You're also helping out some single mothers who don't feel like running to an electrician every time they want to change an outlet 😅. I'm so glad I stumbled on your page. Changed out all the outlets in my 35-year-old house and I don't have to tape the plugs to the outlets anymore! 😂 Can't wait to watch more videos and fix more stuff around the house.
I recently became a single mother and having to learn so much on my own and I just wanted to say thank you for this video ☺️ I just changed my first plug-in all by myself 🥳
My dad taught me A LOT. He’s 500 miles away and still teaching me things. Including how to take projects on by myself. So now that I own my first home, you can imagine there are many things that often need fixing. This was my next project as I have the same issue with plugs being loose and coming out. He gave me the confidence I needed to do this and you gave me a very simple video to follow step by step. Thank you 🙂
I’m going to learn most of my skills though the internet. It’s people like you who are going to singlehandedly teach the upcoming generations. Thank you!
Thanks for your video. Everyone is too busy to help me and RU-vid videos have taught me how to do all the household repairs my ex-husband used to do. It is very empowering to do these things myself and not have to rely on anyone.
I'm in the SAME boat!! But I am learning alot from RU-vid. ❤️ Being a woman, most try and overcharge me for everything!!! But I know better! 💯 Also divorced! Happily 😁
Thank you so very much for this video. Easy to understand and straight to the point. I am a 60 year old single woman, and my house is from 1959, so all outlets need to be replaced. I will follow your instructions and get this job done. You earned yourself a new subscriber. Thank you Sir.
Shaun, thanks so much for this video. I am a single woman and new homeowner of an older home and I want to do as many of the updates and repairs myself. Now I believe I can do this.
As a retiree on Social Security disability, this definitely helped me out. I could afford $2.00 for a receptacle but not the $40 an hour to have an electrician install it for me. The hardest part for me was getting down to the outlet and back off the ground. lol My outlet is fully functional again. Thank you so much.
Marybeth Sears right!? My boss is a painter and he makes bank but his place is so shitty, no joke. All he does is drink lots of beer and go to the bars when he gets home.
My socket was slightly different (only one hot and white wire and no ground wire), but your demonstration worked perfectly. Thanks a bunch for this video!
Then you were likely on the terminating outlet...the last outlet on that run for the circuit. When you have two sets... you have one coming in from the previous outlet, and one going out to the next outlet. What he didn't show is that your circuit is just a long line of outlets in a series. So when you see two sets you know you are in the middle somewhere with a previous switch or outlet, and an additional outlet that is fed by the one you are working on.
With electrical problems? please watch this video... this video literally saved me over $800... to the guy who made this video is prey you recieve over a billion blessings... amen... Thank you... oh yeah did the job myself with only $20... wow
5:27 the lower common wire is wrapped counter clockwise around the terminal screw. You always want to go clockwise so as to pull the wire around the screw while you tighten it, rather than pushing the wire away. This can cause a faulty connection. Also, you should point out that having too much insulation and catching it under the screw is as bad as leaving too much bare wire exposed.
Also you want to make sure that the right wires are in the right spot.the power goes to the bottom screws,the next set goes to the top set.so by that I mean black power goes to the bottom of the receptacle and the white one goes to the silver side on the bottom.keep going around the room till the last one and with that one the power goes to the top screws.just thought I'd help a little bit.
Grounding conductor. Not called a common. Also there is a tab that connects the top receptacle to the. Bottom on the side so unless you're using 2 different circuits and cut the tab, top or bottom doesn't matter on a regular duplex.
Thank you Shaun!! Changing my outlets seemed like a daunting process beforehand, but after watching this I feel more than capable doing it myself. You are awesome. 👍
Very helpful; thanks. I did 12 outlets in the house so far. I didn't have to cut any out, thankfully. The hardest part was getting the new one screwed back in. And don't screw in the face plate too much or it'll crack.
Thank you. With this video, I was able to replace a loose outlet with a modern one. It was a real pain, though. My wires were much shorter than in this video, so I had to struggle hard to connect them all.
