Comments on: Ungrounded Three Prong Outlets – How To Fix

By: Reuben Saltzman

Reuben Saltzman — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:48:38 +0000

Mike – ‘adequate protection’ could be interpreted different ways. The GFI circuit breaker should be enough to protect you from a lethal shock… but this wouldn’t provide any type of protection for the equipment.

By: Mike Collins

Mike Collins — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:51:01 +0000

Hi Reuben, I have a house with a jacuzzi tub. the tub is plugged into an ungrounded outlet, however it comes out of a GFI breaker. Is this adequate protection? Thank You

By: Reuben Saltzman

Reuben Saltzman — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:10:40 +0000

Jack – yes, changing them back to two-prong outlets is ok. It’s not the preferred method… but it’s legal.

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:55:15 +0000

Thanks for the info. I have several of these in my old house. I presume it’s acceptable to simply change them to two prong outlets, correct? Grounding them is not practical and GFIs all over the house is expensive overkill for lamp circuits. I presume codes don’t require you to provide grounded outlets in all old work.

By: Reuben Saltzman

Reuben Saltzman — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 19:33:40 +0000

Brad – ungrounded three-prong outlets are certainly a sign of amateur workmanship, but not necessarily a sign of bigger or other electrical problems.

Sorry, but without having inspected the house you’re talking about, I can’t tell you how easy it would be to fix this.

By: Brad

Brad — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 13:27:26 +0000

Several of the 3-prong outlets in a home we are looking to buy are not grounded. Also, there is unprotected romex wiring in a bedroom closet on the first floor. The house is otherwise immaculate. Is this a sign of a bigger electrical problem? or an easy fix?

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 03:05:35 +0000

thanks for getting back to me the house was built in 1942 the wire looks pretty old i wonder if it is best to leave it as is. anyhow thanks for getting back to me have a great day.

By: Reuben Saltzman

Reuben Saltzman — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 12:03:20 +0000

Hi Tony, I’d have to say I really don’t know. I’m sure it would be better to have it grounded back to the main panel, but for a long time it was standard practice to ground subpanels only using a driven ground rod.

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 03:05:17 +0000

Hi there i just read your post on this and i had question i recently bought a old house. and i did not notes this when i bought it. but someone had grounded one outlet to a grounding rod. should i unhook this or is it safe as is. the ground seams to function as none of my surge protectors say its ungrounded. so though i would ask here thanks have a great day.

By: Reuben Saltzman

Reuben Saltzman — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:37:07 +0000

Hi Peter,

That’s beyond the scope of my knowledge. That sounds like a great idea… from what I know about UPS devices, all the power actually comes directly from the battery, and the battery just gets continually charged. I ‘m not sure if that would protect you from surges. I can tell you that adding the surge protector would certainly be useless – this would just be an expensive power strip.