Three Wire Receptacles, Ground up or down?

I meant receptacle down

I moved south of the Mason-Dixon line about twenty years ago, and up to that time I had never seen ground up. It seems to be the way they do it here (and we don't care how you do it up north). I asked a local electrician and he said ground down was correct. If there is a tug (moment arm) on the plug for some reason, that will naturally pull it downward, and if the ground is down the ground connection is more secure than if the ground is up. At least that's what I was told.

dkriley; the national electrical code does't care. put side ways if you wish, i like ground down, because that's what i'm standing on. codekeeper

Everyone is right, it is not a code issue at all. They leave it up to us sparkies to figure out which is right. I take the attitude of what height the receptacle is mounted at. The main thing I look for is if the receptacle is pulled out, the ground is the last to break. If it is somewhere to where you have to bend over to reach it, then pulling it out also includes a small amount of upward pull usually, therefore ground up is better. If you have having to reach up (receptacle is above waist height), then there is a tendency to pull down and thus I like the ground down in that case. Just use your best judgement.

I like your thinking EP.

milo

Actually there is another reason for "ground pin up". If a plug is partly removed, to the point anything could slide behind it, with the ground up there is much less probablility a wire or conductive material could contact both current carrying conductors. I asked a buddy of mine who deals mostly with medical wiring who claims it is part of the code when wiring in a medical facility but optional when in residential. I seldom use outlets on the machines I design so haven't had a reason to look up the industrail code.

I agree with you. The first time I had ever seen an outlet with the ground plug upwards, I was baffled. I was told precisely the same thing you said: That if the plug becomes loosened from the outlet, that it presents electrical danger if a conductor connects the two prongs.

With ground up, any conductor sliding down will be grounded instead of making a dangerous electrical connection. I have often seen plugs mounted sideways for presumably the same reason. But then the question is: Which way is safer, ground at top or ground at side? I am going to guess ground at top

ditto - that is how we were taught in our B-FIT class.

I have always put ground down. That way when you look at the receptacle it looks back like a surprised smiley face. But seriously, I have always done it this way and I don't remember what the reason was, just that an older electrician told me it was better that way and I respected his opinion.

I've heard this discussed before and the general concensus was:

ground down is more mechanically stable,

ground down if you step on it, pull it, the last thing to disconnect is ground.

and there was some discussion about flooding, but I wasn't sure what I thought of that.

As the previous poster said, if the NEC doesn't care - it must not matter.

I am from Indiana, but being military I have lived down south and out west. Most of the installations I have seen had the ground down with the exception of the switched outlets for table lamps. They were installed with the ground up most of the time. I do not believe code cares, but that is the convention I have seen most of the time.

Someone came close in a previous post, but I will re-state the reason for choosing ground-up.

For keeping a heavier cord in place securely, the ground tends to be the tighter connection. With the tighter connection at the top, the other prongs are held in by gravity and leverage.

This is however still a choice situation, not dictated by any codes I am familiar with.

CJM

There has been some discussion of this at the national level in Canada. The proposal was to mandate that a receptacle be installed with the ground pin in the up position. The reason presented was that a thin piece of conducting material that fell down parallel to the plane of the wall surface, could fall across the "hot" pin and the "neutral" pin. If the ground pin was in the up position, such material would hit the ground and not the energized pin and fall to either side. This proposal did not get to far.

Good point.

UK has ground up for the same reason, but in the meantime, the Phase and Neutral pins have to be insulated up to the point where contact is broken with phase and neutral.

Before, it was possible for Children to sometimes push an old UK penny between the plug and the wall socket and get a bad shock....

Agreed - in my state (NJ) most all new installations I have seen are ground up. I asked an licensed electrician at work and he said it offers protection if something such as a paper clip falls down and lands on the pins of a partially pushed in plug.

I like ground pin up for this reason. I have a very nice steel rule with two nasty little chunks missing out of it (fortunately on the inch side, not the metric side) from when it slid off the back of a work table, and down the wall to lodge across the hot and neutral prongs.

In addition as was mentioned above, the ground prong is stronger and fits tighter into the receptacle. But I would say that I have thrown out several cords because the ground prong had been ripped out. I've never seen a hot or neutral prong ripped out.

My guess is that living here in the land of 110V, safety is not the issue it would be if we used 220. Otherwise the twist lock type connection would be more poplular.

I will ALWAYS put the ground down in basements. I'd much rather that rising water levels during a floor touch the ground first. I say this as I did walk downstairs int he dark as a kid and put my food into about 8" of water (broken water pipe while we were gone).

The group up is how the plugs are in switzerland. I only know this since my father-in-law, who while being an electrical engineer has never read any rules...just uses common sense, seems to put them up out of habit.

