Author Topic: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house?  (Read 11482 times)
fluorescent lover 40
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What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « on: November 07, 2019, 11:42:16 PM » Author: fluorescent lover 40
The wiring devices are all Cooper.

Original switches: 1301W and 1303W
Original receptacles: 298W (push-in wire connections only) and 270W (for GFCI circuits)

There's also a 20A duplex and a 15A single but I don't know their model numbers.

Replacement switches: Leviton 1451-W and 1453-W
Replacement receptacles: Leviton 5320-W

Switches that have major arcing issues are being replaced. All push-in wire connection only receptacles are being replaced.

GFCIs, the 15A single, and the 20A duplex are staying.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2020, 02:10:52 PM by fluorescent lover 40 » Logged
A2ZAlarms
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #1 on: November 08, 2019, 10:28:38 AM » Author: A2ZAlarms
The wiring devices are all Cooper.

Original switches: 1301W and 1303W
Original receptacles: 298W (backstab only) and 270W (for GFCI circuits)

There's also a 20A suplex and a 15A single but I don't know their model numbers.

Replacement switches: Leviton 1451-W and 1453-W
Replacement receptacles: Leviton 5320-W

Switches that have major arcing issues are being replaced. All backstab only receptacles are being replaced.

GFCIs, the 15A single, and the 20A duplex are staying.
my house is all regular leviton decorator devices. the barn is all new old stock Hubbell stuff and S&S stuff. my room switch is an old modified simplex pull station
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Rommie
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #2 on: November 08, 2019, 12:27:51 PM » Author: Rommie
Switches that have major arcing issues are being replaced. All backstab only receptacles are being replaced.
Ok, from someone who lives the other side of the pond, I have to ask - what on earth is a backstab receptacle..? It sounds rather worrying to me :o  :D
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Ria (aka Rommie) in Aberdeen
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #3 on: November 08, 2019, 01:13:18 PM » Author: Ash
Originals were Tadiran with a few of the last Citor's here and there. Over the years parents changed many to the European equivalent of "Decora" ones, some of them i replaced back to the originals (which i kept) over the years. Switches for appliances that were installed over the years are Naiden Kirov
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fluorescent lover 40
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #4 on: November 08, 2019, 01:35:45 PM » Author: fluorescent lover 40
Ok, from someone who lives the other side of the pond, I have to ask - what on earth is a backstab receptacle..? It sounds rather worrying to me :o  :D
A receptacle with only push-in connections. They are notorious for arcing and being fire hazards if installed and used loosely. I will post a picture later. They have no screw terminals so they might not always make a reliable connection. The only screw terminal is the ground screw.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2019, 01:38:23 PM by fluorescent lover 40 » Logged
Ash
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #5 on: November 08, 2019, 02:12:55 PM » Author: Ash
I hacve seen some pictures of those "back stab" insides - The spring and contact surface are just folded from the copper bar that makes the rest of the receptacle. The only other place they make it like that is in Fluorescent lamp sockets, rated at 2A max with 0.5mm2 wire...

In all proper push in connections that are really made for more than 2A, the spring is real spring steel that does not lose tension over time and the contact surface is plated against corrosion
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #6 on: November 08, 2019, 02:36:50 PM » Author: Rommie
Thanks, they look dreadful..!

All the switches and sockets we use here have recessed grub screws to fasten wires, like this:

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Ria (aka Rommie) in Aberdeen
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #7 on: November 08, 2019, 02:39:34 PM » Author: Ash
I have worked on few control cabinets for machines with all insides wired with such connections (probably 150 or so power and control wires, currents of few A - motors etc) on all contactors, VFD inputs and outputs etc, and as stand alone terminal groups. The machines were 20 years old and had no problems there - You had to push and lever the screwdriver in the release hole very hard to release the wire, and it did not give any sign of the spring becoming weaker - not from age and not after releasing the wire one or more times

Never seen it happen with "building wiring" connectors from HellermannTyton or Wago either. I have my doubts in the current ratings (they are rated at 32A, i use them for 10A max) but i am concerned about the contact area between the wire and contact surface, not about the spring tension

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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #8 on: November 08, 2019, 06:40:44 PM » Author: Ash
This is one of the switches that use proper "push in" connections https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=7&pid=167131
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #9 on: November 09, 2019, 01:07:46 AM » Author: Ash
80s. The switches use push in and receptacles use screw terminals
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #10 on: November 09, 2019, 02:32:28 AM » Author: dor123
Most wall switches at my mother home, are of Waisboard, and there are also few of Naiden Kirov (ENI).
At my room at my hostel, there is a double wall switch for the T5 fixture and the tracklight, which is no-name, and my NISKO PL-S 9W meltlight above my bed have a Nisko switch in a box.
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #11 on: November 09, 2019, 03:22:17 AM » Author: Ash
Back when the old Israeli devices were made here by companies like Citor, DJG, Waisbord, Electro Natach's old models (60s..70s, some of which were still made right up to the closing of the company in the 00s) etc, they were all screws. In the 80s appeared the push in connections in some new designs, in the switches only

Today products we have here - Mostly made in Europe or in Turkey/China for sales to Europe, as well as the remaining Israeli companies - Use screws on receptacles, and are split about equally between screws or push in on switches. I assume that is the case throughout Europe

The manufacturer i consider as best currently - Schneider (Merlin Gerin) - which wiring devices are made in Spain - use push in on switches and screws on receptacles. Their push in connections also use dedicated steel springs and precisely shaped contact surfaces

One bad manufacturer to name - Nisko - Israel, they use screws on all current devices, but the copper parts are so flimsy that the contact plates bend from tightening the screws, screws slip threads in the threaded punched holes, ... With those i seen all the loose wire problems. Back in the 90s they were using proper thick copper and worked well. Also their switches from the 90s were push in
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #12 on: November 09, 2019, 11:13:14 AM » Author: Cole D.
Mixture of older snap switches and new decor rockers. Some of the house still has the two prong w/o ground receptacle but I am changing those out as time goes by.

And ribbed plates and some snap three way switchs. Farm house was built in 1972 and it looks like they used some older equipment to save money like reduced ground romex..

I'm surprised a house built in 1972 had ungrounded outlets. I thought they were required by the mid 1960s and started showing in some rooms in late 1950s.
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #13 on: November 09, 2019, 11:14:05 AM » Author: Cole D.
The house where I live have all Leviton Decora switches, and regular Leviton outlets, in white.
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Re: What light switches and receptacles do you have/use in in your house? « Reply #14 on: November 09, 2019, 11:52:32 AM » Author: Cole D.
Required in code enforced areas. This house was outside the city limits with no code enforcement. I was always a stickler for the NEC and I have seen some pretty stupid and weird things that people do to save a buck or think they know it all by reading a book. The reduced ground romex has it's ground simply pushed to the back of the outlet/switch boxes and not tied to anything. I am slowly but surely gradually replacing them with grounded outlets, GFCI's, and removing the taped and soldered joints. I have a 200 amp fuse main panel with a large pull out main fuse that protects the panel bus from overload and shorts. It is in pristine shape and being from the 70's the wiring is so neat it contradicts the no outlet ground procedures they used.

Well the good is, there's a ground. With cloth romex or knob and tube, has no ground at all, unless the armored type cable that isn't really considered a ground. Although I heard of one house that was built in 1960s, with knob and tube wiring and it was grounded!

I even heard of house built in 1971 with fuses.
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