Can You Replace A 2-Prong Outlet With A 3-Prong? 

One after thought about wrapping. I wrap to keep the bare copper ground wires from coming into contact with the terminals. Also it's habit and a good habit. Like using my turn signals. I don't even think about them and use them whether or not someone is around. It's just good practice.

I would like to thank Joel for the video and, even more, the commenters. Someone mentioned a cover screw requirement I was not able to find. My personal nec review took me to articles like 100, 210, 422.5, 406,.4, 406.6, 314.4, and even 402. Thanks again to all.

Awesome video Jefferson. Here in Mississippi, Jones County which includes Laurel where there is a show call Home Town; we deal with a lot of NM clothed sheathed cable that has no equipment ground. Many electricians tell the clients to re-wire the house. If the wires are old RHW or Paraflex cable I usually do recommend a re-wire. With these methods there’s a significant chance of active knob and tubing. However; NM cable that have a cloth sheathing with THHN wires or as the one in your home: THHN with a smaller sized EGC, I use this method quite often. I would like to add a few points to your brilliant video. 2020 NFPA70 406.4 (D) Replacements (2)Non-Grounding-Type Receptacles (b) and (c) The method you used was (b) GFCI type receptacle. I would like to point out that when this method is used, ANY RECEPTACLES ON THE LOAD SIDE (DOWNSTREAM) SHOULD NEVER HAVE EQUIPMENT GROUNDING CONDUCTORS. This can create a potentially very dangerous set up. Load side receptacles using this code allowance need to be marked GFCI Protected and NO EQUIPMENT GROUND. That means DO NOT run an equipment ground anywhere in this set up. I have seen people install a GFCI Receptacle and run a EG from there to the load side receptacles. WRONG. NO EQUIPMENT GROUND means no equipment ground. The standard tester will read open ground and CAN NOT be used to test the GFCI protection. If an inspector says that if it can’t be tested that it can’t be used: Tell the inspector this: Test the circuit by pressing the TEST button on the GFCI receptacle. This is the acceptable way that manufacturers of GFCI receptacles allow for testing. IF YOU FIND A GFCI RECEPTACLE THAT TELLS YOU TO USE A TESTER OTHER THAN THE BUILT IN TESTING SYSTEM PLEASE LET ME KNOW ABOUT IT. We must also keep in mind the informational notes. Note 2 directs us to 250.114 for a list of cord and plug connected equipment or appliances that REQUIRE AN EQUIPMENT GROUNDING CONDUCTOR. Which will render this method invalid for those particular items listed in 250.114 And we must also consider 406.4 (D) 4, 5, and 6 as applicable when replacing a receptacle. 4: for Arc Fault 5: for Tamper-Resistant 6: for Weather-Resistant Great video. Just wanted to add a few points of common mistakes I often run across. After reading more comments it amazes me at how many people are confused or lack knowledge and understanding of this method. Joel stated that the EG was lost, there’s comments asking why he didnt use the existing EG. It was lost: these old cloth sheathed NM Cabes that have an EG, have an undersized EG and can often break in the circut or get damaged from a one time fault condition. This is why new NM-B cable carries full size EG on 14AWG, 12AWG, and 10AWG. The EGC serves no direct function in the GFCI Protection circuitry mechanism. The GFCI monitors the current flow and return from the hot (ungrounded) and neutral (grounded Conductor, not EGC). A 4mA to 6mA difference will trip a Class A GFCI Protection Device. AND YES 10mA CAN DAMAGE YOUR HEART AND PUT YOU IN A-FIB. 6mA is close to the Let-Go point and in itself can be very dangerous to the heart in short time frame, and it is even MORE DANGEROUS TO SMALL CHILDREN. The EGC should never carry current in normal situations. The purpose of this code allowance is to provide a reasonable method for replacing a 2-prong receptacle with a 3-prong receptacle. You are trading the equiptment bonding, (which is a more accurate term than eqiptment grounding), with current monitoring. Therefore , when the equipment faults to the the NORMALLY BONDED parts, a loss of current will be detected and cause the GFCI Protection to open the circuit. SO YES THE GFCI WILL WORK WITHOUT AN EG. I realize this may be hard to wrap your head around. It takes a lot of knowledge and understanding in Grounding and Bonding and the fundamental understanding of how a GFCI device works. You have to understand these concepts. If you were called out to perform an equiopotential bonding system for a new inground pool, you would have no idea what to do.

You're fortunate. I live in an old house where there are practically no electrical receptacles or ground wires, simply straight black wires connecting to fixtures nailed into the wood. For a variety of reasons, it has been suggested that I employ wire channels that run along the exterior of the walls. I have a lot of work to do, but at least I'm not pulling cables through the walls.