I'm just a 'downer' I guess.

Water will always hit the ground first anyway. The metal "ears" that hold the plug in place are bonded to the ground at the points where the plug is held into the box. These ears will always be at the lowest point regardless of where the ground screw is located.

That makes perfect sense.

But then, the plug on your cord should have the ground plug also up, or rather at the end position, so that the cord hangs down from the receptable.

Having the cord first run up the wall and then turn around to hang down is awkward, I guess we all would agree.

Thank you, for your response, my wife will not be happy with this dilemma. Although, ever see the show Monk? Here's the solution: Everyone North of the equator receptacle grounds down. Everyone South of the equator receptacle ground up. That will keep me happy in my stubborn way, as I have no intention of retiring south of equator.

Many years ago, I thought I had found the perfect solution to this delimma by specifying that all outlets should be mounted horizontally- until some spoil sport asked, "Ground left or Ground right?". I decided to get out of the electrical installation business at that time...

I've heard the same as North of 60 (answer #7). I personally find the concept rich, powerful, and full of growth potential, much like other barnyard products. The reasoning explained in the other responses, dealing with connection strength and failure potential I find much more persuasive.

OTOH, inasmuch as codes are being written more and more by nannies rather than experts I forsee more of the same.

For my part, I think the kilroy-kinda-face-thing is reason enough to keep with the tried-and-true.

Many years ago we had ungrounded receptacles. The hot wire was on the left as you faced it and the neutral was on the right. If you look at a standard 15A 120V receptacle you will see that if you install with the ground down, it will be the exact opposite of what I just described, meaning the original correct position of the ground should be in the up position.

Check it out.

The reason everyone began installing them ground post down was because the new grounded receptacles looked like a face and "they didn't look right" upside down. So it was the right look that won out. Believe it or not there is a debate among Texas inspectors if they all receptacles should be installed ground post up.

The hot wire was on the left as you faced it and the neutral was on the right.

I've never lived in a house in which that was the case. Guides for how to wire an outlet typically say that neutral is on the left, and that the long slot is neutral. To put the long slot in a three-hole outlet on the left, the ground hole is on the bottom. My current house, which is in Georgia, has both two-prong and three-prong outlets, and all the two pronged outlets are wired with the longer (neutral) slot on the left. The three pronged outlets in this house are wired inconsistently, but most appear "upside down" with the ground hole on top.

If you look at hospital grade receptacles, they are ground up and when installed this way, any nomenclature on the receptacles reads right (not upside-down). Is it code? I don't know. We always install residential receptacles ground down. Well, that's my 2 cents.

Add this to the mix!

In the school system in Miami the outlets were placed ground down. This tends to create a safety issue when the custodians, maintenance worker, or anyone else who from 5 to 100 ft away try to pull the plug with a whipping action of the cord.

With the ground down it sometimes breaks the outlet or the ground prong on the cord creating safety conditions. They do not see this from a distance and it does not get reported for repairs for some time.

In the up position most of the time the plug does not pull out forcing the person to walk to the outlet and pull it normally.

Paul D.

This is the reason that electrical companies I have worked for all install outlets with the ground down unless the customer specifies preference for some other orientation.

I am adding my two cents.

I bought a new house 10 years ago and all of the receptacles were ground plug down.

Except where the receptacle control is at the wall switch. This way the home owner can tell where to plug in the light and control from the switch.

I am not how it is where you are, but where I live there are always two receptacles combined in one wall outlet.

Lately, most cords have the so called 'flat plug' where the cord extends horizontally out from (mostly) of the direction of the ground plug. If you now want to use both outlets at the same time, you are out of luck, only one will fit.

BTW, if the ground is down the cord will extend down, if the ground is up the cord will extend up and of course has to make a 180 degree turn to go down which is the case anyway, at least usually.

Lately I see the power cords having a 45 degree direction of the cord departing out. That is meant to allow you to use both outlets. What a relief. I really wonder if the makers of plugs and cables ever try out their own stuff they sell.

An option would be to make the lower outlet ground down and the upper ground up, so both can be used simultaneously.

...or side by side as in the UK.....!

Hi Andy,

You know, I know, and all from the UK know that the good old 13A UK plug is best but I think any attempt to convince the rest of the world that this device, which they would rate at about 30A, is suitable for domestic use is doomed to failure.

The plug with a fuse is a brill idea which seems almost unique to the UK.

Chas

Right on all counts......its about as safe as you can get, not completely foolproof, but what is.....

Much of the rest of the world actually uses it - any commonwealth countries new or old, even India and Malaya for example......not to mention S.Africa and the ANZAC countries....

