I spent a good hour surfing the web to help understand what I was doing replacing extension cord plugs. Nobody was as clear or educational as you. Thank You!
You are a very smart teacher due to the perfect explanation of the different color cords and their testing this is helpful. I was fail to my project at the first time due to the many color cords and now my project is done thanks to this video.
Thanks Ford... This is gonna help me a lot... I'm not an electrician... But I need 2 save some money doing & fixing some simple task at home so this is very helpful !!!
You are an excellent teacher I live over see where electricity is 220 and I have a tool that is 110 and without your clear video I will never track it down thank you again
Great video, easy to understand everything he says. And he knows his stuff I have done electrical work very often and can tell when someone knows or is a rooky.
Excellent vid! This really helps those of us who have a difficult time explaining things. This really helped me explain ac to the better half, and we all know, happy wife, happy life! You are calm, clear, and don't waste my time!
The best explanation for non electricians I have seen yet. I actually understood the whole thing. Really looking for explanations of how to connect a three wire AC cord to an electric motor that didn't come with a power cord, but I'll keep looking.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, this video was very helpful and well explained with details. Please continue to share your knowledge with such details it goes a long way.
Also note that if you have a 120V cord in the US, and if it seems to have indistinguishable Line and Neutral conductors, see the rough side of the cord opposing the side with printing on it, that should always be your Neutral.
Great video! Some of the attendants at the big box hardware stores need to watch this. I had one assistant tell me that "white" is "hot". Fortunately I didn't listen to him.
White is not hot until it is a completed circuit. White from the fuse box is not supposed to be live (hot). In older houses in U.S. they use to run hot to light fixtures which would alow white to be energized but that is no more. Always turn power off when installing wiring in house.
excellent video thank you for explaining the different wire types and plugs I had no clue, But always wondered why there were so many different colors. Thank you sir
Hi. Thanks for the video. The 'Green' earth conductor in the cable with the Brown live (hot) and Blue neutral conductors usually has a little more yellow in one of its stripes! Striped yellow/green Earth was introduced in the UK in approximately 1970 to overcome problems caused by colour-blindness of the common 'red-green pairing (the other pairing is blue-yellow, which is a little rarer). I guess it was thought that at least if there was a stripe of each colour, the extremely important earth conductor could be identified. Nowadays in the UK, since the late 1980's, it is illegal to sell most appliances without a fitted plug. Taping live conductors to a workbench!!! Well I guess that tracking of 125V isn't likely on a dry bench, but I still salute you.
Thanks for taking the time and making this video.. 😱 I’ve been doing this wrong my entire life and I’m glad and lucky I’ve never blew any of my appliances or caused a fire . Now I just need to find those tools you use so that I can be safe doing things the right way. I wonder if you have anybody that would donate any tools for me because I’m in Mexico 🤷🏽♂️
I have attempted two connectivity test with 2 different digital multi-meters on a 3 prong plug wire which I am trying t replace. There are 2 black wires and 1 green. Following your video where there are 2 black wires and I believe a white covered wire I attempted to determine which of the 2 black wires was the hot and which one was the neutral. Both multi-meters made no beeping noise when I touched 1 lead to a plug prong and 1 to any of the 3 cord wires. When I touch the 2 multi-meter leads together they do beep. My multi-meter is set to "connectivity" but somehow does not work according to you video in identifying hot & neutral wires which are not color coded. In other words. No beeping when leads are touching any of the wires and plug prongs. What could I possibly be doing wrong ? Oh. The 2nd multi-meter support folks never heard of such a test with a multi-meter and could not duplicate your testing after watching your video.
Tom Swift . If you get a beeping sound when touching the two leads from the multi-meter together, but no beeping when touching one of the plug-in ends ( on the plug that goes into the wall) and any other end of any wire ( the copper wire ends) ... this means that the wire is broken somewhere. A Continuity Test will make sure that there is an unbroken connection between the two test leads. If you take a single piece of wire and connect one of the test leads to one end of the wire and the other test lead to the other end of the wire, the tester will make a beeping sound UNLESS there is a break somewhere in the wire. If this is the case then you will not get any beep. I suspect that somewhere in the wire that you are testing that there is a break in the wire. I have tested a few cords or wires that appeared to be good, but inside of the plastic covering the copper wire itself had pulled apart without tearing the plastic outside. This gave the cord or wire the appearance of being good, but it was actually faulty or not good. We may not be able to see the break or fault, but the continuity test does not lie. If you test it on some other wires and it works well on those but not on the wire you were having trouble with, then it is a broken connection in the wire. There will be no other cause. I hope this helps...
