Which way and why?.... and go!

Sorry folks, I had to do it....

There was an article in EC&M about 11 years ago titled "Mr. Addiss' Neighborhood". (I can't find it now, it probably has been removed)

It dealt with the various online communities.

Bill said he wanted to create a Forum where the question of up or down wasn't in every other post.

Member Big John wrote: 4/23/04

"Neat! With an article like that, I bet there'll be a jump in membership soon enough.

But that article reminded me of something: I have this grounded receptacle here and..."


That was the last mention, until now.

Over 10 years is a pretty good record of success!

Recently, I have seen up and down on the same office renovation.

Seriously, one EC does 'up' for any switched outlets; that's a nice touch when doing inspections.

Other then that.....let the debate go....

John, that's my style, too -- for residential.

It, the switched receptacle, just doesn't exist in my commercial work. (Lumières)

It saves a LOT of grief -- as you'll get phone calls about a dead socket -- which can be solved by a simple query: "Hey, is the ground -- the third pin -- facing UP?"

&&&&

I like my cords with angle ends to hang down. My washer and dryer cords are both ground down. Welder plugs that I've installed are ground up.

If my washer and dryer cords were ground up, I might change the plugs. Or, I might just watch TV, instead.

As to changing the orientation for switched plugs, unless you put a note on the switch, the customer won't know, and if you are going to label something, just label the plug.

It's like arguing whether plugs should be white, brown, black, ivory, light almond... It's the customer's decision to make. If they don't care, why would I?

In the electrical world, worrying about plug orientation makes about as much sense as the Captain of the Titanic worrying about the placement of deck chairs.

It's far more important that it BE there ... AND be connected to a good path back to the service.

Personally, I like the traditional "Mister Smiley" placement. I also like the upside-down placement for switched receptacles.

Most important, though, I like to place the receptacle so as to cause the least strain on the plug. I really don't like to see an 'angle' plug with a sharp bend in the cord. The situation most often comes up with ranges, dryers, and air conditioners - though vending machines are also an issue.

With those situations, we're not really talking about receptacle orientation; we're really just trying to make up for poorly placing the receptacle in the first place.

The person who adamantly argues for a particular orientation is often the same person who places receptacles to "code minimum," customer comfort be damned. Hence, all those contorted plugs behind furniture.

Job specifications will often call for a certain orientation. While I have no objection to the specification as such, I do shake my head at the implied micro-management. It's almost a warning that some unqualified engineer type has assumed instant expertise, based on nothing more than the arrogance of a job title.

We built a Kindercare Day Care once where their company policy was that the grounds be up.(and mounted +54"AFF)

Their rationale was that if installed down the receptacles would look like smiley faces to the children.
I'll bet they have all been retrofitted to tamper proof recps by now

...and that's the only sound argument I've ever heard.

I notice the plug manufacturers seem to favor pin down but I have some that seem to favor pin up although they may be assuming the equipment is higher than the receptacle.

I once read through a similar discussion somewhere on the web. One individual was in favour of the pin being down. He tried to rationalize his preference by stating that if the receptacle is in that orientation and the cord end starts to pull away from the wall in a downward direction that the ground pin would be the last to lose contact.

I personally install the receptacle in whatever direction makes most sense. If I know that a certain piece of equipment will be sitting in front on a permanent basis and the manufactured cord end has a 90 degree then I might orientate the receptacle to best suit the way in which the cord can be tucked in back without getting in the way or putting stress on it.

The counter argument goes, that the live pins are protected during partial insertion with the ground pin UP... which is the longest pin... so that it makes first and breaks last....

So that in a classroom it's best to have ground pins UP so that any falling object (hair pin?) is deflected by a grounding conductor. By the time the grounding pin is out of the socket, the others, hot and return, are also disconnected.

Partially engaged power cords are ten-a-penny in America's classrooms, for someone is sure to step on the cord as it drapes out of the wall socket.

As for utilization equipment in such settings: I'd favor devices with ninety-degree cord caps.

Due to the ADA statutes, I've been raising my normal receptacle heights UP. What used to be, say, a foot -- is now uniformly at least 18" (on center) AFF.

