Avoid These 5 Basic DIY Electrical Mistakes

first mistake I want to help you avoid is just making sure you're wiring your outlet correctly now you'll see we have gold screw terminals silver screw Terminals and then one green screw terminal so when we're dealing with a standard piece of RX this one specifically is a 122 and that means it's 12 gauge and two conductors first conductor being black hot second conductor being white neutral with this Rox we'd be matching up our black hot conductor to the gold screw terminal side of the outlet conversely for the silver terminal side we would be matching that up with our white neutral also to note the larger slot in your outlet is always going to be Associated to the side with the silver terminals that is your neutral slot and then finally for the green ground we're going to associate that with RX to the bare ground but if you have conduit or another setup you might have green insulation for your wire and then that's going to match right up to your green screw terminal now second mistake I want to help you avoid is just making sure we actually secure these wires correctly on the thumbnail for this video they actually did some of these issues on that outlet that equaled a failure so if you're dealing with a residential grade Outlet you will find these holes in the back that is for Speed wiring or what a lot of professionals called backstabbing which I just don't recommend any DIY sure it saves you a little time but to make sure we avoid any failures side wiring is going to be the method you want to go with which I'll demo the prop technique right now so you want to strip off about 3/4 of an inch of insulation from both your conductors then I'll use the jaws of my hybrid wire strippers here by kidpix to make a perfect J hook if you have standard wire strippers you probably have a hole right in the handle that can help you with a J hook and if it's a little open like that just crimp it down with your wire strippers to close off the opening we'll do the same thing here for our bare ground with the Jaws making our J hook and then we'll start off in the order of operation that is ideal deal which is the ground first there something I haven't done in the past and when it comes to screwdrivers a flathead like this is going to give you a lot of torque but it's going to slip off a Phillips is going to keep you on that screw but it's going to strip out the screw or Cam out a better solution is either a hybrid like this which is a Milwaukee ECX number one or if you want to go with a multi-bit tool like this 11 in1 by clein tools you'll see a link in the description that's going to give you nut drivers a bunch of different bits and specifically a number one Robertson which if you know any Canadians they love the Robertson and for good reason they're super handy when it comes to this type of wiring because it fits right into the screw and it always stays on and gives you plenty of torque so highly recommend getting one of those make sure you're going in the clockwise Direction starting off with your ground that is best practice and something I haven't done for many years so I'm trying to get better at and then you'll tighten that down on your be ground making sure it's cinched tight to the screw terminal and does not push back out we'll do the same thing here for our neutral on our silver screw terminal again keeping it down and making sure it pulls tight to the screw terminal and then you'll finish off with your hot side and the black conductor in the clockwise Direction with your number one Robertson tightening that down so this is what I would want to see I want to make sure there's no insulation below the screw terminal that would separate the screw terminal from the actual copper and also I don't want to have the insulation stripped far enough back where I have exposed copper past the housing and then additionally I would just go ahead and tighten down any of those unused screw terminals just as best practice again keeping everything as close to the housing as possible where it's not sticking out past the housing now mistake number three actually relates to residential grade these are cheap I do not recommend using residential grade if you're going to spend the time to go down to the Home Improvement shop get supplies swap out some Outlets or install new ones for the first time I think you should upgrade to a much better option so usually for about two or three more dollars we could upgrade from this residential lowest End Outlet and step up to a commercial grade which is pretty much Superior in every way it's just a much better build I have cut many of these open and the internal components are also Superior it gives you a thicker housing the contacts on the inside are going to hold up to frequent plugging and unplugging much better than the residential grade if you've ever been in a coffee shop a hotel or even at your house that's a little older when the plugs start falling out of your outlet you know it's super annoying so the commercial grad is going to hold up much better and specifically this is going to give you an option to go in the back which is called back wiring not speed wiring or backstabbing but back wiring if I push that screw terminal in for the hot side you can see there's a little plate that pushes out of the way and then I could go directly in with a properly stripped wire right in the back and this is not in the correct order I should do my ground neutral first but then I could tighten that up and that screw terminal is going to pull that plate against that wire and then it pinches that wire into place making full contact with our copper wire and now we have no exposed copper past the housing it's a faster way to wire and it's also going to give you a more consistent result especially when maybe you don't have that much experience making your J Hooks and wiring a standard residential grade Outlet now even with a commercial grade you don't totally get off the hook with the GR the ground does not have the back wiring feature so you'd still need to make your J hook and put that in the clockwise direction again this should be your first wire to go on tighten that down then put your neutral in place and then your hot to get a fully wired Outlet now I have taken apart lron eaten Leviton Hubble and this one specifically the lron is my my favorite again check below the video you'll see a link for this exact outlet that we're using so now you know where the wires should go how to securely attach them and what is the best type of product to use which I do believe is the commercial grade outlet but when you go to install the outlet mistake number four or five can kind of trip you up so let me point you in the right direction mistake number four is when the outlet is recessed into the wall maybe you have an overcut in your drywall or you're just not getting the outlet to be flush with your drywall so I'll walk you through some easy fixes and make sure you're code compliant with this video right here and then number five is a common instance where hey there might not be just one set of wires you might have two or three sets of wires that you need to deal with and appropriately wire that in so check out this video down here and that will also introduce you to a better option than a wire nut which is called a Wago 221 lever nut that I've been using for years and highly recommend to any DIY so thanks for joining me on this video and we'll catch you on one of those next videos take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 30,227

Keywords: diy wiring mistakes, wiring an outlet, how to wire an outlet, romex cable, commercial grade outlet

Id: 4EFQYjpdjFI

Length: 7min 30sec (450 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024