Swapping out a bunch of plugs and the last plug I came to today had three sets of black and three sets of white wires. Can I pigtail the two remaining white wires together and connect them to the one post on the new plug while doing the same for the black wires (pigtail the two blacks together and connect to them their post)? This is the first plug after a GFCI plug that I have also replaced. Logic tells me that I can do this but I wanted to make sure. The breaker is going to remain off until I know for sure that what I want to do won’t cause any issues. Thanks.
Personally, I would cut 2 pieces of wire about 8" long and nut all 4 blacks and all 4 whites together and push them to the back of the box with the pigtails out to connect the receptacle. Easier than trying to seat and square a receptacle with a half dozen wires connected to it.
Blackhat
Bad experiences come from poor decisions. So do good stories.
(03-26-2017, 06:57 PM)blackhat Wrote: Personally, I would cut 2 pieces of wire about 8" long and nut all 4 blacks and all 4 whites together and push them to the back of the box with the pigtails out to connect the receptacle. Easier than trying to seat and square a receptacle with a half dozen wires connected to it.
Yep. Roly Also suggest side wiring if that is available. The push ins may be a problem if heavy current is invovled.
(03-26-2017, 06:57 PM)blackhat Wrote: Personally, I would cut 2 pieces of wire about 8" long and nut all 4 blacks and all 4 whites together and push them to the back of the box with the pigtails out to connect the receptacle. Easier than trying to seat and square a receptacle with a half dozen wires connected to it.
The way I'm looking at the pic, it would appear there are two circuits, and two duplex receptacles.
I agree w/ your advice of adding pigtails but think there are going to be three black and three white, not four. That separate receptacle should stay as-is.
Let me try to clarify this a little bit...the white plug is a new plug to replace the ivory colored plug. When I swap out plugs, I move them one wire at a time to make sure I keep the wiring the same on the new plug (trying to keep the line and the load the same).
I swapped the first set of black and white wires (I'll call them the "top" wires) and then realized that instead of one white and one black at the bottom of the old plug, I had two black and two white wires. The new plug has screws and not the push-in and only two screws on each side.
My main concern with this centers around the fact that I want to make sure that this plug continues to work as a GFCI plug and the plugs behind it in the GFCI chain still work that way.
03-26-2017, 08:04 PM (This post was last modified: 03-26-2017, 08:06 PM by TDKPE.)
(03-26-2017, 07:39 PM)goredsus Wrote: My main concern with this centers around the fact that I want to make sure that this plug continues to work as a GFCI plug and the plugs behind it in the GFCI chain still work that way.
I'm confused - neither of those duplex receptacles are GFCI. If it (or they) is(are) downstream from a GFCI device of some sort (breaker or receptacle), then it(they) will still function as before.
Oh, and those receptacles are back-stab types. I'd replace with back-wired (screw clamps, not spring clamps) or side-wired. The cheap back-stabs aren't very robust with load cycling especially, worse with high current devices.
Tom
“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
Phil, its a single circuit and a single duplex receptacle, in the picture he's halfway through the swap of ivory for white. 3 existing blacks/whites plus a pigtail is 4 wires in each nut.
Tom, the GFCI is a receptacle ahead of this one and his new receptacle is side clamping.
OP, if you do it the way I suggested and the GFCI plug is truly first in line and properly connected, all the remaining plugs will be GFCI protected as well.
Blackhat
Bad experiences come from poor decisions. So do good stories.
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