Outlets wired backwards

[Bird]

How appropriate that Elkhart is the RV capitol of the world!

Yep, in fact the reason I was there was because I had found that my RV was a little overloaded, so I went out to talk to the customer service guy at the manufacturer, and he sent me to a particular fellow at Dexter Axle, and I got a complete custom built suspension from the frame down; i.e., springs, shackles, wheels, tires, brakes, axles, etc. I bought all the stuff (cheaper than I expected) and the RV manufacturer paid one of their dealers to install all of it.

 

[Tdog]

thanks Tally - - I've been thinking about GFI's. But I totally don't know which outlet is 1st in each circuit. I'm not finding much organization in which circuits control what. I've been identifying the circuits as I go along - - sometimes it is strange what a particular circuit controls.

Jack

 

[Mgrove]

When I worked as a appliance tech, I had a dishwasher that the heating element came on while the cust was on vacation. The polarity was reversed, and the door even if it was open broke the common side of the line, not the hot side, so when the heating element shorted, the element came on and stayed on all the customer was gone. There was no fire, but everything inside was melted. Try reaching under a built in dishwasher, thinking the door is open, I'll be safe!
Drills, sanders, and many hand tools rely on proper grounding. Some of the parts inside could present a hazard if something went wrong, even if they are all plastic.
Most solid state devices require a proper ground, microwaves, furnaces, gas ranges with spark ignition.
You could if necessary wire nut a short piece of #12 wire to the #10. It would work ok, but the more connections you have the more likely you are to have problems.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

How are the circuits wired at the panel, i.e., did they reverse the white and black there too?

It's hard to believe a licensed electrician reversed the white and black and used 10 gauge wire.

We are working on a apartment building right now that the old wiring was all reversed. The white wire was set to the hot side in the panel box and all through the house. Don't know why it was done that way but the guy who did it is the electical inspectors brother and his shop is right across the street. It really doesn't matter to us though as when working with electric you always verify the hot side before tying in to existing work.

 

[biggerten]

I didn't understand the ground prong comment either since it's irrelevant to your question.

The tester confirmed it's wired correctly at the panel. As others mentioned, the only issue would be one of polarity. Since you have not had any problems, maybe it's not an issue. Perhaps an electrician could comment....about polarity.

I thought the original poster wanted some comments about potential (a little joke there) consequences. It's OK to be confused and not understand, but the outlets being wired incorrectly is a safety issue. As for polarity, well, AC has none.

Use some common sense, people. If it were not an issue, why did they even bother?

One more thing. If you examine your lamp cords, etc, you will notice that the insulation very often is molded such that the "hot" (also called "line") conductor has a distinguishing feature (molded lines, may be different color, etc) to identify which conductor is which. They don't do this without an excuse.

 

[JB4310]

BTW never hooked a GFI backwards will it work or will it trip?

Not sure about the older ones, but these new "smart" gfi's will not even let you energize if not wired correctly, and wont reset until fault is removed if they do trip.

You got hot to light and the return is hot to the switch. The switch interrupts the return.

Egon, still not exactly sure what you mean but it doesn't sound good.
I had an electrician wire a direct short in a ceiling light fixture, he got mixed up with the white wire acting a a switched leg and just twisted it up with the other whites/neutrals in the box, when I flicked the switch, POPPPED the breaker. He was doing alot of E work in the house at the time but was gone for the day, so I corrected the short problem, when I told what he did he denied it!

thanks Tally - - I've been thinking about GFI's. But I totally don't know which outlet is 1st in each circuit. I'm not finding much organization in which circuits control what. I've been identifying the circuits as I go along - - sometimes it is strange what a particular circuit controls.
Jack

Jack,
If you want to know what other outlets are fed thru a particular one, as you are doing those outlets one at a time, when the outlet is disconnected and wires are safely separated and not shorted to the box, go and turn the breaker back on and check to see which if any other outlets are unpowered.

It's a slow process but one which you are going thru anyhow, that way you could protect the other outlets with one GFI, they also have gfi breakers to control the whole branch circuit.

Typically you only need gfi's in bathroom, kitchen, basement, garage or anywhere outside. Well I guess that's most of the house except bedrooms and living room, halls etc.

What is an AFCI?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFU5J6JOKkc

Here's the new thing, Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter "AFCI" for bedrooms etc. Not sure if it's code yet but they have been out for a few years now.



JB.

 

[Egon]

How to Install Electrical Wiring | DoItYourself.com

JB, in the picture if the white is hot the circuit will be hot to the switch. That means with the light turned off there is always power at the light.

 

[kenstrac]

Tdog my question has not been addressed what is the size of the breakers?
I think a 15 or 20 amp outlet on a 30 amp breaker is more of a problem than reversed polarity.

 

[beenthere]

This is a very frustrating thread to read through. There is a fair amount of misinformation being tossed around, and wrong terminology along with it, that there is no good place to start to try to offer some help.
Hopefully the OP will carry through with straightening out his mess of a wiring job and not have anyone "shorted" out or a fire break out. That means being sure the right breakers/fuses protect the circuits too.
Along with the bad information, there is also some good information. I guess it is up to the readers to carefully sort it out, and not put some of these things into practice.

 

[BobRip]

Excellent point re: the wire that is switched. This is true everywhere there's a switch or a switched appliance, light, etc.

That's the main reason you switch hot. On a light socket the hot is normally tied to the center contact (button of the bulb base). This is a lot harder for someone to touch than the threaded ring. Hence it is safer.