Electricity makes our lives easy and enjoyable by keeping us warm, lighting up our homes, powering different devices that helps us to perform important tasks fast and effectively. But this doesn’t mean that electricity doesn’t have its fair share of risks.
If not handled properly, electricity can kill or cause serious damages to your home. There are many safety precautions you have to take when using electricity in your home. For instance, you have to replace your wall power outlets regularly. But when should you replace your power outlets? Continue reading to know when.
When to Replace Your Power Outlets
As boring as your wall power outlets may seem, they need to be inspected regularly and replaced immediately if damaged. Failure to inspect your wall power outlets regularly to see if they need to be replacing exposes you to the risk of a serious disaster. Here are some of the signs that you should look out to know your power outlets need to be replaced.
Broken Power Outlets
If your power outlet plates are broken, they will trap dust, water, and other dangerous elements, thus becoming a fire hazard. It is also dangerous to have gaps in your power outlet plates. Any gap above 4.5mm should be a cause for worry because it increases the risk of a short-circuit. Therefore, you need to replace cracked, broken, or undersized power outlets immediately. If the gaps can be filled safely to minimize the risk of a short-circuit, then you should fill them immediately.
Poor Installation
Although contractors are trained to install your power outlets properly to avoid future accidents, some unscrupulous contractors seem to be in a hurry to finish the job and get paid. Such a contractor will do shoddy work that will cost you dearly in the future. If you suspect that your contractor didn’t install your power outlets properly, just replace or reinstall them instead of waiting for a serious disaster to happen.
Overheated Power Outlets
If your power outlets were not installed properly, they will constantly overheat on their own or when you plug in a device. Overheating of power outlets can also be a result of worn-out outlets or bad wiring. Also, if the power outlet is not meant to handle the amount of power flowing through your electrical system, it will be overheated. So, you should have it checked by a professional electrician. If it appears overloaded, replace it immediately with an outlet that can handle a larger power load.
