Replacing a Two-Prong Ungrounded Outlet with New Three Prong Outlet 

Vintage Vibes 😶

Me too!

Haha I know! I’ve really wanted to make more videos like this, but I haven’t had any “video-worthy” electrical projects lately.

You will need to trace which neutral wire pairs with the live/hot (black) wire on the circuit you are installing a GFCI breaker. You may be able to find the pair of wires (black/live and white/neutral) as they will be in the same outer sleeving.

The metal box did not have any reference to ground so that method would not work in this situation.

How could you tell which neutral wire to insert into the gcfi? I need to install 6-8 gcfi breakers bc our house was built in 1960s. There are many neutral wires in the panel, unsure which one to insert. Is there any tool to detect?

The ground wire is only for protection against electrocution and not needed for 99% of appliances. Some sensitive electronics might need a ground wire to prevent any unwanted interference.

A ground wire is for safety reason and to prevent shock. In case of an electrical fault (for example a wire touching a conductive surface in an appliance) the electricity will run through the ground wire and trip the breaker due to excessive current being drawn.

Thanks! They are certainly less common compared to standard GFCI outlets, but in some instances they would be a better choice.

@@ExitSign250 I agree that breakers are better in some cases, especially when separating GFCI from something that shouldn't on it like a light or refrigerator. I also think breakers are built to better quality standards in the factory than receptacles, but that's an opinion. Here in conduit land I was replacing a bad GFCI in my mom's co-workers bathroom, and when I was touching the neutral wire the back of my hand touched the metal mud ring and I got shocked⚡. Her two bathrooms were on 2 separate dedicated 20A breakers for receptacles only and shared a single neutral between them. Even though the breaker was off on the recepticle I was working on the GFCI in the other bathroom put 120V on the neutral. A double pole breaker or a double pole GFCI would have been a big plus, but also the 240V GFCI would be expensive.

They are quite nice. I like them, but expensive.

Yep. GFCI breakers are nice for appliances (when required) where resetting/testing at the receptacle itself is challenging. And that is very interesting with your bathroom circuit story. I like the idea of each bathroom receptacle on its own circuit, but seems odd they shared a neutral. This sounds like an older installation. When was the house built?

@@ExitSign250 that house was built in either 1998 or 1999. It used to be common practice to share a neutral between two branch circuits originating from L1 and L2. The loads on the two circuits are essentially in series and the neutral balances the voltage carries residue current. So if one bathroom receptacle has a 17A load, and the other bathroom receptacle has 13A load, the neutral will carry a current of 4A. If both bathroom receptacles have 9A loads, then the neutral will carry 0A. I just thought it was interest that the GFCI put 120V on neutral while it samples for current leakage. My house was built in 2005 and also has the same type of shared neutral circuits. I believe it was 2011 that NFPA stopped the practice. It's only a hazard if you break the neutral without shutting off power to both circuits.

Hopefully soon!

The GFCI breaker would detect this short and deenergize the circuit.

That's a good question. If you had a regular breaker and no ground wire, but you have a GFCI receptacle and also no ground, your toaster would become energized, but the neither the GFCI or the breaker would trip because there's no current flowing yet. If you put bread into the toaster and didn't touch any metal or heating element, the GFCI should trip immediately because it would sense a difference in current between the hot and neutral, without you getting shocked. If you touched the metal case, even without activating the toaster, you may feel a little jolt, but the GFCI should trip immediately because you are momentarily providing the ground. It's safer, but not as safe as a properly grounded circuit. If it has a ground wire that goes to the main panel ground/neutral bus bar and a ground fault occurs in the toaster, the GFCI should trip immediately, even without human interaction. That makes grounding the safest method. In this case if it was an ordinary receptacle with ground, the breaker would trip.

So true! I think the 15A GE GFCI breaker I bought for this video was maybe $60ish? Compared to a 15A GFCI outlet which is roughly $20-$25. I’m not sure why the breaker variants are more expensive. Perhaps it’s since they are a speciality thing.

Most of the time when using existing looped wires, they tend to bend out of shape when removing them from the existing device. And when you try to connect it on the new device, it can be difficult and in some instances the connection might not be as secure. I used to reuse the old connections but I’ve found it’s much easier to just cut and redo. Plus, it’s not everyday an outlet, switch, etc. will be replaced. Worst case if the wire(s) are too short just make an extension pigtail; I’ve had to do this on many occasions.

And in response to the outlet being "code complaint", no it isn't, not exactly, I'd personally suggest tying a lead from the outlet ground and anywhere on the box if you can, this is Canadian grounding (I think), but it'll get you a proper ground

@@ExitSign250 At least use Wago lever nuts in that case, those things, I've seen, are SUPER helpful, they're like bus bars themselves, easy to use and the lot, should do a review on them (I should too)

I am in the United States, and according to the 2020 NEC (article 406.4(D)(2) ) this is a compliant solution for replacement of ungrounded receptacles. Of course adding a physical ground wire is ideal but this cannot be done in all circumstances. (Mostly cost reasons) I will never use Wago lever nuts for any permanent installation. I’d rather have a mechanically secure connection with a wire nut. All of this to say, everyone has an opinion and way of doing things. As long as the installation is fully code complaint, methods of installation really aren’t important.

As long as there is enough wire left, its better to redo the connection since the previous outlet will have been wiggled both during installation and possibly also wiggled around during use if it wasn't secure, this can fatigue the copper, making it easier to break off. As for the wago arguement, they are great for extending short wires & they can handle way more than this circuit can give - lets say for example a wire nut can handle 50 amps, okay cool, if a wago can only do 30 amps, that's far past 15 amps so there is no reason to not use them for this type of install; there was no reason to use them here, but saying they are better/worse than a wire nut is give or take since they work just fine for what they are rated for and are easier to use, especially in a tight box