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Found out my 'good enough' outlet was actually a fire hazard waiting to happen
I was rewiring a switch in my laundry room last weekend and finally pulled an old outlet out of the wall from the 70s. Looked it up online and found out it had no grounding path at all (like zero, just two wires and hope). I've been running my dryer and washer off that thing for 3 years without knowing. Has anyone else found something scary like that hidden behind a plate?
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brianm2717d agoMost Upvoted
My buddy Mike had basically the same thing in his garage. He found a cloth wrapped wire from the 50s that had the insulation crumbling off just from touching it. The whole outlet box was just stuffed with old newspaper to stop drafts. He said the scary part was the wire was still live when he pulled it out because the breaker never tripped for anything.
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