When putting on the Wago 221 lever nuts always check the transparent side to se the conductor has gone alway to the front tug test is good. Two other things about the Wago it has a wire stripping guide on the side and it has a test port to put your voltmeter test probes. I actually put the labels on all downstream GFCI/AFCI receptacles not just the primary protected receptacle. I actually have GFCI/AFCI receptacles on all my receptacles in the home future proofing against code requirements including the coming 2023 code. The levitons are my favorite GFCI/AFCI receptacle tripe faster 4mS and around 4-5mA that’s the testing I have done they are very predictable and better than most other manufacturers.

Just a couple suggested corrections to this nice video, in general, the potentially dangerous cardiac current of ~15ma would only apply if it’s delivered intravenously, not via the skin on either side of the heart. The exception being voltages generally above 800v, depending on specific cardiac condition. The other suggestion is simply inserting the wire on one side of the contact screw instead of wrapping it around the screw creating full mechanical and electrical contact is the preferred connection.

Just found your channel. Great videos! Thanks!

I am a 35-year electrician. This is, in my opinion, a do not follow video. 1st, there is a ground wire available; therefore, no gfci is required. If there is not a ground available, the lead outlet of the circuit should be put on gfci, and the outlets down the line will be on the load side of the gfci. 2nd, the box is a cut in box, thus making it simple to change to a plastic (mom conductive) box and gives a chance for the short wire to be pulled, not very often does this happen but it's better than a metal box. I didn't see or hear any references to bonding the box. The bare wire ground in romex is by far the biggest overlooked safety issue from the "code enforcers." I mean, why, after all these years, has nobody realized that is the #1 available thing in an outlet box that shorts out? Is that ground actually undersized? #12 hot and neutral, a #14 ground is sufficient. And 3 inches of wire extending from the face of the box is absurd, 6 inches is what I was taught.

Sounds like I'm almost in compliance with all my electrical work since buying this 1910 house in May. I have an outlet in the laundry room not near the washer and dryer that is not GFCI (thus a possible grey area). None of the outlets are labeled GFCI Protected or No Equipment Group. Nor were they when we had the FHA inspection. I did label the boxes in the basement with circuit numbers and start a spreadsheet for this purpose (so I will eventually know what breaker every switch, light, outlet, fan, etc is on) I've used the Wago trick to extend wires (one of the three way switches for the steps is in a few steps from top landing so I changed it to a light up when off version but the wires were quite short) GFCI breakers is another method. Just gotta reroute the neutral wire.

The only thing that I notice is that you had excessive amount of bare wire exposed out of the wire clamp on the black wire on the gfci so I would have cut the wire down a little or at least wrapped the outlet with tape.

My house was built in May 1986 and ALL of My Electrical Systems is UP to the NEC 2020 CODE !! I'm a Licensed Journeyman Electrician with over 55 years in the Trade !!!

With the GFCI requirements extended to the 250 volt receptacles in locations where previously it only applied to the 125 volt receptacles, I'd expect major home improvement stores to soon keep a constant stock of double pole GFCI breakers in various sizes other than the 50 amp, which is very commonly used and required for hottubs and spas. For instance my sister and her boyfriend live in a tract home built in 1995, and needed to replace a two pole 20 amp GFCI breaker that failed, for the kitchen countertop receptacles fed by 12/3 NM with the tabs on the hot side broken to split the receptacles into the two circuits required for kitchens, and none of the hardware or home improvement centers carried that breaker, they had to order it and I believe the boyfriend borrowed the two pole 20 amp breaker for the window AC and swapped it for the kitchen until the proper replacement arrived, which is a safety hazard near the sink.

Where was this video when I need it yesterday hahah!

Per manufacturer instructions, the GFCI test button is the approved way to test, so while a plug tester GFCI test feature won't trip it, the test button on the device will, which is all that is required. (If an inspector gives you crap)

Yes. good day.

I have a question for you: My house is about 5 years old, it has GFIC & in the bedrooms there AFCI. I had a short in the bed room & the AFCI did not trip but the CB in the panel did. Since it did not trip I assumed it was bad so replaced it w/ a GFCI/ AFCI combo. type. To check it out I took a space portable heater & put the plug just part way into the receptacle as to cause a internal ark. It did not trip the receptacle. What is the point if it does not trip????? Thanks Bruce

Whole code compliant, folks should realize that the metal box remains unprotected and potentially dangerous without it being grounded. The GFCI will protect anything that is plugged into it, but it cannot prevent a fault at the box, since that is before the GFCI. If your ungrounded conductor were to pull out of the Wago, for example, and contact the metal box, the GFCI would not prevent the box from being energized.