The advent of the LaserJamb has changed my procedures. I now set the LaserJamb, first, and then use it's horizontal beacon to set all boxes to a perfectly level height.

This is especially slick in old work renovations -- where plumb, square and true are mere suggestions.

http://www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/LJ3Pro-Laserjamb-3p18.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywKWxs_arnU

^^^ The original video demonstration

This argument is almost as pointless as the German classic - where to put the live and neutral on an unmarked, non-polarised Schuko socket? There are no official regulations or even recommendations, yet the topic comes up again and again. My favourite explanation was that the live pin of a horizontally installed socket should be up in case the room floods... as if 19 mm made any significant difference!

As I recall, there was once a Canadian rule, or a Sask. amendment, that required the neutral up on outdoor receptacles so that any debris that fell into the receptacle box would land on the neutral terminal. Around here, we're in more danger from falling dirt than rising water.

Up, down, neutral up or down didn't matter with 26" of flood waters from hurricane Sandy.

Heck, didn't matter much where it was 6-8' deep either, come to think about it.

It's a argument that where anyone says one way is correct & the other way is wrong, they are wrong. I prefer ground prong up but mostly install down, it's a matter of preference or job specs IMHO.

I have seen guys installing quads in a 4x4 say you should put one one way and the other the other way so the neutrals are next to the box and the hots are grouped together in the center. Less chance of a L/N or L/G fault.

Hey guys, I apologize for pulling the proverbial pin on this grenade. I needed in my twisted way something to smile for at that time. It was solely meant for some electrician humor. Hope it did not upset anyone....

All kidding aside. My take came for my previous employer. He was adamant unless it put undue stress on the cord, the prong goes down when it is vertical and to the right when it was mounted horizontal. His explanation made the best sense of all I have heard in the past.

The ground prong on a plug is slightly longer then the blades in order for first make, last break when inserting or removing the plug. If the receptacle was wired properly wired and as time goes by, the tension wears off when the plug can dip down, pulling the ground prong out before breaking contact with the blades leaving the once protected equipment, unprotected. If the ground prong is mounted downward, the blades would break contact first before the ground prong thus maximizing safety.

In the horizontal configuration, if the plug would start to fall out, the ungrounded prong would likely pull out before the ground or grounded prong, again maximizing safety for the end user.

So being the wise guy, I asked him, "well, what about when the owner is too lazy crippled to bend over and pulls or pushes the plug at an upward angle?" his was reply was, "All we can do is show them how to use them properly by going straight in and out with the plug. we are not responsible for how they use them."

As an engineering and geometric fact your former boss was wrong.

The prong standard was dimensioned just 'so.'

It's IMPOSSIBLE for the drooping plug to still have the active conductors engaged while the ground prong is engaged -- even slightly... even if you work the device out at an angle.

That's all part of the specification -- sort of under-the-hood -- that is not bandied about with civilians -- or even tradesmen.

The inventor/ designers foresaw that from the get-go.

You'll find the same dimensioning in all pin&sleeve designs. It's impossible to rock them, twist them, abuse them in any way such that the active conductors are not 'broken' (opened) first while the grounding/ bonding conductor is still engaged.

It's for the above reason that we just don't read about plug and receptacle calamities... cord cap failure -- at the cord to cap body -- that's another thing all together.

Towards that end, strain relief is ever more elaborate and refined. That design fault has only really been addressed in the last forty-years.

As for your last point: pin & sleeve cord caps are taking over the rough abuse market place. BTW, cripples are not the problem; angry, tired, wet, frozen field workers are the problem.

ANYTIME the weather is brutal, I'd spec out pin&sleeve connectors.

For those curious, it was the USAF that really put the push on for pin&sleeve connectors... back when SAC was rotating B-36 strategic bombers to Alaska and back. It was soon discovered that prior (Hubbell) twist-lock schemes -- no matter how robust -- were problematic in the Arctic. Dang ice was getting up and in. (Probably condensate, of course)

There were tales of bombers trapped on the tarmac while the ground crews tried to jumper up auxiliary power to keep the engines/ equipment/ interior within flight norms. Due to the mission $$$$ suddenly became no object.

