the old one looked pretty scary eh? look at that cracked casing on the the neutral line in the last image?
I'm very pleased that I was able to install a new outlet in the uptairs hallway. I don't necessarily need to replace all the two-prong outlets in the house, but this outlet was in really poor shape, very loose, and probably not very safe. For right now, I was not able to ground this outlet because we only have pvc piping in our basement, and I will need a professional to come back and fish down a very long grounding line, that he can then run along the basement ceiling and attach to one of the metal outlet boxes in the basement. If we are unable to reach a grounding location, as a last resort, a gfci can be easily installed in place of the current open-ground three prong. I feel confident that the new outlet is much safer than the previous outlet however.
The previous outlet had been installed upside down, which is the reason why plugs never really stayed in it correctly. I discovered that the reason for this was that the splice inside made it difficult to move the wires to the correct terminal sides. The wires in this box were pretty brittle and not in very good shape, but that happens when you have an outlet that's been tugged on so many times for so many years becuse it was loose in the box. The new outlet won't allow any tugging on the lines.
I did have to install the new outlet upside down. I'm proud that I was skilled enough to know that the terminals were previously reversed before installing the new outlet. It's really no big deal. We'll just have to plug things in upside down, but now the plug won't fall right out and the lines will not be at risk for further damage.
Cutting the wires, and re-strpping them allowed for a much more secure connection. I carefully wrapped everything with electrical tape and we now have a very secure, and safe three prong outlet. It is not grounded yet, but will cause no harm. We will not be plugging in power tools at this location which is the only reason you would need it in case of a dangerous malfunction, where there is risk of electric shock, and the circuit breaker would need to quickly shut down the line.
just don't tell that to the city...
1 comment:
There are some people who say that it's better to install the outlets upside-down. The logic behind this is that if the cord should be jostled loose and something should fall on it, it will hit the ground wire rather than the live one, and therefore be less likely to cause a fire or electrocution.
I feel your pain. Almost all of our outlets are original, and most of them can't hold a plug very well.
Nice to see another Ohio houseblogger!
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