I am surprised you did not mention an open splice hidden in a wall or under kitchen cabinets. I just found one in my house under the kitchen sink cabinet that was arcing against the wood of the cabinet. The disposal had started leaking, water got under the floor of the sink cabinet, it got the Romex wet including the paper and was actively arcing when I took the cabinet floor out. The dishwasher also was not grounded as the the bare copper grounds at the open splice were never connected. Open splices should never happen, that splice should have been in a junction box and either mounted in the back of the cabinet on the vertical wall or in a non-damp cabinet. What happened is the romex from the breaker panel was too short to go to the dishwasher so they spliced another wire in and buried the open splice under the sink cabinet(real genius level thinking) which is stupid and not NEC compliant. I am installing a steel junction box two cabinets from the sink that is properly grounded, using clamp connectors for each incoming wire, and using 12/2 W/G UF-B as it is allowed in damp and dry locations in the home to go under the sink and dishwasher to make the connection. The electrician even ran the romex through stamped hole(sharp edges) in a piece of sheet metal under the dishwasher, no grommet or wire protector. I am pissed as my house could have burned down had I not been home when I heard the arcing.
I redid my backstab outlets. Fortunately did not have to trash, because a screw was another option, and the stab can be released by poking in a hole beside it made to release the wire. Shocked that the designers did not study the geometry and realize that the point of contact between a round wire and a push-connector edge is one molecule of copper!
I'm glad you found the video helpful. I'm not sure I trust that stabbing the screwdriver into the backstab release won't do something inside the outlet since the contact metal is hidden.
@@upgradeyourhomediy Thanks, but the main point was that backstab has a greater risk than just accidentally releasing the wire. While functioning, it is an "electron bottleneck" because of such a tiny contact area. and will create heat. That is also a concern with lever connectors.. sometimes the contact area is just where a round wire is tangent to a straight line. A screw head squeezing many molecules of a wire seems much safer.
Just bought my first home and this is a great reference! Will need to go through all my outlets to make sure there's no issues.
I'm glad you found the video helpful. If a light or outlet fails, check these issues first as they are likely the cause.
Good stuff. An yeah I have found a lot of these problems in my house.
Thanks. I think a lot of people will find these when doing DIY electrical projects.
I am surprised you did not mention an open splice hidden in a wall or under kitchen cabinets. I just found one in my house under the kitchen sink cabinet that was arcing against the wood of the cabinet. The disposal had started leaking, water got under the floor of the sink cabinet, it got the Romex wet including the paper and was actively arcing when I took the cabinet floor out. The dishwasher also was not grounded as the the bare copper grounds at the open splice were never connected. Open splices should never happen, that splice should have been in a junction box and either mounted in the back of the cabinet on the vertical wall or in a non-damp cabinet. What happened is the romex from the breaker panel was too short to go to the dishwasher so they spliced another wire in and buried the open splice under the sink cabinet(real genius level thinking) which is stupid and not NEC compliant. I am installing a steel junction box two cabinets from the sink that is properly grounded, using clamp connectors for each incoming wire, and using 12/2 W/G UF-B as it is allowed in damp and dry locations in the home to go under the sink and dishwasher to make the connection. The electrician even ran the romex through stamped hole(sharp edges) in a piece of sheet metal under the dishwasher, no grommet or wire protector. I am pissed as my house could have burned down had I not been home when I heard the arcing.
When I changed an outlet in my home, I found mistake number 5 at time 3:59
I redid my backstab outlets. Fortunately did not have to trash, because a screw was another option, and the stab can be released by poking in a hole beside it made to release the wire. Shocked that the designers did not study the geometry and realize that the point of contact between a round wire and a push-connector edge is one molecule of copper!
I'm glad you found the video helpful. I'm not sure I trust that stabbing the screwdriver into the backstab release won't do something inside the outlet since the contact metal is hidden.
@@upgradeyourhomediy Thanks, but the main point was that backstab has a greater risk than just accidentally releasing the wire. While functioning, it is an "electron bottleneck" because of such a tiny contact area. and will create heat. That is also a concern with lever connectors.. sometimes the contact area is just where a round wire is tangent to a straight line. A screw head squeezing many molecules of a wire seems much safer.