3 Weird Ways to Ground a Two-Prong Electrical Outlet

3 Weird Ways to Ground a Two-Prong Electrical Outlet
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Do you have two-prong outlets? Need to plug-in something that has three prongs? Here are 3 alternative ways to get around not having a ground wire in order to avoid rewiring the whole house. Each one has pros and cons so we'll talk about your options in this video.

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⏰ Chapter Timecodes ⏰
0:00 Two-Prong Ungrounded Outlets
0:24 Using Cheater Plugs
2:52 Replacing Two-Prong Outlet with GFCI
4:25 Bootleg Ground
6:17 Best Option to Fix Ungrounded Outlets

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[wmcomprev]

Using the GFCI to replace a 2-prong receptacle is NEC approved, but requires 1 more step. It comes with several stick-on labels, one of which is "No Equipment Ground." This label is required to be attached when you use a GFCI to replace a non-grounded receptacle. Also, as with a common GFCI setup, the GFCI can be used to protect other outlets downstream, so they could just be swapped for a 3-prong outlet. However, once again, the label of "No Equipment Ground" is required to be placed on each of those outlets.

[efthegop]

#1. There will not be metal conduit in 99.9% of the old boxes. It will be 2 wire cable with no ground. There is a VERY slim chance that there will be a ground wire in the older cable but it would have to have been installed at a transition period when ground wires were starting to be required but grounded receptacles were not. It's a short window of time.

#2 Pretty much spot on. In some cases it is preferable to install GFCI breakers that will protect the entire circuit.

#3 Better not be what I think it's gonna be. Crap. It is. You VERY much understated the danger with this method. The fact that it's not NEC approved is the least of the problems. There are many NEC violations that are of risk. The danger is not fire, it is ELECTROCUTION, which means death, not just a shock.

I'll attempt to explain. In layman's terms, the neutral (white) wire carries current back to the source. If the neutral wire becomes "open" or separated or loose, the current will instead flow on the ground wire. The wire could become open or loose for a number of very common reasons. If the system is properly installed, the only issue will be that some stuff doesn't work.

If you have a bootlegged ground, it can easily be deadly. The ground wire on appliances is connected to it's metallic parts. If you have a 3 prong appliance, lets say a refrigerator, plugged into this circuit, all the metal parts of the refrigerator will be energized. Grab the metal handle while barefoot and you could die a very painful death. Lets say the appliance that is plugged in is a garage door opener. The entire door and all metal components could become energized.

If that was too mush blah blah blah, I will summarize. Do not ever do this. Get it? Never! Like effing never ever. I mean it. It;s ignorant and negligent and you will have to spend the rest of you life wondering if your hack work is going to kill somebody's kid some day. Dont effing do it for any effing reason ever.

[BillyBobDingledorf]

Did the GFCI thing in my house 16 years ago.
A note on the adapter, the odds of a house so old that it has two prong outlets also having metal conduit is very low.

[the_cruz]

I'm going with the GFCI certified 2-prong receptacle since it doesn't have a ground. I'm also installing a new device box for it since the old device box was heavy modified to fit within the space needed. Thank you for the video.

[leevieira]

This is a great explanation for people like me that no nothing about electrical connections. The GFCI outlet, looks to be a solid solution for 2 pronged outlets.

[dimitriberozny]

Bootleg grounds are DANGEROUS!! If for example, an outlet is replaced upstream and the hot and neutral are reversed, you just installed an electrocution hazard!!

[chadrowland]

I have a friend from high school who owns some rental properties and they are older with knob and tube wiring. She had me inspect a few rental properties and I found at least a dozen receptacles that were bootlegged. Someone used a straightened paper clip to bootleg the receptacles. I yanked them out and installed GFCI receptacles. I see bootleg receptacles all the time.

[surferdude]

Good job. One thing that should be mentioned is that it's recommend that sensitive electronic equipment such as tv's, computers, etc. should be plugged into a surge protector, but surge protectors will not work on a ungrounded receptacle, gfci's or regular.

[A_Canadian_In_Poland]

What about running an insulated grounding conductor to each electrical box separate to the existing ungrounded cable?

[whiskeygreen]

So I had an electrician do some work at our 1937 homestead. The main panel was upgraded and some newer modern wiring and receptacles were replaced, namely kitchen and baths.
The bulk of the wiring was BX cable, 2 wires wrapped in a metal sheath. Most of the outlets were 2 prong outlets outside of the few that were replaced and updated some years past. The electrician told me a simple test to see if the metal box was grounded using a multimeter or test light. I was able to then drill and tap ground screws into the existing metal box and add a ground wire to swap our 2 prong with 3 prong outlets. Tester shows “correct wiring” throughout.
Thoughts?

[billhouse]

What about running a separate ground wire to the receptacle and grounding to the water pipes? You can often fish a single conductor wire down from the outlet to a water pipe pretty easy. If I remember you need to install a jumper from the input to the output water pipe on the hot water heater incase it is removed.

[danschenck]

have old house. metal junction box. get 3 prong outlet, when screw back into metal junctionn box the outlet acts as ground. when in doubt, use gfi outlet., give extra afety .

[donaldgibsonjr]

Well good jobe now i get shocked number 1 rule
White to silver
Black to gold
Ground to green
And you ready to go my brother

[championplayerdo]

Saw the video on Google pop 10 on YouTube just to give you a thumbs up thanks

[johnjacobjinglehimerschmid]

I've been in alot of my outlets and switches in the house I just bought. Not one has a ground wire.

[drueatcer]

My dad started building a cabin up in Big Bear California in 1959, finished in 1961. They are all too prong. Never had a problem, we still have the cabin, what do you suggest we do to prevent a problem, or if there ever will be a problem.

[robertbaker]

Can someone explain why a bootleg ground is worse than an open ground? Thanks.

[Seymourthedangerous]

hey, can my pc components get damaged if i keep using it with an ungrounded outlet ? whenever i touch a metallic part of my case i get a continuous tingling eletric shock (but only when im barefoot)

[kultur-vultur]

Here to know whats safe not what to get away with. Good to know what to look out for too.

[rshoe]

Be very careful when joining your equipment ground conductor to your neutral grounded conductor! That's how people could get hurt! The GFCI receptacle is the best way to go.