ECN Electrical Forum
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I saw this in a video of how to install an electrical outlet, and thought you guys would like a good laugh out of it.

Sloppy wiring and the receptacle is upside down.

Ducks for cover!

That may be a clunky way to do things, looping through the screw but I am not sure what the violation would be.

Shoving 7 #12s back in the box will be a chore tho.

... and I bet that box is too small

The ground is looped the wrong way around the screw...

and the wire is too long

As far as the looped neutral - I cant really see a code violation. It is still 1 wire on the screw. It is not a practice I use much at all though.

~Matt

I have seen that "loop" thing a lot in raceway wiring methods. The wire gets pulled, unbroken all the way through. The argument was that there are that many less connections to fail. As an aside, Removing the device would not "interrupt the continuity" of the circuit ref 300.13(B).
In this case I am guessing that was a way to tap that circuit without wirenutting all the wires and bringing a pigtail out to the device. They must have looped the RX through the box. Sloppy but not illegal.
Usually you just see this looping in switch feeds.

I think looping was more common in older construction. Those devices didn't have the back-stab connections, so, if you wanted to avoid using a wire nut (because you had 3 hots and 3 neutrals to connect to the device) you had to loop the connection. I always thought that was a neat way to do it.


Now, what they do instead is to to use the back-stab and the screw. I've seen outlets where there was a wire under every screw and in every back-stab. That's pretty sloppy, I think.

its not looped, it is 2 wires unbent just holding onto the edge

OK I blew it up and looked, you are right. I didn't catch that.

my eyes are just that good

If we have three hots and three neutrals to this receptacle (with the insulation stripped too far back...?) where are the three grounds? Wrapped together in the back of the box and only one brought out to the receptacle?

Mike (mamills)

I imagine they are all twisted up with one stinger sticking out.

Oh wow... In that case, who is the idiot that made this video??

~Matt

It's the Internet... Anyone can post anything, and the majority of people aren't wise enough to tell the difference between legitimate and junk.

http://www.howcast.com/videos/155395-How-To-Replace-an-Electrical-Outlet
there is the link fr the video, but i just re watched the video, and its just horrible!

A digital camera? Try it. You will find it absolutely useless through lack of detail, lack of terminal identity and lack of orientation. Is it,was it, upside-down? Especially useless if most of the wires are white, as at the end of the clip, when an entire new bunch of wires appear out of nowhere! A tester, however, why, that's just optional! A pencil and the back of an old envelope is sufficient, but, what if the outlet was wired incorrectly to start with?

And let's hope Mrs Doyourselfin doesn't switch the power back on to before he's done.

"Strip off the excess insulation with wire cutters". No, and don't use them to form the wire ends either.
I didn't see any groundwire insulation, BTW, did you?

Electricity travels at the speed of light.
http://www.jimloy.com/physics/electric.htm

True, but about as pertinent as stating the exact length of the River Ganges.

As I don't have a camera phone it looks like I'm not eligible to do the work.
I wonder how many outlets in the U.S are wired with wrong polarity by non technical DIY types. The prevalence of non polarised plugs would also add to the assumption that the black and white wires could go either way round.
Just going on my small collection of U.S electrical fittings, it seems one is required to understand the meaning of the different terminal colours which are not the same as the wiring colours.

Years ago, I worked in cost analysis for a major manufacturer. At one point, the question came up: did we really need the plating colors on the terminal screws, inasmuch as the base of the device had molded-in directions (HOT-->, etc.). We never got a clear answer on that. I had the strong impression that nobody wanted to be the first to go there.

haha, the Comcast guy that came out yesterday actually did EXACTLY that!

With coax, that would be quite a skill!

haha, no he did it with the ground wire for the system