Get the latest news and information from us. Join our newsletter!
Help! I made a mistake! I need help with the electrical wiring in my house!?
I tried to replace an old outlet with a new one today and I accidently put the white wire into the slot for the black wire and vice versa. I used one of those quickwire outlets. When I turned the power back on, smoke started coming out of the outlet and now all the outlets in my room and in the nest room don't work. What exactly happened and what do I do now?
Answer: You swapped the hot & neutral wires coming from your circuit breaker to the outlet you worked on, and other outlets in your room.
Not to worry too much - it's repairable.
1. make sure the circuit breaker popped open (or the fuse blew open.) leave alone until step 9.
2. use a voltmeter at your outlet and make sure there is no power carried to the outlet. You should set the meter to AC (alternating currrent) and in the US, the scale you select should be greater than 220 Volts (less than 220 V could fry the meter.) If you have an auto-ranging DVM (digital voltmeter) it will set itself. Plug the black wire into Ground and Red wire into VAC on the meter.
To measure the voltage, plug the black wire into one of the wide slots and the red wire into the other wide slot -- you should not measure any voltage.
3. pull out the outlet from the wall and remove all 3 wires, including the ground.
I would throw away the outlet and get a new one.
4. check the wires and cut-off any burned insulation, and strip insulation off about 3/8 of an inch. Form each wire into a small question mark shape - a clockwise-facing open loop.
5. attach the bare copper wire (ground) to the green grounding screw, located at the bottom by itself.
6. attach the white wire to the silver screw
7. attach the black wire to the brass screw
8. Reinstall the outlet into the box and coverplate.
9. Reset the circuit breaker (or replace the burned fuse with exact same value.)
10. Use your voltmeter to check power at the outlet. You should measure 110 V across the two blade openings in the outlet.
You are good to go.
