6 MISTAKES DIYers Make When Wiring Outlets

first on our list of the six mistakes i see diy-ers making when wiring up outlets or receptacles is using these backstab connections on the back of most outlets or receptacles you're going to find these little holes and these are known as backstab terminals now nobody likes to have their back stabbed just think of it the same way just avoid stabbing someone in the back and that includes your outlets these are one time use and they have a poor amount of contact area with the wires themselves now my house right now that i live in that's seven years old and the entire thing was done by a professional electrician of course and every outlet that was done in the house uses the backstab terminals now i've already experienced issues where i remove the face plate i remove the outlet and sure enough one of these things comes out or comes free or was loose not stabbed in there properly and i've already got an issue immediately upon taking this thing out of the box so don't use these these are just bad news all around the second mistake we di wires tend to make with wiring outlets and switches is using the wrong screwdriver now part of this is because there are so many different options out there you can use a slotted screwdriver you can use a phillips you can use a robertson drive and you can use the ecx which we're going to talk about in just a minute the flat head actually works fine you know a lot of people even professional electricians still use this today as their go-to and it can work but it's not optimal for this the most commonly used thing and what i've used my entire life is a phillips screwdriver it works right but it does tend to cam out a little bit or start to strip the head when you put any sort of force on there and you have to really push hard against the screw to get it to hold in place so it's good but it's not the best not long ago i was looking at the shape of the screw here and i realized i'll bet i could fit a robertson inside there now if you're not familiar with the robertson drive it's invented by a gentleman up in canada quite a while ago it's similar to a square drive but robertson has a little bit of a taper to the sides and it actually does fit excellent this is a robertson number one is what you want to use there and it fits so well it fits perfectly in there like you can see here it's not the best but it's a close second then i recently ordered one of these screwdrivers from klein now one of the reasons i bought this specific 15 in one is because it comes with these bits this is the ecx and that's the one i mentioned earlier now the ecx you can think of it as a combination between a robertson drive and a slotted screwdriver head so it's got both of those in there and basically it takes up all of the negative space inside your screw head and it's perfectly meant for and designed for electrical screws like this so it is the optimal way to use drivers for any sort of screw for outlets switches and things like that most of these are available on amazon and some of them are only available at harbor freight or lowe's or home depot we'll talk more about that one right now which is getting the insulated version so an insulated version this is the best of all worlds now we as diy-ers tend to be the least experienced with electrical work obviously we didn't go to school for this or train for it so the more we can do to safeguard ourselves and put those safety precautions in place the better they're fully insulated and they're rated for up to a thousand volts now if you like the milwaukee brand you can pick up one of these from milwaukee as well this again comes in the same set of three it's basically identical other than these little slots that are in the top and that cost about 21 bucks at least at the time of this recording and i will put links to all of these in the description below now there is no sponsor for this video all of the products that i'm using in here are just things that i've purchased with my own money now if you're a diy-er like me and you probably are if you're watching this or you certainly know someone who is you know that sometimes you don't need to buy something when you can diy something for a lot more money and a lot more time probably but if you're one of those people who likes to get into it and figure things out you can get shirts like this in my merch store there's links in the description below so feel free to check that out that helps support the channel and i appreciate it very much number three on my list is stripping too much or too little wire when you're making a shepherd's hook to wrap around the screws if you do too much exposed wire here so if i take this though and try to put this let's use the right side at least and try to put this on my screw terminal like this you know that works it's on there and i can fasten that down and i've got a good solid connection there there's a lot of contact between the screw the plate underneath and the wire the problem is all of this is hanging out and this is dangerous this is more contact points where other wires could touch it you could touch it it could touch another outlet next to it or a metal junction box so that's bad news when you've got too much wire hanging out similarly if you take a section of wire that's too short and you try to use that let's say we try to create a little hook with this maybe you have to do something like that that's not ideal so let's say we put this one in here like so so what we've created there is a real lack of contact so a lot of it is touching the insulation or the jacketing of the 14 gauge wire here and there's probably some back inside there that's touching but it's really minimal compared to what it should be if you cut the right amount then you're going to get a good solid connection all the way through now to help you out with this just about every single outlet on the market today has a wire strip gauge so on this one for example you can see it right here and it's typically three quarters of an inch for a shepherd's hook a lot of different wire strippers have a little depth gauge that you can use if you want to and i can just set that to right there where that black mark is so it gets right to the teeth and then i'm just gonna push pull it off and then you can see it cut right to that line pull that off and i've got the exact right amount and you can even double check it right here with the wire strip gauge now obviously you don't need special strippers to do that you can use some traditional plate stamped ones like this a pair of these you can go with the automatic wire strippers like these and these have a little depth stop on them as