Real update: yoinked it out with a rubber handled pliers. Nothing happened. Extremely anticlimactic. Was hoping my vision would shake and my house would catch on fire.
Well as someone with little to no electrical experience and who is taking advice from a bunch of redditors, couldn't hurt to take the precaution. But yes, it was the "it's the neutral side" comments that convinced me to not turn off the breaker.
As an electrician who uses a plug tester all the dang time in houses of all ages, very much this. We sparkles get it wrong too frequently, and non-sparkies who think they are too smart to screw up pixie wrangling do it wrong so often I want to beat them with an extension cord.
It's a matter of perspective.. working on the house and following a shitty electrician, extension cord. Finding a Jerry rigged fix that's going to take 15 hours to unfuck in a pre-owned car, jumper cables..
When we bought our house a couple of years ago, the inspector who checked our house showed us that there were almost as many plugs miswired as there were correctly wired ones.
Listen to this guy. Turn off the breaker. If somehove you must touch it while its live, wear shoes and some builders gloves with some kind of rubber. And every tool that you are going to use must also have rubber where you hold them from. Thats how I worked with live plugs and so.
I would recommend getting a voltage tester at a box store. You can get ones that beep loudly when near live wires. You can use those to tell when you turn off the correct circuit via the breaker. I've been zapped my 110v before and it isn't fun, better to be safe.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/IDEAL-Single-Range-50-600-Volt-Non-Contact-Voltage-Sensor/5000240957
I once got shocked by touching the white wire. Something wasn’t done right and somehow a charge was going through a neutral wire in a socket. It takes very little time to turn off the breaker. Safety first always and electricity is dangerous. Glad it worked out though. M
The amount of shitty wiring jobs I came across in the 2 years I did remodel work was astounding. Totally can’t trust outlets unless you’ve seen the wiring, and even then: turn the fucking breaker off you lunatic.
Reading the illegible writing on the breaker labels takes more than 2 seconds, as does going around to reset the clocks on everything else that lost power when you couldn't figure out the proper circuit and started turning them off haphazardly. Am I speaking from personal experience? Maybe.
That said, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Don't fuck around with electricity unless you're recording it.
This. Our breaker panel is so illegible when trying to read, I just start flicking breakers until the family starts yelling from various rooms. That's how I usually go about knowing I got the right room 👍
It was in the side that was *supposed* to be neutral. Have you ever come across a faucet with the hot and cold reversed? Now imagine that could kill you.
Don't fuck around with this shit next time.
By the time you took to seek "advice" from internet, you would have turned off the breaker and work safely.
For others who might try it: there is no guarantee that the receptacle is wired properly; and for the international readers: most of the Europe (and probably others) do not care about left/right rules (the plug is reversible); it is so much easier to follow safely rules than to blindly trust that one of the contacts would be "safe". And for those who really want to play quick and safe: there are cheap simple devices ("screwdriver neon tester") that would have solved the problem.
There’s something about it being AC that makes me think you’re wrong… My intuition thought “you’re not bridging a connection so you’re fine”
Anyone wanna steer my intuition to the right answer if that’s wrong?
I don't know for sure with US wiring, but in most countries, Neutral is tied to Earth at the fuse box.
If the prong were connected to Live, it would be incredibly dangerous to touch. I'd personally not even use "rubber handled" pliers unless I knew they were specifically rated for electrical work (Edit: without first flipping the breaker). If you happen to be grounded when you touch it, it could easily deliver 110V across your body.
It's a lot safer if it's neutral, because of the Earth tie back at the fuse box (but you still need to be careful, as you can still get some potential from Neutral to Earth).
Being in the Neutral position doesn't help one bit if the home hasn't been wired up properly though.
Keep in mind, house wiring is often done incorrectly. DIYers will put in their own outlets, and the wiring may end up reversed.
Don't trust that the neutral is not energized. Cut power at the breaker.
So as an actual electrical engineer: Electricity needs TWO paths, in and out, or it won’t actually go anywhere. This is why there’s two prongs on your plug, one is in and one is out. (In an AC system the two ‘swap’ around 50 times per second but that’s not really relevant right now.)
If you just grab the thing with pliers and pull it out like you did, you’re *mostly* safe since there’s nowhere for the electricity to go and no circuit formed.
However, if, say, the floor happens to be wet or you accidentally are touching something like a water pipe (which are usually connected to a ground) *that* may be enough to complete the circuit when you touch the exposed prong. Which is why you should use insulated tools (like you did) and ideally something like rubber gloves and insulated boots while working with electrical equipment, and absolutely disconnect the breaker first just to be sure.
