jeff_wisnia wrote:
AndyS wrote:
On Aug 13, 1:26 pm, Goog wrote:

I bought an old condo after moved out from my parents' house. I
would like to replace all almond-color electrical plugs with white
plugs. The plug and the cover are pretty cheap at HD.

I pulled out one and it doesn't seem too complicate but I'm not
sure. What do I need to know before I will give it a shot?

You advice is greatly appreciated.

Angela




Andy comments:

1) Make sure the outlet is dead before you mess with it. Plug in
a lamp and
throw the correct breaker to make it turn off. Repeat it on
and back off.
This is very important. You might have a bad bulb and the
outlet may
still be live. You need to make the outlet dead...... for
sure.....

2) When you remove the old outlet , you should see the following:
A white wire that goes to the silver colored screw, which is
on
the side of the outlet with the longer slit. This is the
"neutral" wire.

A black wire that goes to the gold colored screw, which is
on
the side of the outlet with the shorter slit.(This is the
"hot" wire)

A bare copper wire that goes to a little green screw at one
end of
the outlet. This is the safety ground wire. Sometimes the
installer
doesn't use this. However, you should make sure it is
connected
on your new outlet. It connects the safety ground to the
little
pencil sized hole beneath both of the slits on the outlet,
and may
or may not be used, depending on what you plug in..... But
it is
important to have it.....

If your outlet has more than one wire going to any of the
screw terminals,
then try to copy it the same way for your new outlet. It
means that
several outlets may be "daisy chained" and you need to do
the same
thing.

If any of this doesn't seem to fit what you see when you
look at the
inside of the old outlet, then stop, put everything back,
and find
a ham radio operator or a neighbor's husband who wears
jeans to work and drives an old truck..... You will need
their advice.......

Good luck,

Andy



As no one else has mention this, Angela's existing recepticals may
have back stabbed connections, in which case she should cut the wires
as close to the receptical as possible, then strip them to make the
screwed connections on the new ones.

There is usually a release hole on backstabbed outlets that I've seen. Pushing a
small screwdriver or another piece of wire in this hole will release the wire,
so no cutting is needed.