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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 152
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I know the whole debate about ground pin up / down has been thrashed out a million times and I don't want to re debate it, so it may be just me and some of the appliances I have bumped into. All of the appliances that I have used seen where the plug is somewhat bulky and has a "preferred orientation" have the ground pin at the bottom. Foe example my electric pressure washer has a integral GFCI at the end of the cord and it absolutely is designed to operate ground pin down. If any outdoor outlets were ground pin up the sprung cover would prevent you from using the washer at that outlet. My hair dryer is the same, as is a angled plug on my refrigerator. I also have a wall mounted battery charger that would not operate ground pin up. Has anyone noticed this, is there some industry standard that has developed in a pervasive manner regardless of the code's ambivalence. Anyone else notice the same thing? Am I on drugs?

Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 58
E
Member
Yes,
I have noticed the same thing: I have some old AT&T power supply cords with flat cordcaps that hang very neatly if the ground pin is down.
(And doesn't AT&T practice dictate de-facto standards; we do, after all, have "slate" conductor insulation, and not "gray")

Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 745
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Member
AT&T/Western Electric's cords were originally designed with the ground pin oriented sideways, so that regardless of the ground pin orientation, the cord would simply exit to the side. I still have quite a few of them on the shelf and use them for this very reason.

Believe it or not, they allowed those cords to be called "light olive gray", along with cable jackets. It was just the cable pair color that was called "slate". This was to alleviate having to use two-letter abbreviations as much as possible.

I will say that I am starting to see this orientation on plugs from other manufacturers as well as "wall warts". All of our cell phone chargers are horizontally-designed. I have also noticed some GFI's on cords equipped with a short leader cord on them so that the GFI is more "in-line" with the cord. I think that's a fantastic idea.


---Ed---

"But the guy at Home Depot said it would work."
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 329
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While I have noticed is that most heavy duty angle plugs seem oriented for ground down outlets; fridges , freezers and some window A/C units are oriented for ground up. Go figure
So, the debate rages on.

Last edited by IanR; 06/04/07 01:18 PM.
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 625
S
Member
Originally Posted by IanR
...some window A/C units are oriented for ground up. Go figure

It is normally "up" to get to the window A/C, so my take is that these are also set up for a ground-pin-down receptacle configuration. When plugged into a ground-pin-down recept, the cord goes up the wall, towards the A/C.

Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 152
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"When plugged into a ground-pin-down recept, the cord goes up the wall, towards the A/C."

And then follows it out of the window as John Doe opens the sash to whistle at his girlfriend.

Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69
W
Member
Originally Posted by Ann Brush
And then follows it out of the window as John Doe opens the sash to whistle at his girlfriend.


LMAO what?

Last edited by Wizzie Electric; 06/04/07 02:46 PM.

Thanks.
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 421
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in Chicago, and most of her suburbs, the receptacles have always been mounted horizontally, well, at least as long as I have been at this.:|

, just never bothered to ask anyone, since I didn't think there was anyting weird about it

BUT,..AT&T had a huge plant in Cicero called Hawthorne ...co-incidence ?


Tom
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 65
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Originally Posted by IanR
While I have noticed is that most heavy duty angle plugs seem oriented for ground down outlets; fridges , freezers and some window A/C units are oriented for ground up. Go figure
So, the debate rages on.


My fridge has a cord that exits the plug on the ground side, so it goes down when plugged into a ground-down receptacle. This works well if the receptacle is mounted partway up the wall (or over the adjacent countertop in my case), but wouldn't work for a ground-down receptacle close to the floor.


Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,876
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e57 Offline
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Flat/90 plugs/cord caps come different ways, and often you can order them for both. An example would be for a washer and a gas dryer - they often come with one up, one down.


Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
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