Electrical Outlets Upside Down? Code?

[HerHusband]

Sheesh, what's with all the loose screws and plugs falling out of outlets? :)

I can't recall EVER seeing a loose cover plate screw. Assuming they were tightened when installed, why would the screw work loose? The screw would not only have to loosen up, but it would have to back out a half inch for the cover plate to fall off. Even if that were to happen, a plastic cover plate would solve that problem.

- Use a quality outlet with a plastic cover plate.

- Don't use the back-stab connectors.

- Make sure the plug is fully inserted into the outlet.

- Position the cord where it won't get snagged to pull the plug out.

- Eliminate situations where things could fall on the outlet.

- Use a protective cover if the risk cannot be avoided.

Orient the outlet however the inspector wants it, or what works best for your situation or personal preference.

Anthony Watson

[Sam E]

[snip]

The broken link led to a nice picture of a dog.

The receptacle cover should keep metal objects from falling in. At least until someone gets tired of dealing with it and removes it.

[snip]

[bob_villa]

was* caused by it being "prong up", a hospital bed was *raised* and came be tween the wall and 2 prongs. The other was a pull chain that was too long a nd hitting the hot wire. In the 2nd case up or down would have made no diff erence.

...if I wasn't clear on this, "prong up" meant "ground prong up".

[hrhofmann]

I haven't. My hedge trimmer doesn't have it's own cord, just a plug built into a recessed area of the handle. The socket end of an extension cord connects directly to that plug and is held in by a molded hook.

Now ask me about cutting the *extension cord* with my hedge trimmer

I have the same type of trimmer, and several various length extension cords to use depending on how far from the house I have to go. I just checked, at least one of my 5 extension cords does not have a band of tape where I n icked/cut it. Of course, that is over 40+ years of use so I guess it is no t too bad.

[TimR]

ds to use depending on how far from the house I have to go. I just checked , at least one of my 5 extension cords does not have a band of tape where I nicked/cut it. Of course, that is over 40+ years of use so I guess it is not too bad.

Several of my extension cords are not as long as when I bought them.

[DerbyDad03]

ords to use depending on how far from the house I have to go. I just check ed, at least one of my 5 extension cords does not have a band of tape where I nicked/cut it. Of course, that is over 40+ years of use so I guess it i s not too bad.

Many years ago my (then) teenage son got hired by a well-to-do family friend to help him clean out his garage. When I went to pick him I saw a 50' 12g extension cord - on a reel - on top of the trash pile. It looked almost brand new, so I grabbed it and tossed it in the car.

When I got home I found that the cord had been cut about 6' from one end. It was held together just by a piece of the outer jacket.

I bought a plug and socket and turned it into a 6' cord and a 44' cord. It's 15 years later and I still use both of them. I remember explaining to my son what happens when you have more money than you know what to do with.

[hrhofmann]

Ed Pawlowski

8:26 PM (1 hour ago)

Define cut. Clear through? Nope, never did that. Lets not get into details such as cutting through the insulation and other meaningless trivial facts.

You don't have to cut clean thru to have a problem, just severing one of th e two/three conductors will stop things pretty effectively. I have been k nown to repair that type of failure by inserting a bare copper wire a coupl e of inches long into the two cut ends to reestablish conductivity for that conductor, and then taping over the whole thing. That works fine as long as the insulation over the unsevered conductor(s) is/are intact, and the co rd is not flexed too much.

[Paintedcow]

Just wrap electrical tape around the hot terminal on all plugs!

[bob haller]

homes in florida often have outlets in the same home orientated both ways

ground pin down for always on, ground pin up for switched outlets

[hrhofmann]

homes in florida often have outlets in the same home orientated both ways

ground pin down for always on, ground pin up for switched

That's interesting, but I never heard of it 60+ years ago when I worked for an electrician during high school and college in Florida. (Of course, back then most wiring outlets were just hot and neutral. 3-prong outlets were for industrial use.)

[TomR]

I wonder why that would be the criteria for ground pin up vs. down.

[gfretwell]

It is just done as a way to identify switched outlets. On a "half hot" the bottom one is switched.

[Fred McKenzie]

I have two switched outlets. One has ground pin down with the switch on top. Left is off, right is on.

The other is horizontal. The switch is on the left, outlet on the right so ground pin is to the right. Down is off, up is on.

The outlet for my washing machine was installed when my house was renovated 15 years ago. The ground pin was up, but the power cord plugged in "upside down". I eventually got tired of looking at the cord folding over and rotated the outlet.

All of the other outlets were installed with the ground pin down. This includes the separately switched garbage disposal outlet under the sink.

Fred in Florida

[thekmanrocks]

bob haller:

Understand the reasoning behind it, but I think it would make sense the other way round:

Always on: Ground pin up Switched: pin down.

[Nil]

On 04 Oct 2016, bob haller wrote in alt.home.repair:

That's the first good reason I've heard here for doing it one way over the other. I'm tempted to turn some of the outlets in my house around like that!

[Neill Massello]

Every 120V major appliance (refrigerator, air conditioner, etc) I've seen has had a plug designed for the ground pin on the bottom. Counter-top kitchen appliances with grounds (like microwave ovens) usually have a straight plug.

To me, the whole ground on top thing smacks of safety theater. Exposed prongs are a safety hazard no matter what the plug's orientation. Putting the ground on top just makes is slightly harder to insert a plug into the outlet.

[FromTheRafters]

It happens that Oren formulated :

And if they want to come turn them upside down again by force, let 'em try - I still have a gun to defend my castle. :)

Seems a lot like the old Lilliputian big endian little endian conflict.

[Mark Lloyd]

Is there some reason for that, other than it would mean most of the receptacles would be ground-up.

Also, how would you install a duplex receptacle where only one side is switched?

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Why would it be harder? Either way, you have to orient the plug in a certain way.

I suspect it's just the "the way it is is best" fallacy.

[DerbyDad03]

You cut the tab between the 2 Hot screws and wire one with a switched hot wire and the other with an "always hot" wire (or another switched hot).

Here is the basic concept for one switched receptacle, the actual physical wiring can vary. Note the missing connection between the 2 hot screws. The tab for the neutrals is left intact.