Orangestang
Well-known member
Growing up in Chicagoland all the houses i've been in the outlets are horizontal, now what do I do?
Orienting a 5-15 receptacle
- Thread starter rick carpenter
- Start date
Nick Danger
Well-known member
Should horizontal outlets be aligned neutral up?
I wish they were all "down" as I prefer down. I've run into a few washers and even appliance extension cords that were made for ground up. Means that the cord flops over when plugged into a ground down receptacle.
Here they are selling a ground up dishwasher cord: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003DA62S8/?tag=atomicindus08-20
I tried that in an outside receptacle with an in-use cover. Had to flip it hot up so that the ground down angled cord would fit and close the cover.
bczygan
Well-known member
Which direction should the ones in the floor or ceiling point?
Bill
Bill
lakeroadster
Well-known member
Crazyjake8493
Well-known member
Maybe folks should go off and stick some knives in outlets to experiment and put this to bed??? lol
In the end, all we have to do is look at the box for the most common electrical appliance out there, and the proper way is clearly instructed:
Just don't install that in an auditorium!
justsam
Well-known member
Dagny
Well-known member
metal face plate comes loose drops down, ground up
Cruzan80
Well-known member
Around here ground down, ground up means it is controlled by a wall switch somewhere.
mcbane
Well-known member
I have yet to encounter a big wall wart style plug designed to work well with a ground up outlet. And while I have seen lots of electrical mishaps, I have yet to see a knife fall and land between an outlet and whatever was plugged into it.
These days I always install ground down.
These days I always install ground down.
PelicanPines
ALLIANCE MEMBER
ishiboo
Well-known member
Wall warts typically have the same size hot/neutral though, don't they? So they can work either direction.
I install everything ground down. Plugs are either designed to go straight out, or straight down with the ground at the bottom.
That's different from 5-50 for example, for some reason those molded plugs all assume the ground will be on the top.
Not a knife, but had a piece of carbon fiber fall on a bandsaw plug partly pulled out. Smoldered for a few minutes before someone noticed. Also seen a piece of filler rod short across a grinder plug, but this one shorted almost instantly.
I mounted all mine ground up, it's a PITA for some of the power strips and the windo AC.
mcbane
Well-known member
I have encountered numerous wall warts that have a ground prong. No way to invert the wall wart unless you want to cut off that prong.
Crazyjake8493
Well-known member
What are they used for? I don't think I've ever seen one with a ground prong.
mike in tucson
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2015
- Messages
- 639
The Hubbell catalog generally shows the receptacle with the ground up but the smaller, installed illustrations are mostly ground down:
http://ecatalog.hubbell-wiring.com/press/pdfs/Original_WLFSB011.pdf
http://ecatalog.hubbell-wiring.com/press/pdfs/Original_WLFSB011.pdf
nh_yota
Well-known member
I've always thought that duplex receptacles should be built with one facing up and the other facing down so you can fit two wall warts on them.
Someone must have anticipated your good idea so found a way to prevent that and screw things up.
mcbane
Well-known member
I have seen them on alarm systems, video game consoles, and a laptop charger.
Crazyjake8493
Well-known member
Hmm. No experience with alarm systems, but I've never had a game console with one. All my laptop chargers have been the square white thing Mac uses, or the style with the converter/brick in the middle of the cord somewhere.
75gmck25
Well-known member
It reminds me a lot of car discussions about the best brand, type and weight oil to use in a particular car. The discussion never really ends.
Bruce
Bruce
4 pages & nothing settled, now anyone viewing this thread can see what a utter waste of time discussion of receptacle orientation is.
Still boils down to personal preference, or job specs, not any code.
And NEMA'tized versions of Schuko would make it all a non-issue and eliminate the present shock risks we all live with day-day.
It's just a protected pin and sleeve concept.
rlitman
Well-known member
And NEMA'tized versions of Schuko would make it all a non-issue and eliminate the present shock risks we all live with day-day.
It's just a protected pin and sleeve concept.
So you want to have 250V rated devices with a 120V supply? No thanks.
Nope. You missed the point entirely.
Im talking about the concept of recessing the receptacle socket so the plug blades are covered before being energized.
Would be very easy for many sizes.
zmaxmotorsports
Well-known member
Vertical of course,same with panel cover screws!
Barnabas
Well-known member
When I worked as a residential electrician, we installed ground down except the one behind the refrigerator was installed ground up.
You can buy them already, used one behind my wall mounted TV, the Brit 13A plugs have insulating material for a short distance after the prongs emerge from the plug body, the ground prong (their lingo "earth" pin), also opens the safety shutters on the receptacle it's a more robust version of the required tamper resistant receptacles.
https://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plugs-and-sockets/g/
The recessed recept used behind tv's is getting closer...but still not what I had in mind. Had to make my own.
This is almost ........................................this.
..................
and Nema'tized plugs to go along with it.....
And finish it off with shutters on the recept that work well, not today's garbage.
My extension cords say the insulation is 600V rated. I don't see the issue.
Then please refrain from doing wiring, electrical manufacturers make devices for every voltage, ampere rating, mixing them creates a dangerous condition, 125V, rated are used for 120 volts, 250V, for 208,240 volts.
What are you talking about?
Sjoo, thhn etc is either going to have a 300 or 600v (I think there's a higher one too) rating. I've never seen a wire rated at just 125v.
You are the one discussing wire, that was never part of the discussion, DEVICES and their rating is the topic.
Device ratings on appliances? i don't see discussion of that here. someone was talking about euro-style outlets above. do you consider those devices?
device power inlet ratings are typically nominal - not exact. 110V gear is rated for many things - 110V, 115V, 117V, 120V, 125V are "normal" device ratings.
I've only ever seen things go wrong when 117V gear gets plugged into 208V because someone measured voltage line to neutral, then attached to a PDU where it's line to line. inlet fuse popped.
Personally I prefer all gear to have auto-rainging switch mode power supplies. 90-250V or bust.
alfredeneuman
Well-known member
Yes, don't you?
SMH……
This thread is about wiring device orientation and all of the reasons/practices for one position over the other. I brought up an existing utilized concept that could easily be transitioned into the NEMA world and would remove virtually all of the reasons listed above.
Nowhere was there any suggestion to miss-apply voltage/current levels of wiring devices to different voltage systems. Hence, my second post with mocked up with NEMA 5-15 devices superimposed onto the original Shucko style pics used b/c the terms "concept" and "NEMA’tized" were glossed over in the original post.
Devices as used in typical NEC context is not an (energy consuming) utilization load but are wiring devices that transfer or control electricity, specifically a receptacle in this thread. Otherwise, cb’s, switches, etc.
Voltage rating of cords and auto-ranging loads etc. is irrelevant to the topic.
This thread is about wiring device orientation and all of the reasons/practices for one position over the other. I brought up an existing utilized concept that could easily be transitioned into the NEMA world and would remove virtually all of the reasons listed above.
Nowhere was there any suggestion to miss-apply voltage/current levels of wiring devices to different voltage systems. Hence, my second post with mocked up with NEMA 5-15 devices superimposed onto the original Shucko style pics used b/c the terms "concept" and "NEMA’tized" were glossed over in the original post.
Devices as used in typical NEC context is not an (energy consuming) utilization load but are wiring devices that transfer or control electricity, specifically a receptacle in this thread. Otherwise, cb’s, switches, etc.
Voltage rating of cords and auto-ranging loads etc. is irrelevant to the topic.