Author Topic: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles?  (Read 1969 times)
Cole D.
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What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « on: December 22, 2018, 02:58:29 PM » Author: Cole D.
My response will be from the US side of the pond, since that's what I'm familiar with, and I know a little but not much about devices in other countries.

I like the rocker/decorator style switches best, in white. To me they just look neat and easy to clean. However, I like how the toggle switches don't make a loud CLICK when turned on or off. Also, I like the old switches that had an on and off button with the on button having a pearl button. Usually these had a brass cover plate.

As for receptacles, I actually prefer the type with two circles better than the decorator ones. Because the decorator ones can break if something with a three prong plug is plugged in and the cord gets pulled downward. Most newer houses I see built here have the rocker style switches, but the round receptacles, unless they're GFCI receptacles.

For GFCI, I like Leviton the best because of the little green LED indicator that stays on all the time. Other brands I see have a red LED that lights up if the GFCI is tripped.

I have a growing collection of old receptacles and GFCIs, however I don't have many switches because I don't see old ones that often. I found most of these in the bins at Habitat.
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #1 on: December 23, 2018, 02:36:02 PM » Author: Jovan
My response will be from the US side of the pond, since that's what I'm familiar with, and I know a little but not much about devices in other countries.

I like the rocker/decorator style switches best, in white. To me they just look neat and easy to clean. However, I like how the toggle switches don't make a loud CLICK when turned on or off. Also, I like the old switches that had an on and off button with the on button having a pearl button. Usually these had a brass cover plate.

As for receptacles, I actually prefer the type with two circles better than the decorator ones. Because the decorator ones can break if something with a three prong plug is plugged in and the cord gets pulled downward. Most newer houses I see built here have the rocker style switches, but the round receptacles, unless they're GFCI receptacles.

For GFCI, I like Leviton the best because of the little green LED indicator that stays on all the time. Other brands I see have a red LED that lights up if the GFCI is tripped.

I have a growing collection of old receptacles and GFCIs, however I don't have many switches because I don't see old ones that often. I found most of these in the bins at Habitat.

Aling Conel switches are nice and they are made in Serbia.I own them and they are nice and reliable.
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #2 on: December 24, 2018, 01:17:55 AM » Author: icefoglights
As for receptacles, I actually prefer the type with two circles better than the decorator ones. Because the decorator ones can break if something with a three prong plug is plugged in and the cord gets pulled downward. Most newer houses I see built here have the rocker style switches, but the round receptacles, unless they're GFCI receptacles.

For GFCI, I like Leviton the best because of the little green LED indicator that stays on all the time. Other brands I see have a red LED that lights up if the GFCI is tripped.

I like the Decora style myself.  However, I haven't run into many issues with broken decora receptacles.  On the contrary, I've seen many standard duplex receptacles with the bottoms of the ground holes broken off.  Granted that can happen to the lower plug in a decora style, the top ones don't break.

Another change that happened around the time that decora style receptacles became popular was the switch from brittle Bakelite for the face to more flexible thermoplastic.
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HomeBrewLamps
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #3 on: December 27, 2018, 05:20:03 PM » Author: HomeBrewLamps
I like ones that have glow lamps in em. So I can see where they're at on the wall in an otherwise dark room.
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #4 on: December 27, 2018, 08:07:04 PM » Author: lightinglover8902
My house has rocker switches and grounded US plugs. The rocker switches are easier than the toggle switches.

This is what my house has:



Some are 3-way, 4-way, and most are single pole switches.



Two of these two single pole switches are in my house, one located in the living room, and one in the kitchen.



A lot of these are in my house. And also, GFCIs are also in my house, some are made by Eaton, and some are made by Leviton. And the GFCIs are self-testing.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2018, 08:23:15 PM by lightinglover8902 » Logged

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Cole D.
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #5 on: December 27, 2018, 11:58:00 PM » Author: Cole D.
A neighbor gave me a bunch of those white Leviton Decora receptacles and switches when he moved early this year. The weird thing was all of the switches were lighted Decora! But my parents didn't let me keep any of them because they weren't vintage, yet the lighted ones are rare than regular ones.

Also none of the receptacles in my house are those tamper resistant ones, but I do have one of those two pole switches with two rockers which controls the exhaust fan and light for bathroom.

Also I have a Lutron fan control which has a slider for the fan speed and a small rocker switch for a light. It's white and has the decorator style plate.
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #6 on: December 28, 2018, 12:02:06 AM » Author: Cole D.
A lot of these are in my house. And also, GFCIs are also in my house, some are made by Eaton, and some are made by Leviton. And the GFCIs are self-testing.

Interesting on the Eaton, since I never see those around here, mostly I see Pass and Seymour/Legrand or Leviton devices in houses. Yet I never see Eaton, probably because Lowes sell P&S Legrand and Home Depot has Leviton. Some Ace I think sell Eaton but I think here they just have Leviton like Home Depot.

Although I did see a house once with Eagle decorator switches and GFCIs in white, which Eagle got bought by Cooper/Eaton after.

And once I saw Home Depot had Leviton AND P&S Legrand porcelain sockets for sale on the shelf, instead of just Leviton, which was weird.
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #7 on: December 28, 2018, 09:10:05 AM » Author: lightinglover8902
I actually have a Eaton GFCI receptacle, that I used when I was practicing the electrical courses on Penn Foster. It had stickers on the sides, but when I was putting electrical tape to protect the screw contacts, unfortunately the stickers came off.
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Re: What are your favorite light switch and receptacle styles? « Reply #8 on: August 06, 2019, 11:20:39 PM » Author: Fluorescent05
I like brown and ivory snap and mercury switches with art deco style bakelite plates (matched to the color of the switch or receptacle) and I like the stainless steel ones with brown devices. As for GFCIs, I like the older ivory Leviton ones from when they were horizontal and right after the vertical style came out. Their buttons are so easy to press. I also kind of like the pre-Eaton Cooper GFCIs that had an incandescent indicator light (at least it looks like one). I personally hate brand new Leviton GFCIs because their buttons are so hard to press (I even hurt my thumb while trying to press the reset button when doing a monthly test about 3 years ago) and their reset buttons do not look any different when in the tripped state than when in the reset state.
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