"Toller" wrote in message
...
I can't think of a legitimate reason for having the two white wires like
that; and would try to figure it out before I did any rewiring.


I can. There is probably a three wire cable and a two wire cable in the
box. The two black wires are spliced together to pass that circuit on to
the next outlet. The red stops at the outlet Adam is working on to feed
that outlet. The original installer connected the two whites on the outlet
to join them together as well as feed that outlet. A better method would be
to have spliced the whites together and add a pigtail to feed the outlet as
RBM suggested.


John Grabowski
http://www.mrelectrician.tv