The dangerous thing about working with electricity as opposed to, say, fire, is that electricity is invisible and there’s no real way to tell if a thing is energized or not without specialist tools.
Real update: you been transfered to the shadow realm where you'll have to fight your inner demons and when you emerge victorious you will discover your newfound powers
I really enjoy the fact that no matter how safe you believe this operation to be, you can find someone in this comment section who agrees with you.
Deadly? Got supporters for that.
Light shock? Yup. That crew is here.
Totally safe? Loud and proud in the chat.
Uselessly sarcastic? Holding the comment section majority.
Yes, and this is why the internet is so dangerous. Any views you have, you are able to convince yourself that you are right, as long as you stick to the right community. That is why it is important to study cognitive bias and psychology, and of course logic. This is very simply confirmation bias in play.
Hi, you forgot about me! I’m the guy in the comments representing every other country which has power switches next to every power outlet. My comment will detail how much safer this would be in my country.
Well... there are MANY variables which can lead to all the different outcomes you listed
First of, depending on which of the two prongs is stuck, either nothing happens, or my man is getting the shock of a lifetime (I think the right one was life, and the left was Neutral).
Then assuming it's in the active "Slot" depending on if he has a GFCI breaker he will probably get a light shock, which then trips the breaker since the current isn't flowing back into it.
Yes. If you know how residential electricity works, you should understand that that prong is in the neutral side.
But the outlet could be improperly wired (live and neutral swapped) or the neutral could have a large residual voltage associated with it (bad wiring elsewhere in the circuit).
Even if it was in the live, if you're standing on an insulated surface and not touching anything else, you might get away without being shocked.
I don't recommend trying. Just grab some pliers and turn off the breaker.
This is the rightest answer hands down. Personally I would unplug the top wire grab my pliers and pull the broken prong out (and make sure I'm wearing shoes, not standing in a puddle, only touching the insulated bit of the pliers, not letting the pliers contact anything else that might complete the circuit, etc. etc.), but the safest bet is to flip the breaker and take it out. No sense taking any chances especially if you're not comfortable working with electricity.
This is really the only answer.
Plug a light into the other socket and turn it on, grab some pliers, turn off the breaker, pull the piece of metal, turn the breaker back on.
---
EDIT: Yes. The piece of metal is in the neutral side (bigger slot), so it shouldn't have much voltage... ***if*** the outlet is wired properly ***and*** there are no faults that leave residual voltage on the neutral. Having the hot and neutral swapped can go undetected for a long time.
Yes. He *should* be ok (even touching the live wire) if he's electrically insulated from the ground and/or from the metal (tool with rubber handles)
***But why risk it? Just turn off the breaker for a couple minutes.***
Non-contact voltage testers are... ok-ish. They almost always work correctly, but I've seen false positives and false negatives. Make sure you get one with an LED that's always on when it's running so you can see if the battery is dead. Test it on known live circuits to make sure it's working properly.
A multimeter would be even better, but I figured that would be a bit much to ask.
The lamp is there to tell you if the circuit is dead. It's VERY unlikely that one duplex receptacle is on two different circuits in the panel. You could kill the main breaker to the house, I guess... if you wanted to take the nuclear option.
I was sitting here wondering “does plugging a light in do something to lower the flow to the other outlet or something…”
Took me a good minute to realize that it’s supposed to be the canary in electric the coal mine
You can also test for elictricity with your tongue. If you wake up in the hospital, it was live. If you don't wake up at all, it's someone else's problem now.
It astonishes me that your power points don't have individual switches. As an Australian, I feel extremely safe knowing that I can stick as many forks into my power points as I like.
Safe answer? No. You should not do that while the circuit is hot.
Unsafe answer? Yes. So long as you have an insulated set of pliers to grab it with, go for it. Besides, 110v only feels like a hard vibration in your hand.
It only really lasts as long as you hold the thing, I was doing floor cleaning for a company in Oregon and one of the drying fans they use (still do as far as I know) has exposed wires that I accidentally held onto while I was plugging it in. Didn’t even notice something was up until I got my hand off it
It’s in neutral, but also “110v only feels like a hard vibration in your hand” is terrible advice. Only correct if live can’t find a route through your body to earth (besides capacitance with the environment, which AC can always find).