Here and there you can still find photographs of the auxiliary power sets that have been rolled up -- in the nastiest weather -- to the big bombers -- running full tilt.

Curtis LeMay demanded that his bombers be able to get back airborne without any delay due to weather -- come Hell or high water. So these rolling gen-sets were scaled up to massive size. They kept the engines toasty -- and everything else.

The USN's approach to bad weather and electric power was the opposite: for as long as possible the USN tried to design their ships to run -- in extremis -- without any power at all. In the naval experience, the power system was most at risk from incoming shells and bombs. Pin & sleeve cord caps wouldn't correct that kind of glitch.

Of course, the USN is now introducing the hyper-electric navy. On board power generation is going through the roof. The big redesign of the nuclear carrier Ford is for a massively scaled power plant -- and a smart power distribution grid around the ship.

This scheme will not depend upon traditional fuses an switches. Instead, an 'Internet of things', a LAN of power, will constantly monitor this ship's power flow and shut off circuits that have gone south due to battle damage or whatnot.

This working scheme is destined to be civilianized for the next generation of high-rise skyscrapers. Buildings will become 'smart.'

That smells like a LOT of wire pulling in our future!

So

It seems that the T/R receptacles have pushed the Line and Neutral contacts farther back than before and the plug has to be inserted within the last 1/4" to get power. I have wondered how much this affects long term reliability.
The ONE I have is used regularly with the vacuum so it will be a torture test for me.
This is also a USB outlet, another test I suppose.

I personally have always put them down, then on a job one day a guy with years of experience who was once an inspector told me the ground prong should go up. I asked what was his reason ' and he said one example is if a man or woman with a long necklace leaned over to plug in something and the recep. was put in with ground down than a necklace could lean up against the hot side of the recep. that was partially plugged in and they could get grounded out? Not saying I agree , but it does kinda make sense when he put it that way. According to him there was a woman killed in Florida in the 90s when he was an inspector. He also had some other reasons that one just stuck out in my head the most.

Correct me if I'm wrong they also had to be tamper proof, before residential tamper proofs. We wired a daycare and the height was 54 and the receps. were some kind of tamper proof recep. that was very expensive. Might have just been in the specs and not code not sure

ppb:
Welcome to ECN!
Back in the day, there were a few 'tamper resistant' items used in day care facilities. Yes, the expensive TR device, and there were covers that had various 'slide' tricks.

To the best of my knowledge, the 'covers' have not been acceptable for quite some years.

As to the stories for ground up, there have been a few. One I remember was while on a service call for a 'shorted circuit' after about a half hour of checking....I found the cause. The bed in a kids room was against a wall sideways, there was a zip cord plugged into the outlet, and a quarter coin was across the hot/neutral. The HO tried to reset the CB a few times before he called. It would not have mattered if the grd was up or down, but it's a trip I have not forgot.

From an outside perspective I have to say it's a pity NEMA plugs or sockets can't be modified for more safety easily - recessing them would make wall wart type transformers impossible to use and sheathed pins seem impractical considering some plugs already have very soft prongs that bend easily. I suppose modifying the plugs (while keeping them compatible with existing sockets) would make more sense since extension leads and appliances tend to be replaced more often than fixed devices. Since Australian plugs have very similar dimensions it should be possible to produce sufficiently sturdy NEMA 1-15, 5-15 etc. plugs with partially sleeved prongs!

Never seen that as a code rule or amendment but many people I work with state it as gospel. The only time I have ever seen anything in writing was in the 2006 to 2010 Saskatchewan Electrical Code Simplified for residential wiring. There's a very brief statement about mounting plugs in the horizontal plane with the hot terminals pointing down to avoid nuisance tripping if moisture gathers on top of the plug. It also states that this is not a code requirement only a suggestion.

When you look at the cost vs benefit, we should just leave the 5-15 alone. There are billions of them around the US and Canada and you only hear a handful of cases of problems every year.
Some of those involve incidents from people so stupid that they would find a way of defeating any other safety measure too.