ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Which way is up?

I have been in the trade for 22 years and worked in several states but this amazed me.

Which way is up?
When you mount a 120v duplex receptacle do you put the ground socket to the top or bottom?

I don't recall any code references to this.
And I have seen a few installations with the ground socket to the top, but predominantly
the ground is down. ('.')
('.')
It's seems I remember way back when that I was told this was accepted as good workmanship, that if someone stepped on a cord it would be pulled downward, minimizing the chance that gnd would break first even though it's longer.

Here's the kicker, I did a job, but wasn't there when the inspector showed. Was written up and told receptacles all had to be flipped over(ground on top). Why? I was told it was a local ordinance and was implemented because with the ground on top a cord has more support and less tendency to fall out.

This is news to me and sounds ridiculous.

What do you think? Please include the state your in.

Good Morning TE:
This subject has really become a can of worms lately around here. When you have time, cast an eye on another thread in this area; it's on page three of this forum...

"Receptacle Ground Up or Down?".

Some good viewpoints on this subject here.

Mike (mamills)

[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 08-27-2002).]

UH-OH,

Not again!

Sideways anyone???????

hooboy!

TE ...perhaps you don't realize.....

this has burnt gapping holes in cyberspace and sent tenured tradesmen into catatonic fits...

hats off to your AHJ for fanning the conflaguration alive once again!

Welcome TE!

This thread is the one Mike referred to above.

You'll find some more on the question here .

i vote with george , put'em sideways then maybe everyone will be happy. personally i always put'em down, looks better i think. just my two cents.ERWIN

Funny, new man came to work for me today. The first recept he put in was ground up. Of course we are ground. We argued for about five minutes on the subject and moved on.

Go to the Chicago area, most of them are sideways there....

For the record. Sparky66WV and I had this discussion a bit ago. Using my full title (which impresses some.......never the ones you really want ) I sent inquiries to Arrow-Hart, Leviton, and Hubbell. I got NO replies back, so the manufacturers are not going to ring in on this one. Just thought I'd pass this one along.