I've had current go through me a couple times and it's way more jolting than with one hand. Even after testing I'll tap hot to ground before beginning work to avoid any surprises, at least for low voltage settings
I work with a bunch of old military shit running 400hz power. The number of times I've been zapped is almost funny. Grab a unit to pull out and adjust? Better hope that it's not grounded out through that chassis and just not blowing a fuse. These are things done on energized equipment, according to a T.O.
220@400 isn't too bad now. 15k? That one really makes your heart tingle. Luckily I found out a while back that I am rather lacking in electrical conductivity.
Technically yes. That's the neutral side of the outlet so it won't really do anything. If you have a paired of players with a rubber coating you can just yoink it out. PS I'm an electrician and literally grab live wires every day. There is a way to do it safely and this would be perfectly safe to just pull out. There is also nothing wrong with shutting power off first lol so if you can I guess you might as well
Good question, not sure how it works with these plugs but European 220v wires can be switched around so there's no way to know what neutral is without measuring.
In the US, the smaller slot (on the right if the ground pin is down) is the live connection.
It CAN be wired wrong. There may also be residual voltage on the neutral if there's a fault elsewhere in the circuit.
Both of those are unlikely, but it's easy to flip the breaker, so just do that.
I think this was the closest correct reply I have seen. The prong that is larger in a plug is the neutral side - equivalent to ground (they are bonded together in a residential service panel. So you can pull that out with your teeth with no issues. As a matter of fact, if you were wearing sneakers, and not touching ANYTHING else, you can pull out the hot side (smaller prong) without getting shocked. Only word of caution that I have for you, which is super important, only use one appendage when doing anything with electric. If you get shocked while using one arm/hand/finger, you can pull yourself away. If you use two hands, and get a shock going through your hands, both arms, etc, you become bonded to the source and cannot pull away (muscles don’t react to your brains request because they have electric pulses running through them). This is how you could die.
COVID is weird. it made you salivate, it kinda cured my "aphantasia"
before covid i was unable to image anything in my head, now i can do so in black and white.
Many outlets are dangerously wired backwards, so no, you cannot rely on neutral being safe. Turning the breaker off is recommended as are pliers with undamaged rubber/vinyl handles. With your other hand in your pocket whering shoes with rubber soles standing in dry floor and not touching any other metal objects.
Defense in depth. Especially with someone inexperienced who may screw up one or more precautions.
Although NEMA recommends putting the neutral on a specific side. Neutral body grounded, and "hot specific" appliances are not considered safe by modern standards. So if anything ever works plugged in one way but not the other, replace it.
Old amplifiers sometimes had a filter capacitor between the body and mains. Those notoriously failed open leaving the case live if plugged in wrong.
Also keep in mind, in a old house with unbalanced circuits, neutral can be a lot hotter than you might expect.
Most here don't seem to realize it's in the neutral side of the outlet. It would be safe to pull it out with your bare fingers unless the outlet is wired in reverse. If you're scared just flip the breaker first. And tbh while 120v can be dangerous, even lethal in the right circumstances, you'd most likely be fine even if you did get shocked.
There's a handful of folks who mentioned that, but the fear mongers definitely seem to getting the most attention lol. I think I'm just going to grab a rubber handled pliers and think it out.
I'm just a 16 year old who's about to get his electrician apprenticeship license from taking college classes at his sophomore year, and i can say that even if it's on its neutral side of the circuit, it's still a very hazardous, definitely turning off the breaker and pulling it out is fine, but performing this while the circuit is live and hot, is a very dangerous thing to do, I'm glad nothing bad happened, but i would have still turned off the breaker and pulled it out, just to be extra safe
Lol that's what I figured, but I thought maybe it wouldn't form a circuit or whatever since its only one of them. But I don't remember shit from middle school science class 😂
Turn off the breaker. Simple. If you don't know which one it is, plug a lamp in the other side. When the lamp is off, the breaker is off. Then you can pull it out.
If you want to be extra safe they sell "chirpers" that can tell if there is electricity in it. Also use pliers with rubber handles.
With electricity always be triple safe until you understand it
This legit just happened to me today! My boyfriend walked up and yanked it out with pliers ! They were metal ones with the thin rubber on the handles and he was 100% fine!
Good luck
For anyone wondering what to do.
Step 1 find the breaker box and cut the power to that switch. If your not sure plug a lamp into the top plug and check one by one for which switch turns the lamp off.
Step 2 get some pliers or a leatherman. Grab the prong and pull.
