Code is arc fault in any new construction bedrooms or living spaces I think. A GFCI outlet or breaker is adequate if not better than a simple grounded outlet, for protection from shock on ungrounded circuits. My house has mostly the old two prong outlet in most places. Antiques at 1960 date.
Electrical outlet wrapped in electrical tape
- Thread starter y_p_w
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Yes, I grew up in Nassau County and almost no homes had three prong outlets for the same reason, year they were built.
All splices are twisted, soldered and taped too. PITA.
Home Depot still has Leviton ungrounded outlets in stock. More than $3 each. They’re still made in the US and have no backstabs. I believe it’s only up to code if it replaces an existing ungrounded outlet.
I get the GFCI ones with USB ports now for the cheap. That's what I usually replace any that need it.
So I’m checking around my folks’ house while they’re on vacation. They’ve asked me to water some plants and check their mail, and I’m stuck with anything that’s an emergency with their tenants. But then there’s this one outdoor outlet that was added when they remodeled almost 30 years ago and they use when they need to operate a pump that can move pond water to water some trees.
It was working, but it had a GFCI receptacle. Looked like it was a pretty ordinary indoor Leviton unit, although with a weather resistant flip cover (that was usually open) designed for a Decora style receptacle. With the cover it didn’t need a wallplate. Didn’t look like it was in good shape, and then I made the bad decision to press the test button and it wouldn’t reset. No power either.
So I figured I had a bunch of new weather resistant GFCI receptacles and I’d been playing around with one, practicing wiring it with some extra Romex NM-B SimPull. The wire is probably 30 years old but looks new. And packaging hasn’t changed. When I’m ready to redo the outlets in my parents’ rental house, I figure I can use some of that if I need more wire to extend any short wires in the box. I’ve had some wire break off when straightening a loop, so I figure a wire nut might work if I need a few inches.
I ended up cutting off all the power to the house with the main fuses, since I couldn’t tell exactly which breakers/fuses were providing power to this outlet.
I’m just wondering what the electrician was thinking installing an indoor outlet outside. I know it’s not steel, but one of the screw terminals looks like it’s rusting. Some of the plastic broke off. It was also wired with a load, but I have no idea where that’s going, although I wired it anyways. I thought maybe the outlet on the other side of the wall, but after I tested the GFCI, the outlet on the other side was still powered.
It was also way different. With the ground outlet pointing down, the line was on the bottom while the load was on the top. The opposite of the weather resistant GFCI receptacles I got for the rental (and where I'm using a few in my parents’ house as a test).
It was working, but it had a GFCI receptacle. Looked like it was a pretty ordinary indoor Leviton unit, although with a weather resistant flip cover (that was usually open) designed for a Decora style receptacle. With the cover it didn’t need a wallplate. Didn’t look like it was in good shape, and then I made the bad decision to press the test button and it wouldn’t reset. No power either.
So I figured I had a bunch of new weather resistant GFCI receptacles and I’d been playing around with one, practicing wiring it with some extra Romex NM-B SimPull. The wire is probably 30 years old but looks new. And packaging hasn’t changed. When I’m ready to redo the outlets in my parents’ rental house, I figure I can use some of that if I need more wire to extend any short wires in the box. I’ve had some wire break off when straightening a loop, so I figure a wire nut might work if I need a few inches.
I ended up cutting off all the power to the house with the main fuses, since I couldn’t tell exactly which breakers/fuses were providing power to this outlet.
I’m just wondering what the electrician was thinking installing an indoor outlet outside. I know it’s not steel, but one of the screw terminals looks like it’s rusting. Some of the plastic broke off. It was also wired with a load, but I have no idea where that’s going, although I wired it anyways. I thought maybe the outlet on the other side of the wall, but after I tested the GFCI, the outlet on the other side was still powered.
It was also way different. With the ground outlet pointing down, the line was on the bottom while the load was on the top. The opposite of the weather resistant GFCI receptacles I got for the rental (and where I'm using a few in my parents’ house as a test).