well a lot of people don't realize that your wire strippers these traditional kind here have a little hole in them that you can use you can just put your wire inside there just get it right towards the edge and then from there just bend up and around get kind of a nice tight hook there and there we go we've got a perfect little hook to put around the shaft of the screw that's a pretty good set right there fourth on my list is adding too many wires to terminals that aren't designed to handle that most of the time any one screw can only handle one wire and is only designed to handle one wire securely there are exceptions and we'll look at some of those in just a second but generally speaking you have to use the amount of wires that the design of this ul approved outlet is intended to use and most of the time that's one so instead of trying to cram a couple of different wires under one single terminal for example there is a much easier way and that is to use pigtails a really common example that i've come across personally is when i want to install a smart light switch let's say i need to connect these two here i'm just going to disconnect these because we don't want those double connected like this to the terminal that's definitely against code so i'm going to take these off and then i can either cut these where they are which is what i'll prefer to do so we don't have to reuse the bent parts so i'm going to snip these i'll strip the ends again so now that i've got these two i'm going to take a sacrificial third piece and this is the pigtail the pigtail is basically just the output from multiple inputs but i'm just going to put all three of these together the two coming in and the one going out and then i'll use some linemen pliers to twist all these together and ideally you're going to twist until the insulated portion twists a couple of times itself beyond just the exposed area like that so i've got a really good twist going on there for sure and then i'm going to put my cap on thread it in make sure it's in there really snug and then you do the pull test so i'm going to remove these a little bit make sure that doesn't come out that doesn't come out and that doesn't come out so then i've got my pigtail and i've got my two in like this and then one coming out that can go to the outlet or the light switch in this case an even easier method of this is using these little wago lever nuts these are little connectors that are really simple to use because they're transparent you can actually see that the wires went all the way through to the end like that and then you can see the bus in there and make sure there's a good connection the thing i love about these is that you can just remove these anytime so let's say you want to get rid of that one and swap that out for a different outlet or something you can do that really easily and then you can just push the new one back in lock it down and you're good to go now certain outlets actually have what's called side wiring and that's like this one here where you can put two different wires in each screw mistake number five that we diy-ers often make is going against the grain by accidentally putting our hooks in the wrong direction this is just a simple one but again we want to make sure we always have a nice tight hook like this and that we are facing it in the right direction you want to work with the grain as it were so as we're taking a screw like this and tightening it clockwise you want to make sure that the open side is on the right and so that it tends to tighten down rather than work against it so as we tighten it down like this it's going to have a tendency to actually close that little loop there and have great contact all the way through the mistake i often see and i've been guilty of myself is that we'll put the hook a little bit too loose like this a little too open and then we'll also put it the wrong direction opening to the left so as you keep tightening it like this then you're actually tightening it right out of the seat like that and it just popped free and then even there it looks like it's okay but what can happen pretty easily is it just can break right away like that this issue is even more common for stranded wire which is less common for outlets for sure but it's certainly common with light fixtures so if you ever have to do a tightening of a stranded wire make sure that that opening is on the right side if you're tightening it down with a screw terminal and the shepherd's hook now before we get to our last item i have put links to all of these products in the description below so if you've seen it in this video you can find the link for it in the description below and by buying something from those links it gives me a tiny kickback doesn't cost you a penny more and it helps support the channel so i appreciate you using that if i missed something leave a comment below and i'll be happy to see if i can get that for you for number six let's say you've done everything right you've got these beautiful little shepherds hooks on here you've got great contact you've got the right amount you're using the right screwdriver all is good there's one thing left that often gets overlooked and again one i've definitely been guilty of which is not tightening down the extra screws that aren't being used if you look at the profile here you can see that nothing sticks out as far as that screw right there and so that's a problem that could touch the outlet next to it it could touch a metal junction box a bare ground wire that's in the box anything like that so to reduce the likelihood of any issues just tighten it down now that's out of the way and much less likely to cause any issues in the future i'm nils with learn to diy thanks for watching

Channel: LRN2DIY

Views: 1,895,752

Keywords: diy, how-to, lrn2diy

Id: XmiG4KzZ4sg

Length: 11min 28sec (688 seconds)

Published: Sat May 14 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/RedneckTexan]

Cool.

Looks like Klein came out with these first back in 2014 calling them Combination Tips, then Milwaukee came out with some in 2018 and called them ECX tips.

Which you know the whole idea behind the combination head screws was that they would work with a Slot, Philips, or Robertson head screwdriver, so you didn't have to carry all 3, but the result was they dont work as good as a dedicated Slot, Philips, or Robertson head would. They strip easier than either one would by itself.

This compensates for that shortcoming ...... by adding another tool you need.

I think I will get me Klein Set ..... because Greenlee Doesn't seem to make one, and all my other electrical screwdrivers are Greenlee.

[u/dw_calif]

Kalinengrad?