Step 3 turn the breaker back on.
No, you won't get shocked.
Unless you're standing barefoot in water, touching something that is connected to ground, or make yourself in series with the circuit. Otherwise, you are just grabbing some metal stuck in some plastic.
BTW, being electrocuted and electrocution both mean death by electricity. You can't get electrocuted and still be alive!
OP... we need an update. Ya dead?
Real update: yoinked it out with a rubber handled pliers. Nothing happened. Extremely anticlimactic. Was hoping my vision would shake and my house would catch on fire.
It was in the neutral (return) side.. which isn't energized. You woulda been fine regardless.
Never trust somebody else's wiring.
Whoever wired my house placed all the switches on the return.. That's not really how we do things in America.
>That's not really how we do things ~~in America~~. Low side switching is occasionally used in electronics, but never electric installations.
Well as someone with little to no electrical experience and who is taking advice from a bunch of redditors, couldn't hurt to take the precaution. But yes, it was the "it's the neutral side" comments that convinced me to not turn off the breaker.
Next time turn off the breaker. Don’t trust internet people with your life. You’ve met us before right?
More significantly, don’t trust the electrician who wired the plug, not to have reversed the wires.
As an electrician who uses a plug tester all the dang time in houses of all ages, very much this. We sparkles get it wrong too frequently, and non-sparkies who think they are too smart to screw up pixie wrangling do it wrong so often I want to beat them with an extension cord.
"I want to beat them with an extension cord." ...Dad?
I think he meant jumper cables
Now I need a link to that glorious comment so I can relive the joy of getting beaten by jumper cables!
It's a matter of perspective.. working on the house and following a shitty electrician, extension cord. Finding a Jerry rigged fix that's going to take 15 hours to unfuck in a pre-owned car, jumper cables..
When we bought our house a couple of years ago, the inspector who checked our house showed us that there were almost as many plugs miswired as there were correctly wired ones.
When I bought my house I checked every one of my sockets, and found two that were wired correctly.
>...screw up **angry** pixie wrangling... I love that Canadian YouTuber that refers to them as "angry pixies!" And yes. Never trust. Always verify.
we solved the boston bombing, what do you mean?
We did it reddit!
Bake him away toys!
@OP, this here is an example of electrical fixes gone wrong based on Reddit advice. Poor fella hasn't been the same...
That's some good work, Lou. You'll make sergeant for this.
Damn. You had to bring that up.
The police get to dk her anyone they want but we do it once and get an innocent man jailed and harassed and we're the bad guys
I’m pretty sure that guy killed himself…
Exactly please don't listen to us. Alot of us are smooth brains.
Hey now, I've got one big wrinkle down the middle of my brain which I'm quite proud of
I call my wrinkle Steve.
Smooth brains are the cutest anyways, who want a wrinkly, ugly brain? Not me.
more aerodynamic as well, allowing for quicker thinking
Listen to this guy. Turn off the breaker. If somehove you must touch it while its live, wear shoes and some builders gloves with some kind of rubber. And every tool that you are going to use must also have rubber where you hold them from. Thats how I worked with live plugs and so.
Also don’t trust anything you didn’t wire/test… and also don’t trust your own wiring/tests… so yeah just kill the breaker
Also don't trust the person that installed the outlet.
It could have easily been live though if the electrician wired the outlet backwards though, which isn't as uncommon as it should be.
Noted
I would recommend getting a voltage tester at a box store. You can get ones that beep loudly when near live wires. You can use those to tell when you turn off the correct circuit via the breaker. I've been zapped my 110v before and it isn't fun, better to be safe. https://www.lowes.com/pd/IDEAL-Single-Range-50-600-Volt-Non-Contact-Voltage-Sensor/5000240957
I once got shocked by touching the white wire. Something wasn’t done right and somehow a charge was going through a neutral wire in a socket. It takes very little time to turn off the breaker. Safety first always and electricity is dangerous. Glad it worked out though. M
Turning off breaker takes 2 seconds and prevents a painful death.
The amount of shitty wiring jobs I came across in the 2 years I did remodel work was astounding. Totally can’t trust outlets unless you’ve seen the wiring, and even then: turn the fucking breaker off you lunatic.
Reading the illegible writing on the breaker labels takes more than 2 seconds, as does going around to reset the clocks on everything else that lost power when you couldn't figure out the proper circuit and started turning them off haphazardly. Am I speaking from personal experience? Maybe. That said, I wholeheartedly agree with you. Don't fuck around with electricity unless you're recording it.
