A Question About 3-pin to 2-pin Electrical Adapters

My new apartment only has 2-pin electrical sockets. So I bought a couple of adapters for my 3-pin appliances. Both of the adapters are too tight to allow me to insert the 3-pin plugs. Never had this problem before. Am I supposed to force the 3-pin plug into the adapter? I really don't want to do that.

I just buy new enchufes and replace the old ones in the wall. You still won't have any ground but



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Thanks Sparks. I really had not thought of that. I'll do that if I can't figure out how to use the adapters.

where did you get your adaptors? i bought a bunch of orange ones in a hardware in jocotepec and they worked fine until we did proper wiring here. i still have some. how many do you need?

I bought one at the electrical shop on Madero and the other at the lighting store on Madero. Two different brands...same problem. I'll take two of yours and pay you for them. I'll remind you to bring them along on Sunday. Thanks Pedro.

aren't you gonna play pool manana?
carlos doesn't care if we smoke

Naw...I actually found something more fun to do on Wednesdays. Please say hi to Carlos for me ("Saludos de Alex").

Some adapters have a large (common) terminal. Do not force it into the socket as you will probably damage the receptacle if you do get it to go. If you want to use the adapters you have, you will need to file down the large side. Or as others mentioned, change the receptacle. Or if you can find them (from a friend...) , get the old style of adapter that does not care about what side is common.

Thanks for the advice Tictoc...but that ain't the problem.

won't hafta file the ones i have-old type and soft body

I brought down a Cube Tab. You can plug in four NOB plugs. The plug that goes into the wall - I just tore off the ground prong with a pair of pliers. Works great.

Or if you need that ground for protection and to shunt a surge to from your surge protector, do like I did back in 1997. I bought an adaptor that could receive all 3 prongs, but only had two prongs of it's own and a third connector where you could connect a copper wire that went out the window and that I attached to a 2 meter long grounding rod that a buried in a part of the yard that was watered.

One doesn't often get surges. But I did in my neighborhood in about 1999 or 2000 and those items that were protected by a grounded surge protector survived.

Stuff plugging in is polarized plug and adapters are not polarized????? Polarized plugs have one leg taller than the other to insure neutral and hot are not reversed. If adapter does not have taller hole it won't plug in.

Z

Nope. The 3-pin side of the adapter accepts a polarized plug (one hole is taller than the other). It just won't go in the holes any deeper than about a quarter of an inch.

Problem solved! They are brand new and really tight. You have to press them really hard the first time you use them. I think I'll just leave them attached. Thanks for all the advice.

Wow, I didn't realize that when one gets as old as you guys are that one would start to have such problems getting your "plug" into a "receptacle". Guess now I know what to expect when I get to be as old as you guys.

Hey...go plug your receptacle.

Or go sit on the grounding rod

It may be hard to get it in, but once it's there it works    

Keep in mind that that third prong is there for a reason: safety. If ever there is a short in the appliance, you then become the path to ground. Not good.
The best thing to do is usually to change the outlet for a 3-prong one. Since the wiring here is usually contained within conduits, it's usually possible to fish another wire for ground into an existing conduit. You may have to go though a few intermediate junction boxes before you reach the main box or a suitable ground point. Just remember that color codes for wiring are seldom observed here. You may thus find a green wire carrying live AC!

Pete

when you are a renter and you have 2 pronged receptacles and you have a 3 pronged chord you have no choice.
ever run with scissors?

With 2 wire house wiring the black is usually the hot wire and the white wire is usually neutral, the white wire can be grounded at the breaker/fuse box. Eh?

That's the way 2 wire was in old houses in Vancouver, and the old telephones had to be grounded to the water pipe for the ringer to work.

If you run a desktop computer with a big power supply it expects the ground lug to be there to reference. It could do strange things like overheat. Most of the time no consequences with three to two converter. Sometimes..... Do not use with surge protectors as it makes them useless. Sometimes ground is needed and sometimes no.

Z