You would be amazed at exactly how many people nowadays don’t understand how to change a plug socket. Evidently, the better approach to get it done correctly is to hire an electrician who can perform the work for you! But, for those who don’t plan to pay one, or anybody else for that matter, you may actually change an electrical plug socket yourself. In the grand scheme of things, it is a minor chore. But which minor task can become a significant fiasco if it’s not handled properly because playing around with electricity can be dreadfully dangerous. Here is a guide that you may follow to carefully replace an electrical plug socket.
Remember that safety is an important concern here. Before you begin anything whatsoever, make certain you switch off the power for the socket which you are going to change. Go to your main circuit breaker box and trip off the breaker which gives power to that actual socket. You can only do that and choose the appropriate breaker if your main breaker box is properly marked, otherwise if you do not want to test each breaker until you locate the right one, you will have to turn off all the breakers to make sure. Now go to the socket in question and test for power. Just plug an electrical appliance for example a vacuum cleaner to check whether the supply remains to be on or use a multi-tester if you have one. Multi-testers are supplied with operational manuals so anyone can use one.
Proceed only when you’re totally sure that there is no power to the socket that you’re going to work with. Now, use a screwdriver to remove the screws holding the face plate after which you can remove the face plate. Take out screws holding the socket to your receptacle box. Drag the socket as far out as it will move out of your receptacle box, taking care not to touch any wires.
Now, make a note of precisely where the wires are connected to the socket because you’ll want to reconnect them later on in the fresh socket in the same way. You should see two or three wires attached to the socket they are usually colour coded. The brown being the live wire, the other 2 are for neutral and ground. When you wire them up exactly the same way, you do not need to worry about the colours. That is very crucial. A multi-tester will be invaluable here should you get stuck.
Undo the wires from the old socket. Check your notes and reconnect the wires in to the new socket’s terminals. Tighten every one of the screws and make sure that no wires with another colour are touching each other. When all the wires are properly fastened into place, push the socket back into the receptacle box and secure it using the screws you had taken out earlier. Then replace the faceplate. Turn on all of the breakers inside your main breaker box and plug an electrical piece of equipment into your new socket and check if it is operational.
Congratulations. You have just learned the way to effectively change an electric plug socket.