Home Improvement Asked by user127111 on December 22, 2020
One of the old electrical sockets needed to replaced. It was a Slater brand, with only the option to push-in wires at the back with no screws for hot/neutrals and only one screw for ground. Both the top and bottom plugs were switched off by the same circuit breaker.
I noticed there were two sets of wires coming into the outlet box (one set of black, white and ground; another set of black, white and ground, with the two grounds tied together). Both sets were connected to the outlet (not pigtailed). After disconnecting the wires, I used my multimeter to check across the two Hots on the old outlet, it read 0.0 Ohm and it also read 0.0 Ohm across the two Neutrals.
I installed a new outlet in which I used screws to connect the wires (as opposed to the push-in). I left the connecting tab between the two plugs as is. I switched on the circuit breaker and things appear to be working just fine.
I read through posts related to this on this forum and elsewhere but it isn’t clear to me if there is any potential issue with this config.
I understand that leaving the tab in place is the same as what was before. But, is this the right thing to do? Could you please comment?
Thanks.
With an ordinary duplex receptacle (GFCI is a bit different), there are two ways it can be installed:
In this mode, the two hots are connected together and the two neutrals are connected together. Both receptacles are powered from the same source. If you want to power an additional receptacle (or lights or whatever) from the same power source, you can use the second set of screws (or backstab connections, but those are not recommended) as a way to daisy-chain to the next device. Alternatively, you can also chain to another device using pigtails with a single set of hot/neutral wires & screws.
With the tabs removed, you have two totally separate receptacles. Each can be on a different circuit! Except not entirely - for safety reasons the circuits should be together, typically using a Multi-Wire Branch Circuit (MWBC). An MWBC uses two hots with one neutral - the hots each 120V compared to neutral but 240V compared to each other. In the case of an MWBC, the neutrals are actually shared, so you would not remove the neutral tab, just the hot tab (and there are other complications which mean that neutral would itself be on a pigtail even if only one other device is connected).
There is another use for removing the tabs - a half-switched receptacle. With this configuration, hot goes to one hot screw and switched hot goes to the other hot screw. Neutral still gets one wire and the tab is left in place. This lets you use a plug-in lamp with a switch while still having an always-on receptacle for other stuff. Personally, I prefer ceiling fixtures, but builders like to save every $ they can...
The end result is that the hot-side tab is removed in certain specific cases but the neutral-side tab is hardly ever removed - only realistic case I can think of is a top/bottom MWBC split on a double-breaker GFCI.
And since your original didn't have the tabs removed, the replacement doesn't either.
Correct answer by manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact on December 22, 2020
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