How To Fix Loose Outlet | 2 Easy Options

how's it going you guys it's Scott with everyday home repairs now I want to help you solve one of the most common problems in our home electrical systems which I'm having right here at this outlet and that is simply when the outlet is loose you go to plug in any sort of Appliance and you just have way too much movement going on at the outlet now don't worry this is a very approachable project and there are a few Solutions we'll go with we'll start with that simplest solution and we'll work our way up in complexity ensuring that we get your problem fixed covering all the different scenarios so let's jump into it so using my outlet tester I'll both show you that our power is off here we did turn off the breaker and then also just show you that movement at the outlet what we're looking to fix so you just go ahead and remove your cover plate here so right away I'm seeing a few things one the Box itself is fairly tight it has a little play in it but not too bad the Mickey Mouse ears on the Yoke these are actually supposed to be setting on the drywall that would ensure that this face is flush with the drywall surface but you can see my drywall has been significantly over cut to the size of the electrical box so these Mickey Mouse ears are not sitting on the drywall so I believe that's why whomever worked on this Outlet last did not tighten it they wanted to make sure that this was still flush so they didn't tighten this mounting screw all the way down to push the outlet against the electrical box because that would sink the outlet compared to the wall and it wouldn't look very good so they just kind of left it Loose out here but that's what gave us all of our play so fix number one would hopefully be just tightening these mounting screws or if you have an electrical box that sunken in like this you can also use these 1 8 of an inch spacers now you'll find these in a link below this video and that will go over to our Amazon store and in the electrical section you'll see things like these spacers and all the other tools that we use throughout this video so these spacers are 1 8 of an inch thick and you can go ahead and double those up to a quarter of an inch 3 8 of an inch and that's really as much else I would space I want to go any further that if you've got to go further than that we probably need to address an issue with your electrical box so I'm going to go ahead and space the top and bottom with these and see how secure we can get this Outlet now these mounting screws are kind of stripped out so using a Milwaukee ECX number one which is a combination but helps get those screws out without stripping them anymore I'm going to put a quarter of an inch so that's two of the 1 8 spacers on the top and bottom with the opening facing down on both sides then we'll go ahead and Center things up and start to tighten it back into the wall get it all tightened down then put the wall plate and see what we got now hopefully the first fix does it for you for me it definitely secured things up but not quite where I want it so I'm going to go on to fix number two which is going to be addressing that electrical box so go ahead and take that wall plate back off and undo our Outlet now for this we're going to actually need to remove the outlet and take the wiring out of this existing electrical box I'll use an oscillating tool with a metal blade to cut off the top and bottom mounting Nails take your time and don't damage the drywall like I did right there although I should be able to fix that up by the time we're done with mounting the new box [Music] once everything's removed I'm going to use a Southwire Smart Box but instead of the standard black drywall grade Phillips head screws I'm using a one and a half inch grk with a torque T25 head that is the key the T25 head is going to be much easier to drive and secure into your wall stud and I just recommend swapping these out it will make the mounting much easier and reduce any chances of stripping out those two mounting screws now you need to run that Romex back into your box and you want to get that sheathing back into the box not outside the box so it might take a little time depending if you have one or two runs of Romex now once you have that pulled in I do have a pretty short ground wire you would want six inches past the sheathing and three inches past the outside surface to meet code I would keep the Smart Box actually an eighth of an inch outside the drywall because as you drive those screws in it will pull the box back in and then hopefully you meet flush with the outside wall surface like I have here using a three wire Wago 221 lever nut I'm going to pigtail the ground making up for that short side from the wiring before now pre-wire that pigtail into this commercial grade outlet and then I'm just using back wiring so instead of pigtailing the neutral in the ground I'm going to use both screw terminals go straight in the back side of this commercial grade outlet and remember this is back wiring this is not backstabbing so there's actually a plate when you tighten that screw that pinches down on your wire and makes for a nice secure hold finishing up with the last hot conductor here on the gold terminal side I'll go ahead and start to mount now I left this Smart Box flush with the outside surface because I'm going to tighten the salad all the way down to the plastic electrical box housing and then once we get that tightened on I'll replace the wall plate and finish things up so now I got my power back on I can test it with my outlet tester everything's working and it's much more secure let me know for your issue was it option one or option two that fixed it for you and if you're going to use that Southwire Smart Box which can come in super handy just remember upgrade those screws those Phillips head screws and kind of the drywall grade I do not recommend I would upgrade to a grk or maybe a spax in the inch and a half range with a T25 torque or an equivalent head that you can get really good torque on and it's going to be more forgiving to not cam out or strip out that screw now if you want to check out another video I did in the same property I took power from this Outlet down here and I moved it behind the flat screen TV so we could hide any of the power cords most importantly no drywall work no painting and we did not go down into a basement or in an attic so it fits a lot of different applications and it's just an awesome skill to have so check got this video right here and I'll walk you through all the steps needed to knock out that project so thanks for joining me in this video and we'll catch you on that next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 82,724

Keywords: outlet moves when plugging in, everyday home repairs, everyday home repairs electrical, diy home improvement, diy home remodel, diy home repair

Id: 4ld0THPOgeM

Length: 7min 3sec (423 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 07 2023