Fixing a wall outlet that's burnt out.

[tracyballard]

One of my problems is that I have a couple of wall outlets that not only no longer work, they are blackened and look really burnt in one of the two sockets on each one. I'm planning on checking them with a tester this weekend to see if they still have electricity flowing in them and go from there. I assume that once I do that I will need to switch off the breaker that controls that outlet, pull out the box and check the wiring. My main question is - when this happens do you have to replace all the wiring all the way back to the panel and breaker, or is is possible that you just need to cut back some of the wire and make sure all the connections are tight and in the right place? If the breaker is off, can you work on that part of the panel, or does all the juice have to be shut off for the whole panel to work on any part of it? thanks in advance!

 

[Stuff]

That's normally a sign of a cheap receptacle. Need to stop buying the 79¢ specials.

Normally can shut off the breaker for that circuit. Check with both a regular and non-contact tester to verify power is gone. Sometimes multiple circuits go through a box so check every wire.

You then need to remove the receptacle and evaluate the wiring. Normally the in wall cabling is not an issue unless you have a 100 year old house. Sometimes the wires at the outlet are fine but if the insulation is burnt or melted then needs fixed. Usually short pieces of heat shrink can provide an acceptable solution.

 

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[tracyballard]

Well I got a klein tools outlet tester and non-contact voltage tester to test my outlets, and most of then are showing an open ground. I could only find 2 outlets in 2 different rooms that did show to be correctly grounded. And one of the outlets only has one good receptacle, the other had 2 grounded receptacles. Not sure exactly what the issue is but I'm about to shut off the power to the outlets at the breaker and look at one. This house was built in 1960 and still has a lot of 2-prong outlets, but the ones in the kitchen and living room have 3-prong outlets. One of the ones in the kitchen shows as grounded, not the others, even with 3 prong outlets.

Would I be able to solve my problems with ungrounded outlets (and 2 of them being burnt up to the point of being blackened and partially melted) by replacing the outlets with GFCI outlets? Or would I be better just trying to replace these burnt outlets with regular ones and get all of them grounded with a ground wire?

 

[ImOld]

Look and see if you even have a ground wire in the cable. A lot of DIY idjits cut it off. If there is no ground wire or it's cut too short to be usable, lets keep it simple and put in GFCI receptacles. Trying to straighten out the differences in wiring throughout your home would tax even an electrician. Ungrounded wiring in a home is not the end of the world. It would not cause burned-up receptacles. My own home has one ungrounded wiring run. Would have to destroy the house to get at it!

 

[tracyballard]

I checked out the kitchen receptacles, none of them have ground wires, even though they are 3-prong, except for the one up high on the wall that the stove hood is plugged into, that one had a solid copper bare wire connected to the ground terminal on the outlet. One of the old plugs is moderately burned at the plug in area and the other one is so badly burned up on the inside that some of the terminals just crumbled off. So I need GFCI outlets to replace the burned up one, and all the other ungrounded ones, or would just better quality 3 prong plugs work ok with out using a ground wire? Or maybe self grounding outlets, would those ground themselves against the metal boxes?

 

[Stuff]

1960 was before most cabling had a ground. GFCI is the best solution but can be difficult to install as some boxes are really small. GFCI circuit breakers can also be used.
Easiest and to code in most location is to install ungrounded two prong outlets. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-15-Amp-2-Wire-Duplex-Outlet-White-223-W/100356969
In reality most things you plug in like lamps don't have a ground. The places you need a real ground are for clothes washers and some computer equipment.

 

[Jadnashua]

For convenience, it's nice to have 3-prong receptacles. Without a ground, it is legal to feed them from a GFCI breaker, or if you can find the first receptacle in the string, use a GFCI receptacle and then on the load side of the thing, feed any further receptacles and utilize 3-prong ones. But, you must place a sticker on them that says something like GFCI protected, no equipment ground.

Burnt units generally is the result of loose wiring to the receptacle OR worn out ones. If there's not much pressure required to insert a plug, it's time to replace the receptacle. That loose connection means it's not likely to be very good, which adds resistance, which causes it to act like a heating element and warm up...sometimes, quite hot. Larger loads like say an iron or space heater make that loose connection overheat quickly.