You mentioned the “undersized ground” not connected to the box. Would you connect it to the gfci ground screw? I have a number of 2 prong receptacles that I’ve upgraded to 3 prong. The boxes are metal and all have a undersized ground wire wound around the wire clamp in the box. I’ve pigtailed ground wires and attached them to the ground screw and my tester approves. Is it approved by code?

What about the AFCI protection? I believe a replacement receptacle needs that also in the right area's.

Have you memorized the National electrical code? Do you have a photographic memory? Love the detail you presented.

Do you have a video that replacing outlet box?

Short of replacing the wire to the box, I wish there was a way to allow a non current carrying grounded conductor to be run separately. Same with light switches that are missing a neutral (found in older homes). I realize this is “not a code compliant” solution, but we as the electrical industry need to find solutions that are practical in old homes while remaining safe. I’m only suggesting this as an opinion should engineers or nfpa read any of this. I appreciate your videos Joel. Thank you.

One of the issues you didn’t address is why the hot wire broke off upon removing old outlet. That comes from use of wire strippers. Solid copper wire is like glass. Use of wire strippers scores the copper around its circumference. If you make a couple of hard bends with pliers or twisting will notice the bare copper will fall off easily. The copper on the circumference is a weak point. Bending occurred when twisting wires together for wire nuts or simply pushing outlets into box for placement. Think best in practice in stripping solid copper insulation is using a box cutter, peeling along the length of the wire exposing bare copper, then peeling back insulation with hands and cutting off with diagonals. Most people don’t use strippers properly and especially home diy’ers. Just my 2¢.

I work at Lowes, unfortunately we do not carry leviton anymore

No ground wires in my house. Where there was an opportunity for grounds, the (genius) that wired this house cut the ground wire off, and used 3 prong outlets anyway. In the lavatories he did a bootleg ground to fool inspectors. I am pulling my hair out trying to run ground wires, instead of doing an entire rewire in some cases. While I do have a GFCI in those locations it bothers me that my GFCI tester does not light up as "correct" and it bothers me that I am unable to cause it to trip with a tester. I wish someone would cover how to run a ground, easily to outlets that are not grounded, and that do not have a ground wire to the metal box, nor have conduit pipes to ground.

6:29 That's a lot of copper sticking out past that screw terminal. I'd hoped a bit earlier that you would fix that before trying to mount the receptacle.

If adding 2 GFCI after an outlet do you connect to line of both or load of both?

If that ground does work use the ground any way even if the code says to label the cover with no equipment ground with gfi that ground getting enrgizide will trip gfi quickly (if gfi is working properly). Use two different grounding screws to the junction box grounding the Safety ground wire to the box and another to the box going to the recptical plugin so the box is grounded as will; code requires the metal junction box to be grounded; the recptical officially does not need to be grounded in this scenario because the recptical is designed to work as an equipment ground if tightly held in place directly to metal electrical box but I would prefer to have a physical ground to the recptical plugin for added safety especially if the recptical becomes loose. Ps Using grounding clips not advisable when wall coverings is all ready in place such as sheet rock you could loosen the junction box it happen to me once.

Anyone else bothered by the amount of insulation stripped on that hot wire? I'm sure it won't fault, but I was taught that this is bad practice.

Well this tells me, at my grandmas house, the only thing I forgot was to out GFCI and no equipment ground stickers on the protected outlets

Also, Wago now makes an inline butt-splice lever nut in the 221 series.

Are there any places where you must have the ground conductor even if you have a GFCI where one doesn't exist?

Great video and very useful. I understand that ground is very important. What if i have ground in the house but i want to install a smart switch that do not have a ground wire. Can this be done and be code compliant?

Hello, was wondering if the outlet receptacle was 15amp or 20amp. my fuse box is 20amps. have read that a 15amp may overheat? unsure. just wondering.

⁠​⁠Please help this confusion. Is it safe to use highend electronics with gfci outlets, even though it says. “not for use with equipment”?

If you have a GFCI breaker, can you replace ungrounded 2-prong with standard 3-prong outlets? Do all the outlets need to be labeled as protected?

In my apartment my outlets are just 2 wire no ground. So when one was replaced I noticed the electrician didn't label the outlets "no equipment ground' nor did the outlet have a way to ground the receptacle to the metal box it was installed in. The building is built in 1900's ...

Hmmm... I noticed that you used the clamp under the screw terminals to secure, is that better than just making a hook and using the screw terminal? I've noticed it seems like it depends on the grade of the outlet as to whether they give you the clamp option. More videos of you fixing your houses electrical please, hopefully you share the service upgrade you mentioned doing on your house.

