUs, or researching the why behind a code rule. Use Ask BONBON when you are on a ladder at 2pm with the inspector due at 3 and you need to know whether NEC 314.16(B) box fill allows that fourth 12 AWG in a 4 square by 1-1/2.

Different jobs, different tools. Both belong in a serious electrician's kit, and pretending otherwise does not help anyone in the trade.