Just need to vent...

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Mendel Leisk, Jul 6, 2022.

  1. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Whatever's bugging you thread? To get started:

    I've got a couple of flakey duplex electrical outlets: on each one of the outlets is showing something like 50 volts (120 volt the norm), so thought I'd replace them. Which introduced me to the sand pounding reality of Tamper Resistant outlets. After the swap, both a coffee grinder and a grid are impossible to plug in. Work around:

    0A5327AF-1AC4-4DF5-B3E8-92FCEDC43502.jpeg

    They may be safer electrically, hey: if you can't use them, you can't get into trouble? But they're really hard on my blood pressure... :cautious:
     
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Can you make out what it is about the coffee grinder and grid (?) plugs that the TR receptacle doesn't like?
     
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  3. ColoradoBoo

    ColoradoBoo Senior Member

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    I've never heard of a 50 volt outlet...even in an RV!

    My gripe of the day is with the driver of white car this morning. I was heading to work and going through a roundabout and was going through to the second road to make a right. A white car approached, while I was in the roundabout, so I put my left blinker on to let him/her know I was continuing, he/she came within a few feet of me, hit the brakes and blew the horn, like I was supposed to yield! What a moron!!! (He/she better not ever drive overseas where not knowing roundabout rules can get you in a whole lotta trouble!)
     
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    our last remodel was in 2008, so maybe we slipped in before the deadline?

    what-is-a-tamper-resistant-receptacle

    but i have purchased and installed many receptacles since then, and i've never even seen one on the shelf.
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i got hit in the rear fender by a kid entering my roundabout (rotary here)

    cost him a small fortune
     
  6. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    What's bugging me is that the higher the PPM of carbon in our atmosphere, the higher the oil industry profits get, the greater number of environmentalists being murdered, the greater the denial humans have about this problem.

    I mean there's been 6.3 million deaths from Covid worldwide in the past 2 1/2 years and we were willing to shut down the whole world to try to limit the damage. But meanwhile, "The combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution is associated with 7 million premature deaths annually. Sources of air pollution are multiple and context specific." http://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1

    When are we going to snap out of our stupor and transform the planet to start to effort to reduce atmospheric carbon by even just a little bit every year?
     
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  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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  8. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I have. They could also be described as "bad neutral connection" somewhere from the outlet to the service transformer center tap.
     
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  9. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    This won't make you feel better, @PriusCamper. Sorry. There is another similarity in COVID and air pollution lung damage. Neither kills all those affected. From both many others survive with damage requiring additional medical support over time.

    "shut down the whole world" is not how I would describe COVID response. To the extent it occurred, it took about 0.5 ppm off CO2 growth rate which has since resumed apace. It is worth knowing how that amount of suppressed global activity translated into CO2.

    I have long supposed that the stupor you mention will continue until something far out of the ordinary occurs and suspected that a very large Antarctic calving of grounded ice could be the thing. Large enough to increase sea level by several millimeters. Which is pretty darn large.

    We have observed that more modest changes in droughts, floods, forest fires and similar have not triggered the hoped-for transition.
     
  10. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    It must have been 50v under load or ghost voltage with no load especially if swapping the receptacle fixed it. I have seen plenty of wall switches fail, usually because someone used the stab-in spring loaded connections.


    The first year of covid the majority of people were whining "do you know anyone who had covid". Only when they were dragging themselves on the floor to the bathroom for weeks did some of them "discover" it was real. Some still think it was political to influence the election.

    Its a human characteristic of many not to believe something they have not seen for themselves. Scientists and engineers have "agendas". Which is a big part of the "pollution" issue.

    Addiction gets in the way as well. Example, continued nicotine smoking/vaping by 20% of the US. Addiction to cheap gas and our disposable culture. Just look what has happened once the bad guy changed from the middle east to Putin. Electric cars and hybrids are cool again.
     
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  11. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Not sure. The griddle plug prongs were sharp/square. I beveled them slightly with a file, didn’t help. I’ve googled, tried the tips, no help. I pushed till the outlet housing was protesting; all that gets accomplished is my blood pressure goes up.

    I tried reinstalling the one of the old outlets, but seems like there really is something flakey: it continued to show low volts on one, and the breaker was tripping.

    Maybe I can find some old-school outlets, not sure.
     
  12. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    I'd be willing to bet you got a bad socket, not bad plugs...
     
  13. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Can't you still get non-Tamper-Resistant versions for repair purposes? I see plenty at Home Depot online here, and some across the border at (what I think is ) your nearest Home Depot too.

    I have a few old spares here, but transport or shipping costs would far exceed their value. You should start with fresh new ones anyway.
     
  14. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    #14 Mendel Leisk, Jul 6, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2022
  15. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Phoned Rona (local hardware): they have the old style, $1.77 CDN apiece! Will get down there tomorrow first thing lol.
     
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  16. CR94

    CR94 Senior Member

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    Why specifically are they impossible? What brand are your new outlets?
    I had a minor problem with a new lighted outlet in a BnB last year. Evidently the outer edge of the metallic contact slots (not those of the cover plate) were too tight or misaligned or insufficiently tapered, such that inserting normal plug tangs was difficult. After a lot of wiggling and trying alternate angles of approach, they finally submitted. As far as I know, that difficulty was a manufacturing defect, not intended as a safety feature.
    50 volts likely means a bad connection in the outlet or wiring to it, likely on the neutral side (as fuzzy said). What voltage do you measure at the new outlet?
     
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  17. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    In stock at or near Port Coquitlam Home Depot:
    https://www.homedepot.ca/product/leviton-spec-grade-duplex-receptacle-white/1000105628
    https://www.homedepot.ca/product/leviton-duplex-receptacle-15a-20a-white/1000132286
    https://www.homedepot.ca/product/leviton-co-alr-duplex-outlet-white/1000416247
    https://www.homedepot.ca/product/leviton-commercial-duplex-receptacle-15-amp-125v-gray/1000159416

    Though the one you located at a local hardware store is certainly cheaper.
    For new construction and major remodels, yes, they are stuck with them as a code requirement.

    But you are simply repairing or replacing an old one, from back when they weren't required or didn't even exist. Those generally aren't required to be updated to the new codes.
     
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  18. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    120 on both. Have to push something in first, and probe it, of course.
    Try as I might, some plugs either will not go in, or take minutes of concerted effort.
    Have misplaced package, still looking. Bill says “receptacle duplex comm spec iv”. They may be Eaton.
     
  19. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Witness Leader

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    Forefront is the fairly recent purchased coffee grinder plug (very problematic), and behind is an older toaster plug (next to no problems). The toaster plug prongs are 2 lamination, and it can be used either orientation:


    1245142B-9186-4B6F-B24F-4B608DE99C78.jpeg
    Just now I tried again: with the coffee grinder plug I can get it to go in, with some difficulty, in other location outlet I replaced. With the second, the one in the video, top is getting slightly easier, and bottom, with maybe 20 seconds concerted effort it’ll suddenly slam in.
     
    #19 Mendel Leisk, Jul 7, 2022
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2022
  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i asked my son, whose house was built a couple years ago. he said the contractor told him no one is using them because they are so fussy.
    inspectors don't care, because it's too much of a headache.

    with 3 small children, has has the old plastic safety plugs installed
     
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