Did you guys know this about outlets? I didn't!

[grsthegreat]

Grounds are placed up in commercial applications where metal coverplates are used. This way if a plate were to come loose it won’t drop down and short across the hot and neutral when plug is pulled out. I never install them with ground up in residential.

 

[bcp]

Ground down to make it look like a face.
Bruce

 

[von-mil]

What about those outlets you somtimes see that are mounted sideways. Ground pole to the left or to the right?

 

[oosik]

Darn. Completely wired our house here when I built it. NEVER knew of tool #2. Bought an expensive pair of wire stripping pliers.

 

[GeneV]

Hey guys interesting info about installing the outlet with ground up. Some plugs fit better ground down vs up (for instance with a flat face space-saving prongs), so I just install the outlet to fit the purpose when there is one. Otherwise, I never gave it much thought.

 

[k0ua]

Grounds are placed up in commercial applications where metal coverplates are used. This way if a plate were to come loose it won’t drop down and short across the hot and neutral when plug is pulled out. I never install them with ground up in residential.

I can tell you for a fact what happens when the metal cover-plate falls down and shorts across the hot and neutral prongs.

I was installing a plug in surge suppressor and you use the center screw on a tab of the suppressor to hold the suppressor in so it cannot be removed without a screwdriver. When the metal cover-plate accidentally fell down across the two prongs, oh, boy that was fun, then I got to hunt up the breaker box too!.

 

[grsthegreat]

What about those outlets you somtimes see that are mounted sideways. Ground pole to the left or to the right?

On sideways plugs if you face the ground pointing left, the neutral side (the larger of the flat blades) will point up. Safer than the line side up.

 

[Cargo pants]

Wow, I never knew about the strippers. Enjoyed watching the video without commercials too!

 

[Thomas]

Solid wire easier to skin than stranded wire.

 

[dstig1]

I too have had a plug short out from dropping something metal so I started doing ground prong up. In my case it was a combination square I was holding while unplugging a drill and it slipped out of my hands and shorted right across the plug. After a while I stopped and went back to normal as the ground prong "up" puts enormous stress on the ground pin on an extension cord as it tries to bend down from the weight of the cord (heavy duty construction cords, not lightweight residential ones). I started to see the ground pins get pulled out of the plug on the cord. After the second extension cord did that on me I changed my ways.