@@christondavis9641 I appreciate you detailed explanation however - what I ended up doing was replacing the plug. All I did was expose more of the wires (stripped off coating) so they fit the new plug and clamped on the new plug. Certain there was no break in the wires. All working fine. Again. Appreciate you reply.
If I'm doing electrical work in a different country, say Brazil, and just say the observance of wiring codes are sloppy and both wires at the outlet are white, is there a way to test for polarity? Use a sniffer?
Looks like the US is changing to the international colour codes, or is this on imported Chinese cords using the new colour codes. Long before the colours were changed Germany and Italy used a grey and black wire but the earth or ground was red, red was used in UK as live or hot so a great danger exsisted and people not knowing this were electrocuted thinking they had earthed the equipment but just connecting it to live. Some of these electricals can still be found in flea markets so take care.
i have an outdoor light... with 2 wires exposed, 1 is brown and the other one blue..no ground.. How is tgis connected to a regular extension cord with 3 prons???
great video! just have to ask about the neutral wire. what exactly is the purpose of the neutral wire? Does it complete the circuit and or carry power back to other side? please explain!
No stupid questions in this business! Anything made of metal connected to AC will be bonded to earth ground. In the event the hot wire should come in contact with the metal chassis/casing a fuse will blow preventing the user being exposed to a shock hazard.
Alencar Bravo from my little understanding(today was my first day in new residential wiring) electricity needs to return to its power source. so electricity leaves the power source and goes through the hot wire then ur equipment(lamp, phone charger ect.) but then needs to leave your equipment and goes through the neutral, or white wire to return to the power source. the ground is for safety, in case something happens the electricity is sent to the foundation of the building into the dirt so it won't end up electrifying anything in the area. My weak understanding, I'm just an apprentice day one 8 hrs in
One quest, what happens if in a power unit supply I plug the hot line tho the ground and the ground to the hot line, did I burn the PSU? Because I did and now I don’t know if the psu is still working or not.
Thank you for this video, it's the only one I've seen that deals with blue/brown rather than just white/black. Question: I'm adapting a cord for a PC power supply to power a dishwasher. I have brown, blue, green, all copper...and an uninsulated "silver" (I assume stainless steel?) strand that has continuity with the green. What does this do, and should I connect it with the green to the dishwasher ground? Thx
I replaced a burned plug from 20 year old fridge. it had one green wire and the other two had no color just copper wire. I connected the green wire to gold , and the other colorless ones to the green screw and silver. the fridge turned on and works. how would I know if I wired it wrong?
very excellent production quality. question: for the non-polarized plug, you say you don't want to use it for electronic equipment. This plug has only one purpose -- supplying electricity to electronic equipment. What else is there?
The main purpose of the polarized plug is to make sure that the hot side is switched and fused. Using non-polarized plugs in electronic equipment could expose anybody working on the equipment to a shock hazard.
Most electronics use figure 8 connector so polarizing the plug makes no sense. The main use of polarizing is lamps etc. where there is a switch in the cord.
With AC, does the Neutral become the charged power source 60 times a second? In your video you mention black is hot, never mentioning any swap of hot between the two sockets on the outlet. Not understanding the behavior of AC at the outlet. Another video explained the black and white alternate being the power source.
In any AC distribution system the hot carries the voltage and neutral provides the return path. In an open circuit, there will be voltage between earth and ground but no voltage between earth and neutral.
First of all ur presentation was perfect. Very very informative in every way. Except one, (sorry) I have an electrical adapter only 1.5 v - problem is both wires are black on out side, no defining color on inside. Both prongs are small smooth ones. Nether cord has defining ridges for neg or pos. The only thing I have is: One wire has Chinese writing on it, other wire has white long dotted lines. Which one is which???!!! No polarity checker😕- tough one.?! I say dotted line is neg now (But always thot it was hot wire). I've learned writing on wire is sup to be hot wire & lines mean neg. ....(what if Chinese writing is backwards in America? & writing means neg?)......so, what do u think?
Hi thanks , nice video. Btw i have a question.. i'm not an electrical guy, so what is the simple and safe method for me to check whether the grounding (earth) wire is installed and work properly ? any advice ?
You can purchase an electrical plug tester at the hardware store, Home Depot. When plugged into the outlet, there a indicator lights that will give you the status of the outlet. Here is a link for a picture of one: ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/chap4_9780789749802/elementLinks/04fig16.jpg
That will not be a problem. The black wire will go to a bronze coloured screw, the white wire will go to the silver coloured screw and the green wire to the screw that is coloured green.
