If you’re a home owner, at one point or another an electrical outlet will probably
have to be replaced.
I’m not sure how this one got burnt out but it definitely needs to be changed.
It’s pretty easy to do even if you’ve never done it before and I’ll show you step-by-step
how to do it with some basic household tools.
One of the things needed is a circuit tester.
Here since the circuit tester still lights up I know this is an active outlet.
But I’m going to start by taking off the face plate.
And at this point if you haven’t already turn off the circuit breaker do it now.
Then check with the circuit tester again to make sure electricity is off here.
No light means it’s dead.
There are two screws that hold the actual outlet in the wall box.
The just need to be unscrewed.
Now that the outlet is loose carefully slide it out.
It’ll be attached to some rigid wires so it’ll feel tight when you pull it out.
You can buy a single replacement outlet but I got a 10-pack because it was so inexpensive.
I wanted some extras around in case I had more I need to replace.
I like to change wires one at a time so I’ll start by loosening the screw on the black
wire.
You may have to do some wiggling to get it off the screw.
Now I’ll take the new outlet and hook the wire to the exact same screw location here.
Before securing the wire I had to use pliers to wrap it around the screw.
Then I can tighten the screw to keep the wire in place.
Now move the new outlet out of the way and remove the white wire from the old outlet.
Doing this one by one helps me keep track of where the wires go.
And with these thick wires you almost always have to use pliers at some point.
And like I did before, I’ll connect the white wire to the corresponding screw on the
new outlet.
Once the wire is in place tighten the screw.
The last wire is the ground wire which has no insulation around it.
And one last time I’m going to repeat what I did with the first two wires.
Again a pair of needle nose pliers comes in really handy for removing the wire.
After the wire is loose it can be connected to the green screw on the new outlet.
Once the screw is tightened I’m done with the wiring.
Now carefully tuck the wires back into the wall box and place the outlet onto the surface
of the box.
Line up the top mounting screw first and screw it in.
Now just repeat again at the bottom.
Before the faceplate is attached I can adjust the angle of the outlet so it’s straight
simply by loosening one of the mount screws and then I can slide the outlet left or right.
After tightening the mount screw I’m ready to attach the face plate.
One last screw here and it’ll be done.
At this point turn on the breaker for this outlet and I’ll do another quick circuit
test to see if this is working.
Hopefully I’ve been able to show you how easy it is to replace a bad outlet in your
home.
I’m not an electrician but I’ve replaced several of these since being a home owner.
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