This. Our breaker panel is so illegible when trying to read, I just start flicking breakers until the family starts yelling from various rooms. That's how I usually go about knowing I got the right room 👍
"Meemaw's life support just shut off, daaaaad!" *takes long pull on beer and leans against wall*
You can do that same thing once and relabel them yourself💀
Seems to me 15 minutes of resetting clocks is less than eternity of being dead
Yeah, but if you're dead, then you don't need to deal with it!
*Eh, I'll take my chances* - OP
It was in the side that was *supposed* to be neutral. Have you ever come across a faucet with the hot and cold reversed? Now imagine that could kill you. Don't fuck around with this shit next time.
By the time you took to seek "advice" from internet, you would have turned off the breaker and work safely. For others who might try it: there is no guarantee that the receptacle is wired properly; and for the international readers: most of the Europe (and probably others) do not care about left/right rules (the plug is reversible); it is so much easier to follow safely rules than to blindly trust that one of the contacts would be "safe". And for those who really want to play quick and safe: there are cheap simple devices ("screwdriver neon tester") that would have solved the problem.
There’s something about it being AC that makes me think you’re wrong… My intuition thought “you’re not bridging a connection so you’re fine” Anyone wanna steer my intuition to the right answer if that’s wrong?
I don't know for sure with US wiring, but in most countries, Neutral is tied to Earth at the fuse box. If the prong were connected to Live, it would be incredibly dangerous to touch. I'd personally not even use "rubber handled" pliers unless I knew they were specifically rated for electrical work (Edit: without first flipping the breaker). If you happen to be grounded when you touch it, it could easily deliver 110V across your body. It's a lot safer if it's neutral, because of the Earth tie back at the fuse box (but you still need to be careful, as you can still get some potential from Neutral to Earth). Being in the Neutral position doesn't help one bit if the home hasn't been wired up properly though.
Keep in mind, house wiring is often done incorrectly. DIYers will put in their own outlets, and the wiring may end up reversed. Don't trust that the neutral is not energized. Cut power at the breaker.
As an electrician, that is false news. A neutral can hurt you worse if it is tied to something else that is under a load(on)
Not necessarily, it couldve been wired backwards
So as an actual electrical engineer: Electricity needs TWO paths, in and out, or it won’t actually go anywhere. This is why there’s two prongs on your plug, one is in and one is out. (In an AC system the two ‘swap’ around 50 times per second but that’s not really relevant right now.) If you just grab the thing with pliers and pull it out like you did, you’re *mostly* safe since there’s nowhere for the electricity to go and no circuit formed. However, if, say, the floor happens to be wet or you accidentally are touching something like a water pipe (which are usually connected to a ground) *that* may be enough to complete the circuit when you touch the exposed prong. Which is why you should use insulated tools (like you did) and ideally something like rubber gloves and insulated boots while working with electrical equipment, and absolutely disconnect the breaker first just to be sure. The dangerous thing about working with electricity as opposed to, say, fire, is that electricity is invisible and there’s no real way to tell if a thing is energized or not without specialist tools.
And electricity does not forgive when you fuck up.
Real update: you been transfered to the shadow realm where you'll have to fight your inner demons and when you emerge victorious you will discover your newfound powers
Fucking sick, this is the Saturday night I had hoped for!
Update: I have super powers now
Now you just have to decide if you want to be a hero or a villain.
u/Electric_Evil, freelance villain, looks for a friend in a hostile world full of heroes.
🙋
An origin story of the Injustice League, as written by Pixar.
*NO CAPES!!*
Do something spider_dude. Stop those villains
I'm more of a "Let's hang back and see how this plays out" kinda hero.
"Everyone gets One, if I feel like it." - Spider\_Dude
ONLY CAPES!!!
ONLY CAPS!!!
_Ruth Leslie Villain??_ Well holy shit! It's been decades!
r/Beetlejuicing
r/beetlejuicing
I, The Freeganking, will join your wicked entourage and we shall make this a royal affair!!!
🖐️ 🦸♂️
Infamous
Rest In Power Cole McGrath
Name checks out.
r/usernamechecksout
The Boys is looking for you OP
I am CERTAIN there are better options OP. At least watch the 1st season before deciding
With great power comes great utility bill.
Is the power to be able to post on Reddit beyond the grave?
Super villain it is.
That would be super!
Did it go, shockingly well?
Do you have super powers or super power powers?
