Electrical switch -- no longer controls outlets -- Help??

So, I decided to spend Christmas Eve replacing a wall outlet that no longer held electrical plugs very well.

Swapped out the single white wire, the single red wire, the single black wire and connected the green ground wire.

Now, said outlet works fine....but...

Originally, I had a wall switch across the room that turned off the power to the outlet I just replaced, as well as to a second outlet in the same room.

Now, the wall switch no longer controls the power to the outlets.

The wall toggle switch can be on or off, doesn't matter, power still flows to both outlets.

What did I screw up. In other words, how can I get it back to where when I put the toggle switch to off, both table lamps turn off....

Reply to
tim birr
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Typically you only need black, white, and ground for a receptacle. The presence of a red wire leads me to believe that only half the recep was controlled by the switch and that the other half was always hot. Do you still have the recep that you removed? Fish it out of the trash, I bet you will find that between the two screws on the neutral side there is a tab bridging the two connections, but on the hot side that tab will have been broke noff. So if that is the case pull the new recep out and break that tab off (do I need to say turn off the power?) and whichever side of the recep is connected to the switch, probably the red wire not the black, will now be controlled by the switch again.

good luck

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

That is the solution for a common problem with outlets that are replaced by people who are not familiar with this method of wiring switched outlets.

Reply to
EXT

There are "break off" tabs between the screw terminals on each side of the receptacle. Normally you don't break them off and then you can hook the wires to either of the two screws on a side. But when you have one of the outlets on a switch you need to break off the tab on the side that had two wires going to it. I can't be certain of the colors that were used on yours but I would expect that one side of the switch has one white wire going to it and you would not break off the tab on that side. The other side probably has a black and red wire going to it's two screws. You would break off the tab that goes between the two screws. That's assuming it has a tab, it's possible that cheap ones don't have the tab. There's a picture here

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The black and red should be connected to the brass colored screws and the white (neutral) wire to the silver colored ones.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

Disconnect the black wire, put a wire-nut on it and call it good.

If you do this, both outlets will be energized by the switch. If you want only ONE of the two outlets switched and the other live all the time, there's more to it.

Reply to
HeyBub

Original poster here again:

Well, Miracle on 34th Street, or maybe "Circle Place."

Cutting the tab did the trick and all works fine now. Thank you all.

All the "original outlets" here are "stick the wire in the hole" types where the red, black and white wires are held by some sort of spring "thing" in the outlet. The theory is that you stick a screwdriver in a slot and the wires pop free -- but they don't

I can never get them out, so I always end up breaking the old wall outlet apart to get the wires free.

I always replace with Seymour Pass 20 amp outlets that have a very easy way to fasten the wires down. It involves a screw, but the wire is crushed between plates, no wrapping around screws.

I'm curious about "Hey Bub's" solution. I did not see it until I had already "broke the tab."

The reason I am curious is because breaking the tab was not all that easy. The top half broke right off, but it took a lot of digging with a galvanized nail, screwdriver etc. to break the other half of the tab. It took me about 20 minutes. There has to be a better way...maybe if I had needlenose "nippers," but I don't.

Anyway, thanks again all. Solution worked perfectly.

Tim

Reply to
tim birr

You can spend thousands of dollars on tools, and fill a whole shop with them. More importantly, however, is acquiring a couple dozen types and sizes of "pliers": needle-nose, slip-ring, locking, nippers, dikes, tweezers, forceps, and the like.

Same with screwdrivers.

Basic hand tools are the backbone of any well-equipped shop.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Danniken

And then there's those kind of things you use once a year, but when you need them, they will save you either hours of work, or destroying what you are trying to fix. Sometimes you even have to build a tool that you may only use once, or just a few times after that.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Hmm, I'd say basic hand tools are for every home owner.

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Hi, I wonder if you wear glasses(vision problem)?

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Go to sleep. Santa will fix it.

Reply to
mm

Did you try to cut it or just bend it back and forth until it breaks? I think you're supposed to do the latter.

And I think they're designed so you can put in a moderately wide screwdriver under the "horizontal" part and bend it one direction with that. What they often call an electrician's screwdriver, iirc, pretty long an dnarrow enough for the screws that hold the wall plates on. Anyhow, that's what Santa uses.

I've found that no matter many tools I have, at home or with me at the time, I need every one of them.

And no matter how few tools I have with me, I can still get it done.

It's amazing.

Reply to
mm

Have no idea about the amps stuff for the electric outlets , just using what an electrician told me to use after I had him here several years ago to swap out my "split buss" electrical main panel. I think that was the term. It had no main shut-off and was always hot.

Made me nervous when I had to replace a faulty water heater circuit breaker before I had the panel upgraded. I wore rubber boots. Two pairs of thick rubber gloves, stood on a board and said my prayers when I did that circuit breaker swap out.

The new outlets he told me to use seem pretty quality -- and of course cost $4.50 a pop. They seem to be more "rubberized" sort of material instead of the brittle plastic of the contractor-installed original outlets.

I originally asked the electrician how to remove the wires from the "spring catches" without breaking apart the old outlet. He just ignored my question and gave me an empty outlet package and told to replace them with "this kind."

Reply to
tim birr

tim birr wrote: ...

...

Never had one yet that wouldn't assuming you have a small-enough blade to actually insert into the opening and push it sufficiently far enough to actually release the spring.

Even w/o, a pair of pliers and pulling while rotating back and forth and the wire will "walk" back out. Certainly no need to destroy the receptacle (or switch/whatever).

--

Reply to
dpb

I"ve had some pretty cheap ones where I would release the tab but the tab would break off the contact. I replaced 'em all with new spec grade ones with wires under the screw terminals.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

I would recommend using 15A "spec grade" receptacles, and also use "spec grade" for any replacement switches as well. I too have done the "replace the receps because they won't hold a plug anymore" dance. Yeah, the "residential grade" stuff will probably last 10 years or so, but why not use the best stuff when most of the "cost" of the job is your labor?

if your new recep looks like this:

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then you're good.

if it looks like this:

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that's a 20A recep (note the added sideways slot on the neutral side; it'll accept a NEMA 5-15 (standard household 120V) plug or a 5-20 (120V

20A) plug. Those should only be used on a circuit with a 20A breaker.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Which reminds me of something I was curious about - I've seen in older houses (predating grounded wiring) some duplex receps that have two vertical slots, like a modern NEMA 5-15R without the ground pin, but also a horizontal slot for *both* the hot and neutral side. Not knowing the proper name/designation of these I can't find a pic, but hopefully someone knows what I'm talking about. What was the purpose of the two horizontal slots?

thanks

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel
[snip]

I've seen those a lot in old houses, but have no idea what those are for. Could this be the missing 2-15R on the NEMA charts? Possibly some

240V heating appliances would work on 120V (just not heat as much)?
Reply to
Mark Lloyd

Why not destroy it?

Reply to
HeyBub

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