I spent a good hour surfing the web to help understand what I was doing replacing extension cord plugs. Nobody was as clear or educational as you. Thank You!
Very clear explanation not even a second wasted
What a great video. You are an excellent instructor. Covered all bases and clearly communicated. Thank you so much!
Explanation is 'Crystal Clear'
Excellent 👍👍👍👍
Best explanation on TH-cam! Thank you!!!
You are a very smart teacher due to the perfect explanation of the different color cords and their testing this is helpful. I was fail to my project at the first time due to the many color cords and now my project is done thanks to this video.
Thanks Ford... This is gonna help me a lot... I'm not an electrician... But I need 2 save some money doing & fixing some simple task at home so this is very helpful !!!
Great video for starter with a little common sense. makes very clear and safely explained. Thanks!
You are an excellent teacher I live over see where electricity is 220 and I have a tool that is 110 and without your clear video I will never track it down thank you again
God bless this man 👨!
Great video, easy to understand everything he says. And he knows his stuff I have done electrical work very often and can tell when someone knows or is a rooky.
Excellent vid! This really helps those of us who have a difficult time explaining things. This really helped me explain ac to the better half, and we all know, happy wife, happy life! You are calm, clear, and don't waste my time!
Well done Sir, thank you for this great basic explanation. Very helpful.
Thanks! I'm getting ready to wire up a power supply. All my experience is with dc. This really helped understand ac wiring very clearly!
Thank you so very much for such "professional and educational video".
The best explanation for non electricians I have seen yet. I actually understood the whole thing. Really looking for explanations of how to connect a three wire AC cord to an electric motor that didn't come with a power cord, but I'll keep looking.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, this video was very helpful and well explained with details. Please continue to share your knowledge with such details it goes a long way.
Nice review. Never hurts to review.
I'm very uninformed about electrical matters. Thank you very much for this video, I learned a lot. Great video.
Thank you for the clear explanation and demo. I have learned from you!
excellent video, congratulations, he sounds like a teacher or a very experienced person, thank you very much.
Thank you for showing this video! Smart man!!!
Also note that if you have a 120V cord in the US, and if it seems to have indistinguishable Line and Neutral conductors, see the rough side of the cord opposing the side with printing on it, that should always be your Neutral.
Thank you. I always like to know whats behind the curtain. Can you believe I wire a breaker box today ? Lol
Thank you so much you help me a lot today changing the wire for my fridge👍👍👍
Needing to learn more about power chords for amperage etc... When it comes to welding machines. This was a nice place to begin :)
Thank you so much for sharing. It was quite educational.
Great video! Some of the attendants at the big box hardware stores need to watch this. I had one assistant tell me that "white" is "hot". Fortunately I didn't listen to him.
White is not hot until it is a completed circuit. White from the fuse box is not supposed to be live (hot). In older houses in U.S. they use to run hot to light fixtures which would alow white to be energized but that is no more. Always turn power off when installing wiring in house.
Very detailed explanation ! great work ! Thank you very much !😀👍🙏
Best of the World VIDEO!
Thanks for detailed advice!
Great videos 👍🌟👑🔌💰 enjoy watching
Awesome information and clear explanation thank you
Thank you so much. I always wondered why most two prong AC power cords were polarized. Now I know. Excellent.
7:46 I'd wish to see these more common in house wiring in the US... (Twin Earth Cable)
great video. very clearly explained.
so clearly explained. thank you!
Excellent demonstration. Thanks!
Thank you, an excellent primer and just what I needed
Excellent video Hotrod!! Thank you!
Thanks for this video, really helped me out!
excellent video thank you for explaining the different wire types and plugs I had no clue, But always wondered why there were so many different colors. Thank you sir
David Allen
Yes thank u, for sharing your knowledge! After watching your video, I’m able to rewire and fix a few extension cords. Much appreciated! 👍
Hi. Thanks for the video.
The 'Green' earth conductor in the cable with the Brown live (hot) and Blue neutral conductors usually has a little more yellow in one of its stripes! Striped yellow/green Earth was introduced in the UK in approximately 1970 to overcome problems caused by colour-blindness of the common 'red-green pairing (the other pairing is blue-yellow, which is a little rarer). I guess it was thought that at least if there was a stripe of each colour, the extremely important earth conductor could be identified. Nowadays in the UK, since the late 1980's, it is illegal to sell most appliances without a fitted plug.
Taping live conductors to a workbench!!! Well I guess that tracking of 125V isn't likely on a dry bench, but I still salute you.