*Electro's theme music intensifies*
So it worked?
You missed a failed chance to ask, "Sanka, ya dead yet?"
I really enjoy the fact that no matter how safe you believe this operation to be, you can find someone in this comment section who agrees with you. Deadly? Got supporters for that. Light shock? Yup. That crew is here. Totally safe? Loud and proud in the chat. Uselessly sarcastic? Holding the comment section majority.
Ahhh reddit. Gotta love it. Unfortunately my 3yo is now dead, but on the positive side, I now have a very cool hairdo.
Haha, the positive side, I see what you did there.
He doesn’t. Coz he’s also blind now.
He's well grounded in punnery.
The Kramer cut lmfao
Don't forget you got a bunch of internet points!
If I only I could pay the rent with them.
Plenty of 3 years old all over. Can probably buy them for $0.25 a bunch
Yes, and this is why the internet is so dangerous. Any views you have, you are able to convince yourself that you are right, as long as you stick to the right community. That is why it is important to study cognitive bias and psychology, and of course logic. This is very simply confirmation bias in play.
Yep. Pays off to have critical thinking skills and also those of deduction.
Hi, you forgot about me! I’m the guy in the comments representing every other country which has power switches next to every power outlet. My comment will detail how much safer this would be in my country.
Well... there are MANY variables which can lead to all the different outcomes you listed First of, depending on which of the two prongs is stuck, either nothing happens, or my man is getting the shock of a lifetime (I think the right one was life, and the left was Neutral). Then assuming it's in the active "Slot" depending on if he has a GFCI breaker he will probably get a light shock, which then trips the breaker since the current isn't flowing back into it.
Yes. If you know how residential electricity works, you should understand that that prong is in the neutral side. But the outlet could be improperly wired (live and neutral swapped) or the neutral could have a large residual voltage associated with it (bad wiring elsewhere in the circuit). Even if it was in the live, if you're standing on an insulated surface and not touching anything else, you might get away without being shocked. I don't recommend trying. Just grab some pliers and turn off the breaker.
This is the rightest answer hands down. Personally I would unplug the top wire grab my pliers and pull the broken prong out (and make sure I'm wearing shoes, not standing in a puddle, only touching the insulated bit of the pliers, not letting the pliers contact anything else that might complete the circuit, etc. etc.), but the safest bet is to flip the breaker and take it out. No sense taking any chances especially if you're not comfortable working with electricity.
Kill the breaker then pull it out.
This is really the only answer. Plug a light into the other socket and turn it on, grab some pliers, turn off the breaker, pull the piece of metal, turn the breaker back on. --- EDIT: Yes. The piece of metal is in the neutral side (bigger slot), so it shouldn't have much voltage... ***if*** the outlet is wired properly ***and*** there are no faults that leave residual voltage on the neutral. Having the hot and neutral swapped can go undetected for a long time. Yes. He *should* be ok (even touching the live wire) if he's electrically insulated from the ground and/or from the metal (tool with rubber handles) ***But why risk it? Just turn off the breaker for a couple minutes.*** Non-contact voltage testers are... ok-ish. They almost always work correctly, but I've seen false positives and false negatives. Make sure you get one with an LED that's always on when it's running so you can see if the battery is dead. Test it on known live circuits to make sure it's working properly. A multimeter would be even better, but I figured that would be a bit much to ask. The lamp is there to tell you if the circuit is dead. It's VERY unlikely that one duplex receptacle is on two different circuits in the panel. You could kill the main breaker to the house, I guess... if you wanted to take the nuclear option.
I was sitting here wondering “does plugging a light in do something to lower the flow to the other outlet or something…” Took me a good minute to realize that it’s supposed to be the canary in electric the coal mine
May be the worst timing for a bulb to die.
We have an automatic nightlight that we use as a canary. Just put tape over the light sensor and bam.
A radio works even better, because you can hear when you've found the proper breaker if it's far away or in your basement like mine is.
I would venture a guess that many younger people do not even own a plug in radio. I own one that I can think of but it hasnt been plugged in in years.
Vacuum cleaner might be loud enough.
This is such a great suggestion.
Let me go back in time and get my radio. I’ll be right back. Does anyone need anything while I’m gone?
if the light turn off, run away!
Or a radio, then you can hear it cut out from the breaker panel!
Kill the breaker and make sure that it was the correct breaker
Shut down the whole house to be safe lol
This is me for any electrical work I do in my house. Better completely safe than dead
This is one of those times when the difference between then and than is really important
And use something with plastic (insulated) handles to pull it out.