Thanks man. That video helped me a lot. Changed all the outlets in the basement using this tutorial and they work great now. No loose connections anymore. 😎
Thank you so much. It's really hot here in Texas and I have a plug that was a definite fire hazard. My late husband used to do everything around the house, now I'm on my own. When I opened the plug there were 3 different sets of wires... I panicked. I tried calling every electrician in town with no response at all. I started looking on RU-vid and found you. You are such a blessing!!!!
Instead of running back and forth checking if the breaker is correct, just plug a radio in, turn it up, and flip breakers until the radio shuts off. Edit: when you plug the light in to test if the outlet works, plug the light into another outlet to see if it works so that way you know for sure it’s not a bad light.
@@jerryelsea8126 I said circuit TESTER, they are under ten dollars and every homeowner should have one. If they can afford a house, they can afford a circuit tester. A Circuit tester lets you know if your AC outlet has power and also checks to see whether it's connected properly behind the wall, all the way to the breaker panel. It's a low cost low technology, highly reliable device. Very common & available at Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, ACE hardware, Amazon....probably even your grocery store.
Thanks for this video! Our house has relatively new wiring for its age, but it has every color possible for outlets and switches. We're changing them all to white and this gave the confidence to start.
Thank you for the easy to understand demonstration and explanation! I’m going to be switching out all the outlets and light switches at my house from off white to bright white outlets and switches!
Not one to comment on videos on RU-vid much, but this helped me a lot! My fiancé has been making excuses or pushing off changing the outlets in my daughters room since we moved in here. So I took up doing little projects around the house to keep me busy. This helped me since my fiancé hasn’t been much help. Thank you!
Great & helpful video. One of my sockets was not working properly. The top would not work, but the bottom one had power. I followed this video and when I removed the outlet from the wall, I noticed the top white wire was a little loose and not as tight. There were no signs of burnt, discoloration, or wear & tear. I made sure that loose screw was on snug/tight as he mentions in the video. It turned out to be the problem and it's working again. Little victories. Thank you!
Family member is an electrician. Some other recommended steps they recommend is: 1) buy a non-contact voltage tester pen, theyre like $15-30 and you can just stick them in any hole or on any wire in a socket/faceplate and test if any wires are still hot. 2) Wrap the outside of the outlet entirely in electrical tape after screwing everything down (around the outside/screws, not the back of the outlet). This should hopefully prevent anyone from getting shocked when replacing/messing in the faceplate should it be necessary. Its not required, just really good practice.
Please always follow the 5 golden rules of working with electricity, of which only 1, at max 2 are shown here; 1. Remove Fuse (turn off w/e) 2. especially when living / working with other people, make absolutely sure that no one can turn the fuse back on (either remove the fuse entirely and leave a note behind, or lock the fusecabinet, and tell everyone that no one is allowed to turn the fuse back on; in short, prevent reenabling of fuse 3. make sure that the outlet in question is out of juice, a lamp is probably fine, a better and safer way is a multimeter to measure voltage, resistance, etc. 4. Short the outlet, even if your chosen method of looking for electricity told you there is none, always short anyways, in the offchance something went wrong on step 3 5. (not so important in home use), cover or close off other active parts of the system you are working on. Electricity is NOT A JOKE, and it does not care if you are an amateur or a pro, if you respect it, and follow these rules practically nothing can happen to you, but do not take 230 Volts and multiple Ampere on the light shoulder. Take it from someone who works daily with electricity, and who had 230 Volts in his system, its not fun and you do not need that experience. If you ever have the displeasure of 230 Volts, if you feel funny for longer than a few minutes, call an ambulance, if anything in your left side starts hearting, especially your chest and arm, call an ambulance, and never, I repeat NEVER be alone for the next 24 hours. The current fucks with your sinus rythm of your heart, and that can show up to 24 hours after the incident, even if you felt perfectly fine for the first 23 hours. And you do not want to be alone with practically a heart attack. Again, follow the golden rules and nothing outside of human failure can happen, but never forget that electricity does not fuck around. Stay safe!
An easy test is plug in a baby monitor or something similar and once the image disconnects, voila! You found the breaker...saves you from going back and forth
Thank you for a great video! I watched a couple other ones and they didn’t explain how to do it as well as you did. Now I’m confident I can change an outlet! Thanks again!