Very informative..thanks alot
Thanks. very clear and to the point.
A very big thanks to you specially for your nice voice ans the way of explaining. I hope you be ok. Greetings from Iraq
your all information very useful thanks lot
Great explanatory video.
Thanks for taking the time and making this video.. 😱 I’ve been doing this wrong my entire life and I’m glad and lucky I’ve never blew any of my appliances or caused a fire . Now I just need to find those tools you use so that I can be safe doing things the right way. I wonder if you have anybody that would donate any tools for me because I’m in Mexico 🤷🏽♂️
Fantastic explanation.
I have attempted two connectivity test with 2 different digital multi-meters on a 3 prong plug wire which I am trying t replace. There are 2 black wires and 1 green. Following your video where there are 2 black wires and I believe a white covered wire I attempted to determine which of the 2 black wires was the hot and which one was the neutral. Both multi-meters made no beeping noise when I touched 1 lead to a plug prong and 1 to any of the 3 cord wires. When I touch the 2 multi-meter leads together they do beep. My multi-meter is set to "connectivity" but somehow does not work according to you video in identifying hot & neutral wires which are not color coded. In other words. No beeping when leads are touching any of the wires and plug prongs. What could I possibly be doing wrong ? Oh. The 2nd multi-meter support folks never heard of such a test with a multi-meter and could not duplicate your testing after watching your video.
Tom Swift . If you get a beeping sound when touching the two leads from the multi-meter together, but no beeping when touching one of the plug-in ends ( on the plug that goes into the wall) and any other end of any wire ( the copper wire ends) ...
this means that the wire is broken somewhere.
A Continuity Test will make sure that there is an unbroken connection between the two test leads.
If you take a single piece of wire and connect one of the test leads to one end of the wire and the other test lead to the other end of the wire, the tester will make a beeping sound UNLESS there is a break somewhere in the wire. If this is the case then you will not get any beep.
I suspect that somewhere in the wire that you are testing that there is a break in the wire.
I have tested a few cords or wires that appeared to be good, but inside of the plastic covering the copper wire itself had pulled apart without tearing the plastic outside.
This gave the cord or wire the appearance of being good, but it was actually faulty or not good.
We may not be able to see the break or fault, but the continuity test does not lie. If you test it on some other wires and it works well on those but not on the wire you were having trouble with, then it is a broken connection in the wire. There will be no other cause.
I hope this helps...
@@christondavis9641 I appreciate you detailed explanation however - what I ended up doing was replacing the plug. All I did was expose more of the wires (stripped off coating) so they fit the new plug and clamped on the new plug. Certain there was no break in the wires. All working fine. Again. Appreciate you reply.
If I'm doing electrical work in a different country, say Brazil, and just say the observance of wiring codes are sloppy and both wires at the outlet are white, is there a way to test for polarity? Use a sniffer?
Is it possible to repurpose an ac outlet for dc use? To rewire so one might be able to plug devices directly into a DC power source?
Yes. Wall sockets are connections.
They aren't rated for DC
But you can use special DC sockets.
Very clear, most informative. Thank you very much.
fantastic video! thank you!
Nice explanation! Thanks,
great educational class, thank you, subscribed
I have a c13 power cord but it has only 2 holes in it. Can I just put another hole in it so it will fit on a c14?
Very informative! Thank you!
Excellent presentation!!
Excellent! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you very helpful 👍👍👍
Looks like the US is changing to the international colour codes, or is this on imported Chinese cords using the new colour codes. Long before the colours were changed Germany and Italy used a grey and black wire but the earth or ground was red, red was used in UK as live or hot so a great danger exsisted and people not knowing this were electrocuted thinking they had earthed the equipment but just connecting it to live. Some of these electricals can still be found in flea markets so take care.
Can I fix my 2pin AC cable that has brown and blue wire if I connect a red and white wire onto them for suround sound connection
Clear and concise. Thanks.
i have an outdoor light... with 2 wires exposed, 1 is brown and the other one blue..no ground.. How is tgis connected to a regular extension cord with 3 prons???
great presentation thanks for the info !!
Perfect video...Thank you Sir.
thank you you helped me understand how to sort out the mixed wires!
This video was very helpful!!!
Thank you Sir, much appreciated.
great video! just have to ask about the neutral wire. what exactly is the purpose of the neutral wire? Does it complete the circuit and or carry power back to other side? please explain!
The neutral wire completes the circuit. Without this neutral connection there is no current loop.
Hi, very nice video.
