electrica plugl ground

[riffter]

Hi, i recently had to have a electric plug grounded in order to receive a refrigerator, I called a electrician and he was done in about 5 minutes and $65.00! I didn't watch him, but I didn't hear him connect anything, I checked the plug and sure enough, it was grounded, how do you suppose he did that?

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

Sometimes the ground is the metal box or a bare wire coming into the box if it is plastic. Connecting the ground part of the plug to this would do it.

 

[DerStrom8]

He may have simply changed the outlet to a grounded one and connected the ground wire to the metal outlet box. Don't quote me, though--I could be way off!

 

[Jaguarjoe]

You can borrow or buy outlet testers. I found 2 faulty GFCI's in my house with one:

Search results for: 'outlet tester'

 

[Reloadron]

Call me the skeptic, someone needs to be one.

I checked the plug and sure enough, it was grounded, how do you suppose he did that?

How did you check the outlet because I am not sure.

Below are a few images of standard 120 VAC outlets.

Was the outlet without a ground the way it always was? Meaning was it just a 2 prong outlet sans a ground lug? Old style outlets like this did not have a ground and frequently in older homes using knob and tube wiring there was no third wire ground. The boxes that housed these outlets were not generally grounded as it was a two wire system. If this was the case I would be curious how the outlet was grounded?

A common trick used is to install a new three conductor outlet and tie the ground to neutral, as neutral does indeed tie to ground at the circuit breaker panel (or fuse box). However, this practice is strictly against the NEC rules. Read into that, it is illegal.

If you look at the 120 VAC outlet images you will see that on a standard outlet if it is placed in a grounded metallic box, ground will in fact be made without connecting to the ground screw. Outlets where the ground lug is not connected to the outlet tabs are an exception and are color coded and marked to identify them from standard outlets.

I can remove and replace an old 2 prong outlet with a new 3 prong grounded outlet in 5 min. However, without the presence of a ground, I can't ground it legally in 5 min. I can tie the ground on the outlet to the neutral and testing with one of those off the shelf testers will show it to be good as gold. Won't be legal but it will look good.

Thus I am a skeptic....
Ron

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I'll go with the skeptic. If I look long enough in the junk pile, I'll find 2 prong outlets without the wide blade on one side.

You can have a ground in the box that's connected to the box. This is what I might assume.

It's not permissible to just put in a grounded outlet because you cannot rely on the screw. There are outlets with bonding clips where this is permissible.

If it's a metal box, both the outlet ground and the box must be grounded.

At home, where I have grounded metal boxes and where the original 50+ YO outlets have not been replaced, they are a 2 prong polarized outlet. It takes me a fair amount of work to do this. Usually 20 minutes max and sometimes significantly less time. I don't have tapped holes for ground screws either.

Most have been replaced. About 2 years ago, I replaced all of the outlets with tamper proof ones in a bedroom when I painted it. All were original.

There's too many possibilities. The fastest would be a ground exists and it's tied to the box and the outlet with a bonding clip was installed.

It is permissible to install a GFCI where no ground exists at all if the outlet is labeled "No equipment ground".

 

[Jon Wilder]

He either jumped the ground prong to the neutral or to the metal frame of the wall box. If it's a plastic wall box, he definitely jumped it to neutral.

This is a code violation believe it or not.

The whole point of ground is that ground is an "emergency circuit". If the hot contacts the casing of the appliance, the overload current from the short can bypass the neutral wire, go down its own dedicated path to the ground buss, then jump from the ground buss to the neutral buss via the bonding strap in the service panel, thereby creating a short to mains neutral and popping the breaker. That's all it does. Under normal operating conditions the ground wire does not carry any current.

By code ground is to have its own dedicated wire. You do not want it flowing through the metal conduit. The conduit and the box themselves are to be grounded, but they are not to be the actual ground path. There does need to be that 3rd wire that carries the overload current back to the ground buss in the panel. If the ground prong is jumped to neutral it would read correct on a meter, but this defeats the purpose of ground as the neutral wire is being used to carry the overload current rather than it bypassing the neutral wire to get back to the panel.

 

[3v0]

The OP never gave an accurate description of the existing conditions. Hey but why wait for details when we can guess.

When the OP "checked the plug" he could have either looked and see a 3 prong outlet or he may have tested an existing 3 prong outlet.

If the existing outlet was 3 prong it is quite possible the electrican fixed a swaped neutral gnd pair or just hooked up the existing but not connected gnd wire.

 

[DerStrom8]

The OP never gave an accurate description of the existing conditions. Hey but why wait for details when we can guess.

When the OP "checked the plug" he could have either looked and see a 3 prong outlet or he may have tested an existing 3 prong outlet.

If the existing outlet was 3 prong it is quite possible the electrican fixed a swaped neutral gnd pair or just hooked up the existing but not connected gnd wire.

This is basically what I was thinking. Unfortunately, not all "professional electricians" are completely honest. He may have simply replaced the actual receptacle with a three-prong system and connected the "ground" straight to the metal box, with probably was not grounded (I would assume it is a metal box, because I don't believe plastic boxes came into existence until after houses were required to be grounded). This is easy to check, though. Just shut off the breaker to that outlet, remove the cover and the receptacle, and see where the ground wire goes. If it just goes to a screw in the box, then chances are he didn't actually ground the outlet. It is doubtful that he could replace the receptacle AND ground the box in just 5 minutes.