I have a large chest freezer (14 cu ft) in an awkward place in the basement. I would like to move it about 8 feet and just run a new line and receptacle off the old one. All of my electrical wiring books were lost 6 years ago. So I checked on line and every "how to" indicates that a pigtail must be installed before both the old and new receptacles are connected. I could sear that in the past, I saw an instruction that just hooked the new wires to the terminals on the sides of the receptacle. I will do what all the advice says, but still wonder why is the pigtail necessary. Seems like a lot of extra wires and wire nuts. etc. in the receptacle box.
Can anyone explain why it is done that way instead of attaching the new wires to the receptacle?