Will this GFCI receptacle trip (as it was designed to do) even though there's an open ground, or did I miss something?

In the beginning of the video when the wires were shown, there was a bare ground wire present. Later you say there wasn't any ground in the box. Why did that change?

My area require ground prong up on outlets.

So what was wrong with your ground wire? Reattach to box add a jumper from box to device.. then no gfci required...?

You should test the outlet with the test button. Those external testers are unnecessary.

Couldnt you attach a wire and ground the receptical to the metal box? Assuming metal conduit is also present???

Lot of copper showing on the blk. Fail! Probably fine what’s it gonna touch.

if the box is made of metal and the plug is not a isolated ground you can screw the outlet in without wiring the ground wire

I’m missing why the no equipment ground label is needed here. There is a ground wire in the box. He mentions it’s undersized, so is that the reason? But if so why is it undersized if it’s part of the 12-2 romex cable coming in? I’m not familiar with old houses.

i dunno about this. been working mine for 6 days and only red light. fed up i got tester said faulty ground. took ground off and reset... still red light. thinking what is connected to the ground from the second floor (1900s house) PLUMBING... so no plastic... i read up so replies about it are nil as i may not use but when connected to ground the tester came up clear. a ok... for the first time in 6 days. live learn. then i see all these guys doing 2 wire and i am astounded that theirs work and mine dont. maybe different GFCI... thanks tho

SO that Outlet is a GFI one but it wasn't protecting because the ground wasn't hooked up? I think I missed something here.

Any places not recommended for GFCI? Or any location they would not be permitted?

Yeah sure label to downstream outlets so you know that you need to find a GFCI that doesn't exist to reset it. They're never easy to find either. They really should have stickers that say you're looking for the GFCI in the downstairs basement closet behind everything..... Besides those labels are permanently visible until somebody takes a paint roller over the whole thing....

How about a video on replacing 2 prong outlets to 3 prong outlets in an old home that does not have a ground wire.

Why did you take down the lithium ion phosphate bus video. You ghosted that. It is Weird.

Normally like your videos and thank you for making them, but this one is lacking some important considerations. Also a somewhat sloppy installation with the faceplate sitting off of the wall 😧

A GFCI without a ground connection will not work properly: it can only trip if enough current (30mA is standard in my country) manages to get to the ground in some other ways that is not the ground conductor (that is not connected). Chances are that this will not happen, and the path get closed by the unfortunate person touching the metal enclosure of the faulty appliance (at that point the GFCI will trip, but it may be too late, even 30mA of current may under some circumstances be lethal).

3"? lol I shoot for 6" to 8" out of the box. I HATE short wires. Ok what if BOTH wires are the same color (black usually on very old wiring)? Or if both are cloth wrapped? I will *ALWAYS* wrap every receptacle. That metal tab is also there to ground a metal outlet cover. All that BS is horrible looking. Who wants stickers plastered everywhere? Got a NON Decora GFCI that is two prong? Dark brown preferably? Why not just use a GFCI breaker instead of all that nonsense? Lucky me my stuff is grandfathered due to age of the building (over 100 years old). 3 prong GFCI's are overkill. Nearly everything you plug in is 2 prong. Hint: if you have outlets that *MUST* be upgraded then get it done BEFORE you put it on the market and before an inspector comes. You can avoid those high fees for replacements. Any decent handyman can under cut those prices by a LOT. My outlets are 2 prong antique. I do not want to 'upgrade' to squat, and especially do not want to plaster stickers all over the place. Upgrading will destroy the appearance and value. I just want to replace with like and kind.

Yes , But it has to be a GFCI Receptacle and it has to be labeled "" No Equipment Ground '' !!! by 2020 Code !

Huh? Your video title says "replace a 2 prong outlet" but you're working on a 3 prong outlet.

there was a obvious ground wire in the box why was it not used and if that ground wire was not connected to a ground why was that not repaired and made functable looks like half a job

Why is the whole American electric system so outdated and dangerous compared with other countries especially at the end user end of installation with exposed terminations of all conductors.

Video title has nothing to do with the video. You stripped too much wire off that black cable and left too much exposed copper. Why didn’t you ground the box with the ground cable inside? Then it would have been bonded to the outlet as well.

The master electrician DID THIS WRONG! Wrong faceplate! Because the metal box doesn’t have a ground & the outlet isn’t grounded you have to use a faceplate with no exposed screws. This prevents a situation where the box and/or screws become energized and someone touches it. You also had a “shiner” on at least the hot contact. Not allowed! Both would fail inspection.

Having to put a sticker on a receptacle? What a naf idea.

Where is the reference to Ground? Bare wire exposed at the connection. If you are a CEO it is in name only. Certainly not a Master Electrician.