Sorry for the very stupid question... But I don't see the purpose of the third ground if the neutral is also at 0V (earth)
No stupid questions in this business! Anything made of metal connected to AC will be bonded to earth ground. In the event the hot wire should come in contact with the metal chassis/casing a fuse will blow preventing the user being exposed to a shock hazard.
Alencar Bravo from my little understanding(today was my first day in new residential wiring) electricity needs to return to its power source. so electricity leaves the power source and goes through the hot wire then ur equipment(lamp, phone charger ect.) but then needs to leave your equipment and goes through the neutral, or white wire to return to the power source. the ground is for safety, in case something happens the electricity is sent to the foundation of the building into the dirt so it won't end up electrifying anything in the area. My weak understanding, I'm just an apprentice day one 8 hrs in
One quest, what happens if in a power unit supply I plug the hot line tho the ground and the ground to the hot line, did I burn the PSU? Because I did and now I don’t know if the psu is still working or not.
But tell mi how are they attach to the house electricity , are all of your power-cords connected to the outlet?? On the end that we don’t see?
Thank you for the info.
Thank you for this video, it's the only one I've seen that deals with blue/brown rather than just white/black.
Question: I'm adapting a cord for a PC power supply to power a dishwasher. I have brown, blue, green, all copper...and an uninsulated "silver" (I assume stainless steel?) strand that has continuity with the green. What does this do, and should I connect it with the green to the dishwasher ground? Thx
Blue is neutral and brown is hot or line, green/yellow is earth or ground.
excellent video
Thanks, very nice explanation.
Thanks for vid....helped a lot!
I replaced a burned plug from 20 year old fridge. it had one green wire and the other two had no color just copper wire. I connected the green wire to gold , and the other colorless ones to the green screw and silver. the fridge turned on and works. how would I know if I wired it wrong?
You wired it wrong
very excellent production quality.
question: for the non-polarized plug, you say you don't want to use it for electronic equipment. This plug has only one purpose -- supplying electricity to electronic equipment. What else is there?
The main purpose of the polarized plug is to make sure that the hot side is switched and fused. Using non-polarized plugs in electronic equipment could expose anybody working on the equipment to a shock hazard.
Most electronics use figure 8 connector so polarizing the plug makes no sense. The main use of polarizing is lamps etc. where there is a switch in the cord.
This is great. Thank you Sir!
With AC, does the Neutral become the charged power source 60 times a second? In your video you mention black is hot, never mentioning any swap of hot between the two sockets on the outlet. Not understanding the behavior of AC at the outlet. Another video explained the black and white alternate being the power source.
In any AC distribution system the hot carries the voltage and neutral provides the return path. In an open circuit, there will be voltage between earth and ground but no voltage between earth and neutral.
Very well explained. Thanks
First of all ur presentation was perfect. Very very informative in every way. Except one, (sorry) I have an electrical adapter only 1.5 v - problem is both wires are black on out side, no defining color on inside. Both prongs are small smooth ones. Nether cord has defining ridges for neg or pos. The only thing I have is:
One wire has Chinese writing on it, other wire has white long dotted lines. Which one is which???!!! No polarity checker😕- tough one.?!
I say dotted line is neg now
(But always thot it was hot wire). I've learned writing on wire is sup to be hot wire & lines mean neg. ....(what if Chinese writing is backwards in America? & writing means neg?)......so, what do u think?
Good video. Thanks.
Hi thanks , nice video. Btw i have a question.. i'm not an electrical guy, so what is the simple and safe method for me to check whether the grounding (earth) wire is installed and work properly ? any advice ?
You can purchase an electrical plug tester at the hardware store, Home Depot. When plugged into the outlet, there a indicator lights that will give you the status of the outlet. Here is a link for a picture of one: ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/chap4_9780789749802/elementLinks/04fig16.jpg
Nice.. that 's very helpfull tool, i will check it out. Btw hanks a lot for sharing this video.
great explanation
Thank you great video !
This guy sounds like Robert Forster moonlighting as a master electrician.
Ty so much. Great video!
Male 2 adapter with a female 3 adapter wich does the ground wire go to?
Learned a lot thank you.
clear and precise!
Thank you so much friend, good video
I am replacing a plug on an oil filled heater. It melted. What if I don't have a continuity tester?
That will not be a problem. The black wire will go to a bronze coloured screw, the white wire will go to the silver coloured screw and the green wire to the screw that is coloured green.
very well done
thanks very much by sharing this
Nice voice
Regards
Some 2 prong power cords are coded with length-wise ridges on the insulation.
I learned a lot, thnk u