Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

Thanks,
Gary

With a tester, see if the screw that holds the cover plate is grounded. One
terminal on the screw and one in the small outlet slot. If the screw is
grounded, you can use a grounding adapter that plugs in and attaches to that
screw. You'll need to contact the building owner regarding installing an
outlet in the bathroom


"abby" wrote in message
...
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two. What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add a GFI outlet?

Thanks,
Gary

abby wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two. What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add a GFI outlet?

Thanks,
Gary


It is neither difficult or expensive. Turn off the circuit breaker or
remove the fuse that serves that outlet. Remove the old receptacle and
replace it with a GFCI receptacle. Do not use the load terminals on the
new GFCI receptacle. Restore power and you are done.

If you want to add a GFCI receptacle outlet to a spot were there is no
outlet box now that question cannot be answered without knowing more
about the house. Is there a receptacle outlet on the other side of the
wall from your desired location?
--
Tom Horne

On Oct 6, 4:32 pm, Tom Horne wrote:
abby wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two. What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add a GFI outlet?

Thanks,
Gary

It is neither difficult or expensive. Turn off the circuit breaker or
remove the fuse that serves that outlet. Remove the old receptacle and
replace it with a GFCI receptacle. Do not use the load terminals on the
new GFCI receptacle. Restore power and you are done.

If you want to add a GFCI receptacle outlet to a spot were there is no
outlet box now that question cannot be answered without knowing more
about the house. Is there a receptacle outlet on the other side of the
wall from your desired location?
--
Tom Horne

From a code standpoint, you can't just simply add a back-to-back GFCI
outlet in a bath. It needs to be on a dedicated 20A circuit (or it
can be shared with another bath, for outlets only). As a landlord
myself, I always appreciate someone consulting me first before they do
(or even plan) any electrical work on my buildings.

JK

On Oct 6, 3:31 pm, "abby" wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

Thanks,
Gary

Standard answer applies he

Do not do any electrical work in a building you don't own. I'm not a
lawyer, I don't even play one on the web, but odds are you would be
liable for any damage, both structural and personal, that occurs
because of electrical work you do on someone else's property.

Gather your info, such as a reference that says it's OK to replace a 2
prong-ungrounded receptacle with an ungrounded GFCI, and take it to
the landlord. (S)He or his/her representative is the only one who be
doing electrical work on his/her property.

BTW - What type of appliances are you referring to? Some appliances
should not be plugged into GFCI receptacles. How is the fridge
connected now?

abby wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

The "safest" way is to not use them at all.

The most practical way is to buy a mess of 3-to-2 adaptors. The consumer
world existed for 80 years without ground plugs and modern electrical
equipment is scads better today.

On Oct 6, 3:31 pm, "abby" wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

Thanks,
Gary

You have 2 options
1) Replace the circuit breaker with a GFCI circuit breaker. That will
take care of the entire circuit. Consult lanlord first.

2) If you know which is the first outlet that gets fed from the
breaker box, change that to a GFCI and it will protect all other
outlets downstream of it. It does not make sense to change every
outlet to a GFCI . You only need to change 1 and it will protect the
others. Keep in mind if there is a ground fault somewhere, it will
kill power to most locations and you have to reset it at the GFCI
outlet.

As for no outlet in the bathroom, take off the light switch cover and
remove switch and see how many wires are in it. If there are more than
2, than most likely you have constant power in that box. In that case
you( or the landlord) can install a duplex switch/outlet combo. And it
would have to be GFCI, depending on whether or not it is protected
upstream by a GFCI .

BTW - What type of appliances are you referring to? Some appliances
should not be plugged into GFCI receptacles. How is the fridge
connected now?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -\

I have to disagree. Before I remodeled my kitchen, my fridge has been
on a GFCI circuit breaker for years and never had problems.

In article . com, Mikepier wrote:
BTW - What type of appliances are you referring to? Some appliances
should not be plugged into GFCI receptacles. How is the fridge
connected now?

I have to disagree. Before I remodeled my kitchen, my fridge has been
on a GFCI circuit breaker for years and never had problems.

Just because you've been lucky does not mean it was bad advice.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

Mikepier wrote:
BTW - What type of appliances are you referring to? Some appliances
should not be plugged into GFCI receptacles. How is the fridge
connected now?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -\

I have to disagree. Before I remodeled my kitchen, my fridge has been
on a GFCI circuit breaker for years and never had problems.


You may have had good luck but its just not a good idea. GFCIs can
nuisance trip. Say you are away for a couple days and that happens.
Thats why they specifically recommend not to plug fridges and freezers
into GFCI protected outlets.

HeyBub wrote:
abby wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

The "safest" way is to not use them at all.

