With only a handful of essential tools and a few bucks, you can easily repair your own electrical outlets at home. In case you need help, you have your friendly Naperville electrician to come lend a hand.
- Vibrations often cause wear and tear, resulting in cracks around the outlets.
- Rough plug insertions can damage the copper lining or slits inside the outlets that hold your external plugs. This is damage over time.
- Failure to maintain electrical outlets have resulted in fires and accidents, so the best idea is to take the whole outlet out, replace it with a new one and re-establish the wire connections. Such plastic outlets are sold separately.
Below you will find a step-by-step guide on how to address electrical outlet issues. Taking help of a reliable electric services company is always recommended as they are better equipped than we are.
- Power Off – Needless to say how important and obvious this precautionary measure is. When dealing with electrical components, it is best to be cautious and avoid electrocution.
Use a voltage tester to see if the electrical outlets are safe. Duplex outlets have a tendency to feed off two different electricity sources, so make sure both sources are turned off.
- Faceplate Removal – The plastic or designer faceplate of the outlets needs to be taken out so you can gain access to the inner wire works and other electrical components. After the faceplate is removed, take the entire outlet away from the wall.
Even the side terminal screws can hold residual electricity so put your voltage tester to work again and check to see if current is dead in the circuit.
- Wire Removal – All attached wires need to be detached. You do not have specialized guides or equipment to hold the wires in stasis to let you know what goes where. The simplest idea is to use your camera mobile phone to take a snapshot to show where each wire was before you took them away from the outlet circuit.
Different regions have different color codes (color-coding of the neutral, live and earth wires vary between U.S. and Europe), so do not rely on experience or memory. Once you have a good photo of where all the wires go, get electrical tape over the bare outlets so all terminals are insulated. (This lattermost step is required only if you need time to go buy a new outlet and want things to be safe at home.)
- New Outlet & Faceplate Screw-In – Get the new outlet and reverse-follow the process. Attach the wires wherever they need to go using that photo you took earlier. Secure them just right so they are not too loose or too tight that they might come away or break off.
Screw the faceplate back into the wall and use the voltage tester to see if the numbers read anywhere between 115 volts to 120 volts. Of course, this is just to check that the new outlet is conducting sufficient electricity. These values will certainly vary between countries.
You can always do the electrical outlet replacement yourself, if you know what you are doing, and call an electrician to come double check things for you. This can save you unwanted expenses while still promoting home safety.
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708-296-2720