As it was explained to me by my electrical contractor father, if the receptical is installed ground up, it is safer this way when someone grabbed the plug to unplug it. It seems the thumb usually extends farther than the other fingers when grasping a cord and plug and if ones thumb comes in contact with the prongs on the plug they will contact the groung and not the hot leg if it is ground up.

He also told me most people prefer the asthetics of ground down because it looks like a face looking back at you..............maybe that's why I always feel as if someone is watching me.

To me it also makes good sense to have ground up as others stated before in case some metalic object falls between plug and receptical it will hit the ground pin, not the hot leg.

Just my 2 cents, as I put my tin foil hat back on and crawl back into my hole.

Ground Down....

The positioning of fingers when you push a plug into an outlet results in the finger on the bottom being in closer contact with the prongs on the bottom compared to the finger location on top.

There is a higher probably of coming in contact with an energized prong when the ground is in the up position for the above reason.

I have not seen it stated in our Canadian Electrical Code whether it should be up or down...but all plugs in Canada are ground prong down.

Tom

Here's an idea. I'm on this forum in the first place because I'm irritated that every plug in my house is ground up. I bought a fairly expensive plug-in air freshener with a fan and it is made so you have to plug it into a receptacle with the ground down-- otherwise it is plugged in upside down and the oil runs out. LOL! Maybe you all should install the plug according to how appliances (big and small) are made. I'm taking my air freshener back to Home Depot.

signed Just a housewife who didn't care about ground plugs until today

I can really relate to your frustration. In my house all of the receptacles are ground down. All of my large appliances (fridge, freezer, washing machine, etc) are set up for ground up outlets. ie when they are plugged in the cord goes up the wall instead of down. I have resorted to cutting the plugs off and installing rewireable angle plugs that allow you to clock the plug plug in 90 deree increments. So, I can have the cord come out of the plug up, down, left or right. Whichever I prefer. These plugs are available at Home Depot, Lowe's and probably any of the large box stores. They are not too expensive and faily easy to install with a screwdriver and some wire strippers. Of course in your case, your air freshener has no cord. So, I'm sorry to say that that is not really an option for you.

Surely someone who understands electricity a bit could turn the faceplate of the socket around?

You could also get that done for everywhere where the fan will get plugged in.

I have never opened up a US socket, but European and UK sockets are easy, just turn off the power, remove 2 screws, turn plate around carefully, watching the wires and re-screw in place....done.

An even better move would be to add some sockets, ground down, next to the ones you have and wired in parallel.....

Hi Andy,

In the US you'd need to turn the socket (actually the pair of sockets) over. Easy enough, but best left to an electrician, or someone who knows how... and who knows to check that the polarity is correct while the cover is off.

Polarity is definitely the wrong word with regard to AC.

Did you mean the physical placing of the phase and the null with respect to the erath pin?

Surely the physical relationship to the earth pin stays the same? The wiring stays the same, no need to undo anything surely, other than the mounting screws of course.

Please tell us the whole "story" in a way that cannot be misconstrued please. Diagrams are welcome....

Excellent idea on returning this oil base device item! This has nothing to do with ground or down. Please call your local fire department and ask them their advice on whether it's safe to use this type of apparatus safely in your home.

Just my two cents:
- Where a manufacturer has had to take a decision on a design that required a specific ortientation, most have selected down.
- Plug-in modules like X-10 and Insteon assume a ground down orientation.
- Plug-in adapters (power packs), either 3-prong or Large spade neutral, assume down.
- Power bars with angular power plugs work best with ground down, otherwise you have to plug on top with wire looping upwards.
- A three prong power plug was designed to have a flat spot on top where the thumb can rest nicely and the index finger curl underneat, this allow the safest position to plug/unplug.
- The ground on the bottom makes the live blades the most visible, hence the safest to plug-in/plug-out.
- When unplugging a wire from a receptacle, it is common for people to apply a slight upward motion/angle. With the ground up this augments the chances of breaking the plastic, above the ground pin, on he top outlet.
I have seen this many times in ground up installs, I have never seen this in a ground down installation.
- I have heard stories of paperclips falling off the edge of a desk and lodging themselves between the hot and netral in a partially pulled plug...
My own non-scientific attempt using hundreds of papeclip has had every paper-clip bounce off the cover plate and miss the mark.
By the way there is no guaranty that with the ground up it can't loge itself betwwen any of the prongs.
- I have never witnessed, known or heard from somone who witnessed an occurance of a metal object (paper clip or other) falling and cause a short, let alone cause a situation that was a safety issue that warrants supperceeding all the points stated above.

Just my humble opinion and observations, ymv.