Preferred electrical receptacle devices??

[Tom M King]

Eatons ordered. I went to order some, and was amazed at the number of different types they offer. I narrowed it down to two choices to examine.

I've used a number of the Leviton ones, so remember what they're like. I don't mind bending the loops for side wiring at all. I have a pair of needle nose pliers I modified decades ago with a little groove that a twist of the wrist makes the perfect bend.

I may change all the ones in our house too. They're not back wired, but I've had to replace a few that have worn so much that stuff doesn't stay plugged in.

[Jim Becker]

Don’t fall prey to the “easy” way of doing the stab-in method on the back of the receptacle. That is the simple diy method. Secure the wire properly to the screw terminals. The stab ins created some real troubleshooting problems for me.

To be clear, those of us that have mentioned backwiring on the good quality hardware were referring to backwire with screws to secure, not the "back stab" type you mention. It's a lot easier than bending around screws with the same level of "secure".

[Frank Pratt]

It is really good to hear so many others that have the same opinion of the the spring loaded push-in terminals. I have a rant every time the subject comes up & so many people just dismiss it & say they'll keep doing it the easy way. Here's a pic of one that failed. It was actually very easy to fix because the face was distorted & baked.

Receptacle.jpg

[Jim Becker]

Yea, if the "springie thingie" gets loose, arcing can get nasty and do the "melty-melty" thing or worse...

[Brice Rogers]

Bruce King, why not put 20 amp receptacles with 14 gauge wire as long as the breaker is 15 amps? The only negative I see is the 20 A. receptacles cost a bit more.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Tom, I'm not sure the NC building code allows for owners to do electrical work on a rental property. I ran into this twenty + years ago when building our rental.

[Bruce King]

Bruce King, why not put 20 amp receptacles with 14 gauge wire as long as the breaker is 15 amps? The only negative I see is the 20 A. receptacles cost a bit more.

I thought he had 14 gauge wire where someone later on might install a 20 amp breaker because they see a 20 amp receptacle. Tom has since posted that the wiring is all 12 gauge which is better. Also, old breakers are prone to not tripping or a 15 amp tripping at 40 amps. Flipping a breaker off and on is not a test.
And 20 amp receptacles on 14 gauge wire is a code violation.

[Bruce King]

I don’t see all versions of the NEC online but this part has not changed per the discussion here.

[Doug Dawson]

Yea, if the "springie thingie" gets loose, arcing can get nasty and do the "melty-melty" thing or worse...

That’s one of the great things about arc fault protection, it can prevent this sort of thing from happening. No more sizzling receptacles!

Some people _hate_ AFCI’s because they can “nuisance trip”. Hmmm, bad extension cord, house burn down, bad extension cord, house burn down, lemme think about this for a while, it’s SOOOO hard to decide which one I prefer... LOL!

[Tom M King]

I have nothing against arc fault breakers, unless they're in a house wired with shared neutrals. They trip Way too many times, for nothing, with shared neutrals. Shared neutrals was a very common way of wiring houses for a long time. There is nothing wrong with that, until you get breakers that measure the amount of current making it back to the breaker.

I'm having a harder time finding switches, than I did with the receptacles. Most of the ones I looked at had reviews that say they don't work good with LED lighting.

[Jim Becker]

Tom, I'm not sure the NC building code allows for owners to do electrical work on a rental property. I ran into this twenty + years ago when building our rental.

From the original post, it appears he's just swapping out the physical receptials ...I don't thing that's going to be an issue.

That’s one of the great things about arc fault protection, it can prevent this sort of thing from happening. No more sizzling receptacles!

Some people _hate_ AFCI’s because they can “nuisance trip”. Hmmm, bad extension cord, house burn down, bad extension cord, house burn down, lemme think about this for a while, it’s SOOOO hard to decide which one I prefer... LOL!

I used a couple before they became more normal when I was doing some updating on the upstairs "bedroom" wiring in the 250 year old portion of our home. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

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Tom, I've used the Leviton "commercial" grade switches no problem with LEDs. Where you have to match things up is if dimming is involved...older type dimmers don't work well with LEDs even if they were OK for dimmable CFL. Most of the latest dimming stuff is compatible with LEDs, but I'll caution you that some LED fixtures and lamps/bulbs, despite saying they are dimmable, can be finicky. I've also had some wonky things around dimmers with "replacement LED" MR16 substituting in fixtures originally designed for Halogen MR16. It's the fixture, not the lamp/bulb, but these are older fixtures, too.

[Tom M King]

I'm not going to bother with dimmers in that house. I am just going to replace the devices. Reading reviews on regular switches on Amazon, there seemed to be a fair number of problems with LED lights. It didn't make a lot of sense to me, and quite easily something could have been left out of the story.

All the devices in that house are Ivory, and we're going with bright white for all the trim, so the devices need to be changed to White too.

I'll definitely be using the Leviton nylon covers for everything, even if my trials show that I like the Eaton devices better.

[Doug Dawson]

I have nothing against arc fault breakers, unless they're in a house wired with shared neutrals. They trip Way too many times, for nothing, with shared neutrals. Shared neutrals was a very common way of wiring houses for a long time. There is nothing wrong with that, until you get breakers that measure the amount of current making it back to the breaker.

I'm having a harder time finding switches, than I did with the receptacles. Most of the ones I looked at had reviews that say they don't work good with LED lighting.

Shared neutrals is where the fun really begins, with breakers. If there’s any justice (and there isn’t always) you could verify the lack thereof on a given circuit run by looking in the boxes and using a cable tracer, and are a good reason why you’d prefer AFCI receptacles over breakers when you could use them at all (aside from them being less expensive.) They’re more of a problem with GFCI’s, though. All an AFCI does is analyze the waveform for immorality, and tell you that you’ve got a problem _somewhere_. (Electrical miscellany: an AFCI can also detect misbehavior _upstream_ of the device.) And they’re getting better and better as they massage the technology.

I predict that it won’t be long before GFCI’s are mandated on all new residential construction. Something about extension cords. Don’t give them any ideas. :^)

With switches, I’m unfamiliar with that being a problem unless we’re talking about dimmers.

[Bruce King]

When putting in AFCIs you want the Combination type which detects arcing on series(one wire loose or damaged) and parallel (partial short from hot to neutral or ground).
A dual AFCI is just the addition of GFI in the AFCI device.

https://www.jadelearning.com/blog/co...rcuit-breaker/

[Jim Becker]

Tom, the nylon covers don't care what brand of device is behind them... So use what makes sense to you for the replacement gear.