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I was researching this, and there are some interesting discussions on using wire nuts terminals vs terminal blocks. Also butt splices with shrink wrap. Apparently in some countries it’s common and acceptable to just twist and wrap in electrical tape. I guess WAGO is pretty popular these days although more expensive than wire nuts.
Yes mine is from 1960. They used to old friction tape too. Not as bad as the ceramic post and wire in my mom's house though.
I’m still waiting to do this in the original target rental. But in the meantime I got bored and installed a few in ungrounded boxes. If I need more I’ll buy more. It’s also not urgent - just the tenant asked for it even though the two-prong receptacles still work other than one that clearly needs replacement after one outlet was smashed.
The first two I did were in an outdoor box and an older part of the home that had a newer blue Carlon box. Not sure when it was installed, but most of the older part of the house has these narrow black-painted metal boxes. I tried inserting a “slim” GFCI receptacle and found that the little protective shields over the terminals wouldn’t fit. It was unpowered when I took this photo and I just taped over the terminals before reinstalling.
I fell down the rabbit hole while housesitting for my parents, looking for electrical issues. Most seems pretty simple, like broken receptacles or ungrounded outlets. Some of the stuff I found was pretty appalling and I’ve done what I could to remedy it. I’ve found outlets connected to a ground wire but no ground. A lot was fixed with GFCI receptacles.
But when I tried to replace an ungrounded outlet with a GFCI outlet, for each hot and neutral I found two wires coming in that were soldered together and then wrapped with a ton of electrical tape in the box. It was basically one wire straight, then the other spiraled around with a copious amount of solder keeping them together, covered with electrical tape and then soldered to a short length of wire for connection to the receptacle. No wire nuts either. It didn’t bend and took up a lot of the box space. I tried to cut off as much as possible, then separate some lightly soldered parts trying to scrape off as much solder as I could. There wasn’t much room left, so I used about 6 inches of wire to connect the GFCI receptacle to a 3-port WAGO Lever-Nut. Two of the WAGO ports were populated by the wires that were previously connected by solder and electrical tape.
Those WAGOs have come in really handy where there was only a short length. I’m also not sure I need this many of these, but at the price I thought what the heck. I’ll save these for later. Right now my fingers are a bit raw for tightening so many wire nuts. I’m going to try the equivalent from Ideal. These ones are only 2-port, but they should be fine for my applications. I don’t get the price though, where this jar of 500 is less than a box of 150, sold directly by Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Sure®-Lever-Wire-Connector-2-Port/dp/B0CK53Y9DY/
https://www.amazon.com/IDEAL-INDUSTRIES-Sure®-2-Port-Connector/dp/B0C3JDYT8V/
Some of the older wire is sheathed in paper or cloth. Was that a thing? Also, I’ve found 14 gauge wire but with ridiculously thick insulation.
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yup, "electrical" wires!
The old romex was in asbestos fiber paper I think.
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That stuff was the best man!
And the most shocking thing was one outlet mounted sideways on a baseboard that looked old and worth replacing. It was 2-prong where I had a replacement. Only I couldn’t unscrew the faceplate off so I just broke it off. Then it got really weird. The cable feeding the receptacle was really soft with brown insulation (not black and white like with normal home power), and eventually I figure it was a stranded lamp cord that had a plug on the other end and was then plugged into an outlet. The backside was in the furnace/water heater area and the cord was stapled to the bottom of the wall and then up the wall. I’m thinking this was all done before I was born.
I’m pretty sure this was never, ever code compliant. I just unplugged it and then ripped out the outlet. It’s kind of a hole now, but I figure I can put a blank plate in there. Still, I’m wondering who ever thought that was a good idea.
Ah, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
I’m pretty sure this was never, ever code compliant. I just unplugged it and then ripped out the outlet. It’s kind of a hole now, but I figure I can put a blank plate in there. Still, I’m wondering who ever thought that was a good idea.
Ah, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
Saw the date on the Romex and it was 2014. I think it might have been used when they had their lights redone. I guess 14 gauge is commonly used for lighting even if it’s LEDs that won’t even come close to drawing 15A. I’ve noticed that fluorescent lighting generally uses 18 gauge, even for direct wire LED replacements.
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
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.
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