Electrical outlet wrapped in electrical tape

[ekrampitzjr]

I've seen it as well, not just GFIs. There are some things out there that aren't code but some in the trade think are best practice. I have an electrician friend that insists receptacles should be mounted neutral or ground up in the event something metal falls down and gets wedged between a plug and the receptacle. I tell him he's nuts and it sets him off.

This started in the early 1990s when I worked for an electrical-supplies wholesaler, and I think some localities might require it. The reason is that a stainless-steel receptacle wall plate could come loose and slide down to contact the two live prongs. Most houses use plastic wall plates, but stainless versions are common in commercial applications.

 

[SHOZ]

Outdoor outlets need a while in use weather proof cover for code now.

 

[y_p_w]

If the breaker is 15A then all wiring on that circuit has to be a minimum 14 awg. The wiring in the light fixture itself can be sized for its rated load

So everything from the switch to the fixture has to be sized assuming it will use the full 15A. I guess that makes sense if there’s the ability to expand later on. I’ve got an old switch, and it’s rated for 15A, But also a wide voltage range. However, my direct wire LED setup uses a max of maybe 60W. Most tombstones are meant for 18 AWG, which I suppose works for the high voltage, low current output of ballasts. But it should be fine for routing direct AC to the transformer in the LED setup that will use less than 20W steady state.

Perhaps WR receptacles weren't required yet? All of my exterior receptacles are regular duplex outlets with WR covers and they've lasted 40 years so far. They're not GFCI either because there's a GFCI breaker for all of the bathrooms and exterior receptacles. I did have to use a GFCI receptacle when I converted a razor-only outlet though.

I remember when this was added in the mid-90s. I think the biggest issue was that my parents had a tendency to just leave the cover open, where this might have had exposure to sunlight and sometimes rain. The bit of the housing that cracked off was actually inside. It also had what looked like a weather resistant insulator between the Decora style outlet and the weather resistant cover housing.

It’s also kind of interesting that the Decora style outlet pretty much dominates GFCI receptacles these days. It does provide an area for the test and reset buttons and two outlets. I remember seeing earlier GFCI receptacle that used traditional wallplates, but only had one outlet, and the test/reset buttons were in the other space. Like the one in the center.

Here’s something interesting on the history.

Charles Dalziel's Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupters still make plugging in safer - EECS at Berkeley

EE alumnus and Prof. Charles Dalziel (1904-1986, B.S./M.S./E.E. 1935 ), the inventor of the Ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), is the subject of an article in the California Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Spring 2021 Consumer Connection. Patented in 1965 by Dalziel, a professor in...

eecs.berkeley.edu

 

[Kantaro]

This started in the early 1990s when I worked for an electrical-supplies wholesaler, and I think some localities might require it. The reason is that a stainless-steel receptacle wall plate could come loose and slide down to contact the two live prongs. Most houses use plastic wall plates, but stainless versions are common in commercial applications.

Yup, there are cases for both but the whole ground plug up thing is overblown IMO. I only do it in the shop where receptacles are mounted higher and plugs have a tendency to come out. I also mount any horizontal receptacles with neutral side up

 

[Bill Judson]

Ah, mesothelioma and asbestosis.

These are real money makers!

 

[y_p_w]

I’m still working on these and decided to pull the tape off, if only to add a 12 AWG ground wire. The electrician had pigtailed a 14 AWG ground wire to each grounding screw. It’s also been nearly 30 years, and the tape basically didn’t stick any more. It just came off stiff without any adhesion. They’re also in plastic boxes with plenty of room, so taping seemed somewhat useless.

However, while testing the circuits I noticed some weird results. I found that one bathroom had two GFCI receptacles where one was wired to the load side of the other. When I put a ground tester on the downstream one, the lights started going weird (reverse indicator) when I pushed in the test button on the upstream GFCI. When it tripped the power was obviously cut off completely. Since it was already protected by the upstream GFCI, I decided to pull it out and just install a regular receptacle there. I understand that it should work better and might even have some advantages (like someone accidentally touching the downstream terminals, which obviously shouldn’t happen). It’s still in good condition and I think I have good way to reuse it where the ivory color matches.