You wrapped the bottom hot and neutral wires on the receptacle the wrong way. It should be clockwise like the top terminals. As you turn the screw, it will tighten around the wire securely.
A better way to always remember which wires go where to an outlet, just think, "White guys where Silver, and Black guys where Gold" ; white wire to the silver screws, black wire to the gold screws, and your ground aka the straight copper wire, always goes to a green screw, a ground screw. Also a convenient tool to have is a voltage tester, you can get one at Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. and for the breakers, really if you don't know which switch it is, just kill the power to the whole house and turn it back on when you're done.
Abraham stevens thanks for setting a terrible example of using race to remember where your wires go.... Hey kids how about this? Black goes on right, white goes on left and ground goes on green screw
As a black guy,I can say I'm in no way offended by his 'black guy/white guy' statement. It's just a way to remember something. Also, there's absolutely no problem with white or black people wearing silver/gold. Geezanages, people acting like pussies over colours for electrical outlet wires. 😒
Thanks man. Had our outlet start smelling like an electrical fire. It’s been there for years. Whoever wired it up put the white and black wires on opposite sides. Glad I watched this first before just putting the new one back the way the old one was.
Thank you so much for the help and perfect detail! I need to replace about 30 of these in an 1880 house I bought. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
It's also a good idea to tape off the receptacle by running a loop or two of electrical tape around it covering the screws, prior to pushing in to the box. It adds a safety layer over the screws preventing shocks if it is handled live or for some reason the cover plate is removed while live.
I don't think any electrician would recommend this. The outlet should never be handled live to begin with. Electrical tape gets nasty and sticky over time when applied this way and this would be a detriment to the condition of the outlet over time.
John Lillyblad don’t think. It’s not your forte. Leave the advice to people with more than gut feelings and opinions. People could get hurt listening to your nonsense.
gavin crump people can also get hurt by not abiding by code. Wrapping a receptacle in electrical tape is not code. Don’t make an assumption that just because someone says or actually is an electrician that they always do things the proper way. So please keep “thinking” as it is always a good thing to think twice when working with potentially dangerous or hazardous projects.
Always wrap around the whole outlet with electrical tape to protect the wire! Not 100% necessary but any electrician that may take a look at it will give you props.
Thank you! I just bought my first home and the last owner left an outlet that must've had a ground fault cus it constantly tripped the breaker even with nothing plugged in, no lights no nothing. I watched this and was able to safely install a new outlet and get it working right again!
I want to point out 1 thing, im not an electrician and I did the same thing thing your doing... I thought i was being super safe, shut the breaker off plugged in a radio to make sure it was off... it was, so as I was pulling it out I ended up touching the black wire at some point and got a shock from hell. I didnt understand, I shut off the breaker and tested it with a radio. Well turns out that a wire from another breaker that was life was wired into the receptacle with the one I shut off so the outlet didn't work but there was still live wires. Anyway I will never trust the outlet power again by plugging something in. Get a 15 - 25 dollar voltage tester, there is tons of them on amazon. Even walmart has them. Its worth it
Hey I cant understand how when you tested with a radio, it is off first time , and then you test it out second time its still on again. Something is missing in your comment.
@@danalex2991 I just used a radio to see if I had the right breaker turned off and the radio wasn't powering up when plugged in so I assumed the power to that outlet was off. But I didn't have a voltage tester and there was a live wire so I got shocked when I touched it. I'm just saying get a tester don't trust just plugging something in. I see what you mean I missed something tho. I read my comment back and I could have been more specific
@@hxd9321 some people definitely should do that, im good tho, thanks for caring. The house I was working in was early 70s built. Common sense wasn't around much the further you go back
My house is so old like 50+ years haha. But whatever is plugged in is so loose the slightest bump it turns all my tvs etc off. I'm guessing I need to replace my socket???
@@chrisrod657 I got 1 socket replaced. Had to call a electrician. I tried doing it myself except when I opened it up .. it had 8 or 10 wires... and the ground wire was really skimpy just 3inch length wrapped around what i assume was a ground. So the electrician said it was just a mess.. but got it all fixed and properly grounded. And that was 1 socket... in a 3 floor house :/