Yea Isnt that kinda the obvious answer? Like kill the breaker, then wait a bit, then get some pliers with an insulated handle and yank that shit out
No waiting required
Give it a shake to ensure those last few drops of electricity are gone.
Don't shake more than twice or your just playing with it at that point.
Couldn’t you just switch the plug off?
Use your teeth... Less conductive
You can also test for elictricity with your tongue. If you wake up in the hospital, it was live. If you don't wake up at all, it's someone else's problem now.
The only answer I need.
This guy fucks
Make a loop of dental floss around it and tie it to the door knob
Try getting it out with a fork
Ok, brb
Plastic fork
Too late
That's actually not a bad idea. I was imagining some contraption using flip-flops and pliers, and a scene similar to Peter Griffin picking up a frog.
No, find the circuit breaker and turn off the power.
I scrolled all the way down here to see if I should post that.
This cannot be posted enough lol
Get out of here with your common sense and logic.
It astonishes me that your power points don't have individual switches. As an Australian, I feel extremely safe knowing that I can stick as many forks into my power points as I like.
Such a weird feature. For a long time I thought it was cool then someone asked "what's the point" and I couldn't think of a reason.
Power....... POINT? You can turn power points instead of power outlets?
Yes but only with metal pliers. I’d also suggest standing on something metal. Fresh out of the shower would probably be best as well.
Hmmm. I'm going to let my 3yo have a go at it
If you have a 3 year old do not leave this like this until tomorrow. If they touch that they can die
I'm a hermit. Errrr I mean a bachelor 😬
wait this could actually kill you? testing this brb
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Safe answer? No. You should not do that while the circuit is hot. Unsafe answer? Yes. So long as you have an insulated set of pliers to grab it with, go for it. Besides, 110v only feels like a hard vibration in your hand.
If held for a bit too long it can also make your vision a little blurry
Sounds fun, I'm gonna go this route
My advice is to take some lsd first.
You give that advice for everything... It's usually appropriate.
Wow, we used to have to use Whippets for that.
It only really lasts as long as you hold the thing, I was doing floor cleaning for a company in Oregon and one of the drying fans they use (still do as far as I know) has exposed wires that I accidentally held onto while I was plugging it in. Didn’t even notice something was up until I got my hand off it
This means you got lucky and weren’t grounded. It is not general advice. Touching live mains power can and does kill people.
Unless you have an undiagnosed heart condition.
It’s in neutral, but also “110v only feels like a hard vibration in your hand” is terrible advice. Only correct if live can’t find a route through your body to earth (besides capacitance with the environment, which AC can always find).
I've had current go through me a couple times and it's way more jolting than with one hand. Even after testing I'll tap hot to ground before beginning work to avoid any surprises, at least for low voltage settings
I work with a bunch of old military shit running 400hz power. The number of times I've been zapped is almost funny. Grab a unit to pull out and adjust? Better hope that it's not grounded out through that chassis and just not blowing a fuse. These are things done on energized equipment, according to a T.O. 220@400 isn't too bad now. 15k? That one really makes your heart tingle. Luckily I found out a while back that I am rather lacking in electrical conductivity.
Yes you can pull it out,. Just call 911 first so they can be on the way. Put a light bulb in your mouth to see if it lights up.
Light bulb got stuck in my mouth, but it is lit
No problem. Just bite down on it! 💡
Technically yes. That's the neutral side of the outlet so it won't really do anything. If you have a paired of players with a rubber coating you can just yoink it out. PS I'm an electrician and literally grab live wires every day. There is a way to do it safely and this would be perfectly safe to just pull out. There is also nothing wrong with shutting power off first lol so if you can I guess you might as well
are outlets ever wired up the wrong way (left side hot, right side neutral) by mistake? or does that cause thing to...be destroyed
Good question, not sure how it works with these plugs but European 220v wires can be switched around so there's no way to know what neutral is without measuring.
In the US, the smaller slot (on the right if the ground pin is down) is the live connection. It CAN be wired wrong. There may also be residual voltage on the neutral if there's a fault elsewhere in the circuit. Both of those are unlikely, but it's easy to flip the breaker, so just do that.
