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This is a first for me. I knew about outlets with 4 wires connected, but never have I seen one with FIVE wires, plus a mess that's not connected to the outlet. I hope I did a good enough job of taking pictures.
What I have is the "standard" 4 wires that I've been seeing with a second white wire in one of the slots.
Not connected to the outlet are four wires: 3 back and two white.
This is one that I'm wanting to add one of those usb added outlets to that have only two screws for connectors. I ask for help so I won't blow breakers or burn the house down.
I won't lie, I am completely lost here. Who does this stuff?
They are using the outlet box as a junction box as well. This is pretty common. You probably have outlets wired in series. The bundle of wires in the wire nut is taking power out to other items (outlets, light fixtures etc.) one wire is bringing power in to the bundle. Having the neutral (white) bundled in with the hot wires is a little odd. It should be labeled at "Hot" or "Line" at the other end. You might mistake it for a neutral and that could be bad.
It is impossible to tell exactly what is going on here without a voltage detector. However you have one black wire bringing power into the outlet and another bringing power out of the outlet to something else. I cannot tell whether the power is coming in from the bundle or going out to the bundle. The three white wires on the outlet are neutrals. the white wire in the bundle is not. They have simply used the outlet to connect multiple neutrals together. They probably go out to other outlets and/or possibly to a light fixture. Most likely the top neutral goes to the ground in the box and the other two go in either direction along the wall to the next outlet.
Other than using an unmarked white wire to carry power, the thing that bothers me some here is 4 or 5 wires connected by a single wire nut. I would not do that. It is too easy to get one of the wires lose and either lose the connection or worse, generate heat. I know people will say it is fine to have 4-5 wires in a single wire nut, but I have had a bad time with that, both when i did it and when a professional did it in my house (I ended up undoing it into smaller bundles later). Normally I never connect more than 3 wires with a single wire nut. That is already a lot of wires/connectors to cram into that small box along with an outlet (here, I would have used a double box or an extra deep one for more room).
You can just not mess with it since, it has been fine for 40 or 60 years (less?), but if you take it apart, I would not try to re-bundle all five wires with a single nut. I do not know why they didn't just connect some of those hots through the outlet.
There are some professional people or near professionals who will hopefully show up and give you a better opinion.
Disconnect both black wires and determine which one is hot. It looks like they used the outlet to feed through. You should still be able to pigtail the black wires.
The white wire nutted together with all the black wires most likely feeds a switch. If it does, it should have been marked with a black marker or black tape.
I have no clue why there are 3 neutrals connected to the switch. Since they're basically all tied together now, you can probably pigtail them also.
Yes, this outlet was switched. I bypassed the switch because I wanted both plugs hot.
There are two spotlights in the ceiling above this outlet. I'm wondering if part of the spaghetti is for those. If I have to disconnect them I will. In fact, I'd prefer to unless my wife wants them live. I doubt she will. She hates them as much as I do.
I'll open the boxes (four switches in the gang) and see if I can figure it out.
Is there a way to test which of those wires in the bundle might go to the spots?
I installed one of the new outlets at the other side of the bed and it only had two wires. I wish they all did, or at least only had four!
If I'm thinking correctly I should be able to pigtail from the three whites and two blacks. Everything is working correctly now so I can't see why doing that would change the way it works. The switch for the bottom plug has been bypassed at the wall so it no longer does anything.
Quote:
You can just not mess with it since, it has been fine for 40 or 60 years
20 years and I'd just as soon leave it be. Might wrap some electrical tape around to help keep them in place since I'm messing with it.
Wired the three whites and two blacks using pigtails. Every thing is working!
Thanks everyone.
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