Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Cheater plugs

Seeing how the fault clears, I’d be interested in the receptacle wiring and box type. Is the box and cover metal? Is the receptacle grounded by physical attachment of the ground (bare copper) wire? Grounding adapters (commonly referred to as “cheaters”) are designed to provide you a direct path to ground. But, they only work if the screw is secured to the receptacle and the receptacle is physically grounded.

Depending on how old the apartment wiring is, it may be a simple two wire without ground. There’s nothing you can do for that other than run a ground wire from everything to a water main……

Tom, I just don’t know what to say…..you friggin nut.

The cover is plastic, but I have secured the screw to either the center screw holding the cover on or the screw holding the socket assembly to the box. I don't know if all of the boxes are metal, but I suspect they are, given the apparent age of the place. Out back, there is a grounding wire extremely poorly attached (read, not really attached at all) to one of the faucets. I should probably fix that at some point. But I don't know where that wire goes back to; it appears to go up to the roof, where my neighbors have their Dishes. Where I'm not allowed to have a Dish. Different story...

At the moment, because of a ground loop problem (surprise!), the EP350 is the only thing on a cheater plug that is not screwed in.

Well if the fault goes away with the screw attached to the center receptacle screw, that tells me that your wiring most likely is a two wire with bare ground, and that they did attach the ground wire to the receptacle. It’s nothing to pull the cover off and look. The ground screw is to the side (usually) of the receptacle and you should be able to see it.

Changing receptacles is a no-brainer thing to do. Just make damn sure the breaker is open. Use a Volt meter to verify zero state. The binding screws for the neutral and line wire are color coded. The yellowish screw is for line (black) wire and the silver screw is for the neutral (white). The ground (bare) goes to a green screw that is quite obviously not a screw for the line or neutral. Most receptacles also have push in attachment where you just strip the wire and shove it into a hole in the back of the receptacle (see what Peter does with that sentence). I never use these because I’ve seen some fail and allow the wire to fall out. I use the binding screws. I’ll put a 180 bend in the wire and rap it around the screw with the tail to the right and tighten it up. If your wondering why the tail goes to the right, it’s so when you tighten the screw up, the wire will pull onto the receptacle verses trying to push it off and out from under the screw.

Getting the receptacle back into the box is the hardest part. You sort of twist it back and forth to get the wires to bend and allow you to push it into the box.

I've installed a few light switches before, but never a receptacle. The last one I installed was exciting, since the box had both a switch and a receptacle in it. I think the push attachment was used on the previous ones. I had some trouble getting it to work (don't remember why; maybe I didn't get the wire on tight), so I turned on the breaker to check my wiring. I accidentally shorted out the circuit with my voltmeter probe tip. That was ... exciting? Fortunately, I was not hurt.

I'll have a look under one of the plates to see if I can find a grounding wire. I think I'll also replace the ground/pipe connection on the wall outside.

LOL.....

Hey, we've all done that. My VOM has some "interesting" looking probes. It's really cool when it welds itself to the ofending ground....

If you need any help, feel free to ask. I can probably post a picture or two if needed.

Cool, thanks!

Despite (or likely, because of) being electrocuted twice as a kid -- thumb in a light socket (hey, it fits) and screwdriver in an outlet -- I somehow never got a healthy respect for (house voltage) electricity. When I was replacing my first set of outlets in this house, I realized that they were all downstream of a GFI outlet in a bathroom after they weren't getting any power. I consciously did not open the breaker and carefully pulled the receptacle out and unhooked it. I didn't get electrocuted, but I got to see a lovely arc (and the sound of the GFI in the bathroom tripping) when the leads touched.

Brains of a turnip.

Is that because of the shock or before the shock?

Turnips are the smartest vegetables around.