The most practical way is to buy a mess of 3-to-2 adaptors. The consumer
world existed for 80 years without ground plugs and modern electrical
equipment is scads better today.


Good plan, why bother with nuisance tripping of circuit breakers or
GFCIs if the frame of a metal appliance should become energized. With
the adapters if there is an internal fault that can never happen.

On Sat, 06 Oct 2007 18:01:54 -0700, Mikepier
wrote:

On Oct 6, 3:31 pm, "abby" wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

Thanks,
Gary

You have 2 options
1) Replace the circuit breaker with a GFCI circuit breaker. That will
take care of the entire circuit. Consult lanlord first.

2) If you know which is the first outlet that gets fed from the
breaker box, change that to a GFCI and it will protect all other
outlets downstream of it. It does not make sense to change every
outlet to a GFCI . You only need to change 1 and it will protect the
others.

If they are wired that way.

A lot of the circuits I've dealt with around here aren't. There will
be one piece or romex from the panel to a junction box above the
veiling light, then one going down to each receptacle. No receptacle
comes before any other.

Keep in mind if there is a ground fault somewhere, it will
kill power to most locations and you have to reset it at the GFCI
outlet.

As for no outlet in the bathroom, take off the light switch cover and
remove switch and see how many wires are in it. If there are more than
2, than most likely you have constant power in that box. In that case
you( or the landlord) can install a duplex switch/outlet combo. And it
would have to be GFCI, depending on whether or not it is protected
upstream by a GFCI .
--
79 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin

On Oct 7, 6:18 am, George wrote:
HeyBub wrote:
abby wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

The "safest" way is to not use them at all.

The most practical way is to buy a mess of 3-to-2 adaptors. The consumer
world existed for 80 years without ground plugs and modern electrical
equipment is scads better today.

Good plan, why bother with nuisance tripping of circuit breakers or
GFCIs if the frame of a metal appliance should become energized. With
the adapters if there is an internal fault that can never happen.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Only if the box itself is grounded and the pigtail wire is installed.
Plugging 2 to 3 adapter into an ungrounded box does nothing at all to
protect against shorts in an appliance.

Harry K

Not to mention two wire lamps. A grounded outlet does nothing to prevent the
hot leg from chaffing and causing the metal body from becoming energized



"Harry K" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Oct 7, 6:18 am, George wrote:
HeyBub wrote:
abby wrote:
Hi,

My daughter rented an apartment in an older two
family house.
The receptacles are all two prong except two.
What is the safest
way to use three prong appliances with this
wiring?

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!
How difficult (egg, expensive) would it be to add
a GFI outlet?

The "safest" way is to not use them at all.

The most practical way is to buy a mess of 3-to-2 adaptors. The
consumer
world existed for 80 years without ground plugs and modern electrical
equipment is scads better today.

Good plan, why bother with nuisance tripping of circuit breakers or
GFCIs if the frame of a metal appliance should become energized. With
the adapters if there is an internal fault that can never happen.- Hide
quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Only if the box itself is grounded and the pigtail wire is installed.
Plugging 2 to 3 adapter into an ungrounded box does nothing at all to
protect against shorts in an appliance.

Harry K

Mikepier wrote:

You have 2 options
1) Replace the circuit breaker with a GFCI circuit breaker. That will
take care of the entire circuit. Consult lanlord first.

2) If you know which is the first outlet that gets fed from the
breaker box, change that to a GFCI and it will protect all other
outlets downstream of it. It does not make sense to change every
outlet to a GFCI . You only need to change 1 and it will protect the
others. Keep in mind if there is a ground fault somewhere, it will
kill power to most locations and you have to reset it at the GFCI
outlet.


There's a third option: Using a Dremel, saw off the grounding lug on the
three-prong plug.

In article ,
"HeyBub" wrote:

Mikepier wrote:

You have 2 options
1) Replace the circuit breaker with a GFCI circuit breaker. That will
take care of the entire circuit. Consult lanlord first.

2) If you know which is the first outlet that gets fed from the
breaker box, change that to a GFCI and it will protect all other
outlets downstream of it. It does not make sense to change every
outlet to a GFCI . You only need to change 1 and it will protect the
others. Keep in mind if there is a ground fault somewhere, it will
kill power to most locations and you have to reset it at the GFCI
outlet.


There's a third option: Using a Dremel, saw off the grounding lug on the
three-prong plug.

I just use channel lock pliers. They rip right out in about two seconds.
But the OP mentioned "safety," so it sounds like (s)he's the nervous
type who views electricity as a violent serial killer, just waiting to
chew its way through double insulated plastic appliances to strike at
hapless and innocent victims.

abby wrote:

The bathroom, believe it or not, does not have a
outlet!

Not uncommon prior to the 70's. They typically used wall mounted
lights which included an outlet in the base of the light.

Red