 

[D60]

I’m still working on these and decided to pull the tape off, if only to add a 12 AWG ground wire. The electrician had pigtailed a 14 AWG ground wire to each grounding screw. It’s also been nearly 30 years, and the tape basically didn’t stick any more. It just came off stiff without any adhesion. They’re also in plastic boxes with plenty of room, so taping seemed somewhat useless.

However, while testing the circuits I noticed some weird results. I found that one bathroom had two GFCI receptacles where one was wired to the load side of the other. When I put a ground tester on the downstream one, the lights started going weird (reverse indicator) when I pushed in the test button on the upstream GFCI. When it tripped the power was obviously cut off completely. Since it was already protected by the upstream GFCI, I decided to pull it out and just install a regular receptacle there. I understand that it should work better and might even have some advantages (like someone accidentally touching the downstream terminals, which obviously shouldn’t happen). It’s still in good condition and I think I have good way to reuse it where the ivory color matches.

It is -- or used to be -- permissible to undersize the ground wire like that.

All my shop receptacles on 20A circuits have 14ga pigtails to the steel box (surface mount conduit) and the inspector said it was fine. It just makes it a bit easier to wire and to cram everything back in.

Maybe the code has changed?

 

[y_p_w]

It is -- or used to be -- permissible to undersize the ground wire like that.

All my shop receptacles on 20A circuits have 14ga pigtails to the steel box (surface mount conduit) and the inspector said it was fine. It just makes it a bit easier to wire and to cram everything back in.

Maybe the code has changed?

I’m not sure either, but it can’t hurt to go bigger.

I did have this triple switch where I did it anyways. It was on 12 AWG all around except for the 14 AWG pigtails to the switches. But it was a massive pain since there were 3 12 AWG bare grounding wires coming from the wall. I wasn’t sure what I could do. A grounding bar seemed excessive for switches. I think the biggest load on those switches was probably a bathroom vent fan. I just used a short length of 12 AWG green wire to bridge two bundles of 4 12 AWG each (including the bridging wire). I understand that there just needs to be 12 AWG. I didn’t have a wire nut that could handle 6 of them.

 

[y_p_w]

The plot thickens.

I tried to rewire the GFCI receptable that looked like it was connected to a downstream GFCI. After I replaced (what I thought was) the downstream GFCI with a regular receptacle, when I tested the GFCI I could see power gone to the regular receptacle.

Only today I wanted to recheck the work, especially after cramming a bunch of stuff in there including some pigtails (it was almost nothing to work with. I ended up just connecting what I thought was the line power to the line inputs and keeping the load lines unconnected. Wouldn't trip the GFCI and didn't get any power. I thought maybe my wire nuts weren't on correctly but double checked. Then I connected a regular outlet to the "LINE" pair as a sanity check and it wasn't powered. I'm not sure what the deal was, but then I thought I'd connect what I thought were the "LOAD" wires to the outlet and voila - it's working. So that was providing live power.

So my conclusion is that whoever connected these however many decades ago (no it wasn't me) incorrectly switched the connections of the line and the load pairs. These are older Leviton 20A GFCI receptacles with the red reset and black test buttons. I'm still not sure why, when connected that way it was still powered. Weird. Looked it up, and apparently it will work to provide power even though it's not correct.

Ace Weekly

Well, not so fast, bubba. These $8 safety devices aren't that smart. Here's what happens when somebody wires a GFCI receptacle with the load and line wires reversed: The GFCI will work, in the sense that you can plug in a hair dryer and the hair dryer will blow hot air. But when you push the little "test monthly" button, and the "reset" button pops out, the receptacle stays live. That means the thing looks like it's working, and it acts like it's working, but it's not really working. If the load and line wiring gets messed up, a ground fault (radio in the tub) won't trip the GFCI. There is no protection; there's only the appearance of protection. The GFCI is a booby trap.​

And yeah I cut the power every time before working on the wires.

 

[SHOZ]

If i had a choice of running a ground and a grounded outlet or a GFCI it would be the latter hands down. A ground is not always beneficial sometimes, such as when there is no possible ground path outside of the wiring.

Just another 2