What Outlet Should You Buy | Commercial vs Hospital Grade

Continuing on with a series of videos where I open up different grades of outlets (receptacles) and other electrical components to compare the differences in the design. So, once again I broke out a hacksaw and took a look inside a Commercial grade CBR15 outlet and a Hospital grade 8200 which are both 15 Amp Leviton receptacles.

Note: This video does not advise on the proper techniques needed to meet the National Electrical Code and is for entertainment purposes only.


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[EverydayHomeRepairs]

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DISCLAIMER: This video and description contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission.

[dschwab]

The orange receptacle is actually an isolated ground spec-grade receptacle, not hospital grade. The orange face with the green triangle indicated the ground terminals are isolated from the yoke. A hospital grade receptacle will have a round green dot on the face and will contain much beefier/stronger contacts inside.

[TheTarrMan]

I would like to see military grade. They would probably be the cheapest, nastiest, most dangerous outlets out there.

[chris_cloud]

Huh, Such a great price difference and yet they're both equally suprised to be in the video

[georgecrisson]

The orange outlet you had was a isolated ground receptacle (green triangle) . A hospital grad receptacle (green dot) and inside there is a spring to keep pressure to help keep plug inside.

[trevorquick]

I'm currently a student in an electrician trade course. This is more practical information that you're posting than is covered in my $200+ dollar textbook. I will be subscribing and recommending your videos to classmates. Just wanted to say thank you for the content and keep it up, as an aspiring electrician this an amazing resource from a practical perspective.

[joemaldonado]

the red switches and receptacles are used for the always on/emergency circuits; especially the life safety appliances.

[divechart]

The orange receptacle is NOT hospital grade, it is "isolated ground".
Hospital grade has a green dot.

[stevekopcial]

I worked on medical equipment in the hospitals, I have always used the Hubbel hospital grad plugs, they never wear out also the 3 face screw a half of a turn and the screw was in also the face of the plug was keyed into the lower body. Well worth it.

[carlwolf]

I was very confused as to why a video about outlets showed up on my recommended.

I'm still confused as to why it showed up, but it was a good recommendation.

[hckyrules]

YouTube thought this video would be right for me at 2:00 A.M. Idk why, but I surely know of 3 things after watching this video.

1. I now want higher-grade receptacles for no reason.

2. I will now address outlets as receptacles

3. I’m subscribing to this channel

[DanHiteshew-oneandonly]

I've enjoyed these videos. It reminds me of when I was a teenager and worked as an electricians helper. Even as a kid with no experience, I thought those "Stab-Loc" connectors were sketchy, but they saved a ton of time, so my boss made us all use them. This was in the 80's. I don't know how much has changed since then.

[herbiesnerd]

In hospitals, there are basically 4 Branches for circuits to run from.

3 of the Branches are known as Essential Services. They consist of:
1) Life Safety Branch
2) Critical Branch
3) Equipment Branch

The 4th Branch which is not part of the essential service, is the Normal branch.

In a power failure, the Normal Branch goes bye-bye and stays off after the Emergency Generators kick in.

In that same power failure, within 10 seconds maximum, the Generators must fire up and the ATS’s transfer power to the Essential Service Branches.

The code only requires a unique identifying color. The hospital project I was a part of last, all essential service receptacles and switches were colored Red.

All Normal branch receptacles and switches were White.

For the end user (hospital staff and patients) if the building is operating on generator power, any Red receptacle and Light switch will fully function. All equipment that keeps the hospital functioning is on the Essential Equipment Branch and continues to run behind the scenes.

In critical rooms like Operating rooms, there will be a light circuit that has its own battery backup power that turns on instantly when the power drops. It’s sole purpose is to provide lights for that 10 second span of no power while the generators are turning on and the ATS’s transfer over.

If you want to crap your pants, stand next to a large ATS for your first time when it switches over. The sound is intimidating.

[johnchase]

This is a isolated ground outlet identified by the green triangle. These have to be installed in grounded metal boxes per code or the yoke and cover screw will not be grounded. Since most houses use plastic boxes and romex wiring these could be a safety hazard in some situations.

[Geopolitic]

As others have stated, this is a designated or isolated ground receptacle. I actually used these when I renovated, to create a special entertainment centre. The theory behind it being, that the separate grounding, can reduce RF noise... I have some stereo vacuum tube equipment, and this was a great feature in the setup.

[John-doe]

Congratulations, you’ve won Algorithm Roulette, as I watch no videos that should suggest I would want to see this. That being said, this video was way more interesting then I would have though.

[leekumiega]

Red is the color for an emergency powered receptacles in a hospital. also at one time GE hospital grade receptacles used spring steel around the brass contacts to reinforce them . Newer hospital grade receptacles now only last as long as industrial grade ones and do wear out with much use whereas I've seen 40 year old GE receptacles still having as much tension as a new receptacle due to the spring steel reinforcement. Part of my job for the last 40 years was to do an annual receptacle tension testing with a Daniel Woodhead tension tester on ALL of the hospitals receptacles.

[jkbrown]

Notice on the back of the hospital grade that it warns that the mounting strap is not connected to the plug ground. Grounding of hospital wiring is a specialty process with many isolated grounds for patient protection. Hospitals and industrial wiring often use on ground-fault alarmsinstead of breaker trip clearing when unexpected loss of power during a critical process would be bad. If you use these in regular wiring you'd have to pay attention to the grounding and not assume the ground is transferred to metal boxes, faceplates, etc.

[marcberm]

Hospital grade can be a bit of overkill for most residential situations, but they're great for where you want ruggedization for similar reasons (like in a workshop). For my money, I'll definitely take commercial over residential in almost every case. It's kind of like buying cheap garbage bags; they may not break, in fact they probably won't, but do you want to risk trash all over your kitchen floor? Now what if you're talking about electricity vs. trash? No contest! Keep up the awesome videos!

[mineturte]

quite a curious recommendation from YouTube but I am glad to know that there is a community dedicated to comparing differences in electrical apparatuses