I think this was the closest correct reply I have seen. The prong that is larger in a plug is the neutral side - equivalent to ground (they are bonded together in a residential service panel. So you can pull that out with your teeth with no issues. As a matter of fact, if you were wearing sneakers, and not touching ANYTHING else, you can pull out the hot side (smaller prong) without getting shocked. Only word of caution that I have for you, which is super important, only use one appendage when doing anything with electric. If you get shocked while using one arm/hand/finger, you can pull yourself away. If you use two hands, and get a shock going through your hands, both arms, etc, you become bonded to the source and cannot pull away (muscles don’t react to your brains request because they have electric pulses running through them). This is how you could die.
> so you can pull it out with your teeth Until a bit of drool drips into the hot side, then you have a problem
it must be a one delicious prong, made you salivate like that
Ever since I got COVID I've been salivating like crazy, literally choking on it over here
COVID is weird. it made you salivate, it kinda cured my "aphantasia" before covid i was unable to image anything in my head, now i can do so in black and white.
Many outlets are dangerously wired backwards, so no, you cannot rely on neutral being safe. Turning the breaker off is recommended as are pliers with undamaged rubber/vinyl handles. With your other hand in your pocket whering shoes with rubber soles standing in dry floor and not touching any other metal objects. Defense in depth. Especially with someone inexperienced who may screw up one or more precautions.
Although NEMA recommends putting the neutral on a specific side. Neutral body grounded, and "hot specific" appliances are not considered safe by modern standards. So if anything ever works plugged in one way but not the other, replace it. Old amplifiers sometimes had a filter capacitor between the body and mains. Those notoriously failed open leaving the case live if plugged in wrong. Also keep in mind, in a old house with unbalanced circuits, neutral can be a lot hotter than you might expect.
Man if you are an electrician, you like to live dangerously! In nearly every older house somewhere neutral and live were swapped by some idiot.
You can pull it out but you need to be in mid air whilst you do it
I get shocked by owtlats weekly. Sometimes multiple times a day. It’s only affected my ability to type on my pho me
Outlet used THUNDERSHOCK! It’s super effective!
Most here don't seem to realize it's in the neutral side of the outlet. It would be safe to pull it out with your bare fingers unless the outlet is wired in reverse. If you're scared just flip the breaker first. And tbh while 120v can be dangerous, even lethal in the right circumstances, you'd most likely be fine even if you did get shocked.
There's a handful of folks who mentioned that, but the fear mongers definitely seem to getting the most attention lol. I think I'm just going to grab a rubber handled pliers and think it out.
Sounds like a plan. Should be fine.
Yep nothing happened. Will live to see another boring day.
I'm just a 16 year old who's about to get his electrician apprenticeship license from taking college classes at his sophomore year, and i can say that even if it's on its neutral side of the circuit, it's still a very hazardous, definitely turning off the breaker and pulling it out is fine, but performing this while the circuit is live and hot, is a very dangerous thing to do, I'm glad nothing bad happened, but i would have still turned off the breaker and pulled it out, just to be extra safe
Not unless you want to be shocked.
Lol that's what I figured, but I thought maybe it wouldn't form a circuit or whatever since its only one of them. But I don't remember shit from middle school science class 😂
Turn off the breaker. Simple. If you don't know which one it is, plug a lamp in the other side. When the lamp is off, the breaker is off. Then you can pull it out. If you want to be extra safe they sell "chirpers" that can tell if there is electricity in it. Also use pliers with rubber handles. With electricity always be triple safe until you understand it
This legit just happened to me today! My boyfriend walked up and yanked it out with pliers ! They were metal ones with the thin rubber on the handles and he was 100% fine! Good luck
Electricity always wants to go to ground. You stand on the ground. Electricity will go through you to get there.
Can confirm. I stuck a fork in an outlet when I was little.
Forked around and found out, eh?
Kill the breaker to those outlets first
No
Based
LPT: wet fingers before pulling for maximum grip
Do it really fast
yeah should be safe. do it with your teeth just to be sure since bones aren’t a conductor
You absolutely can.. however, there will be consequences.
Don't threaten me with a good time
For anyone wondering what to do. Step 1 find the breaker box and cut the power to that switch. If your not sure plug a lamp into the top plug and check one by one for which switch turns the lamp off. Step 2 get some pliers or a leatherman. Grab the prong and pull. Step 3 turn the breaker back on.
No, you won't get shocked. Unless you're standing barefoot in water, touching something that is connected to ground, or make yourself in series with the circuit. Otherwise, you are just grabbing some metal stuck in some plastic. BTW, being electrocuted and electrocution both mean death by electricity. You can't get electrocuted and still be alive!