Electrical

How to Test Receptacles Like a Pro

Name: How to Test Receptacles Like a Pro
Uploaded: 2025-06-16T16:59:24Z
Duration: 2 min 38 s
Description: Whether it’s for troubleshooting or make-ready, this video walks through how to properly test standard and GFCI outlets using testers, temperature checks, and physical inspection. Learn what hot spots, loose plugs, and worn contacts can tell you—and what to do about it.

Whether it’s for troubleshooting or make-ready, this video walks through how to properly test standard and GFCI outlets using testers, temperature checks, and physical inspection. Learn what hot spots, loose plugs, and worn contacts can tell you—and what to do about it.

Diagnostic

Hard Skills

Maintenance

Mark Cukro

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Transcript

Now this could be part of your troubleshooting process or it could be part of the make ready. How do you test a receptacle? Okay, so there's a couple things to consider. Let's move this toaster oven outta the way. This is A-G-F-C-I outlet, which means ground circuit, ground fault circuit interrupter. This is to save human beings.

An arc fault is to save the equipment. So we have two testers here and I'll show you something else that I like to do. So of course we wanna make sure that they're wired correctly. So two green lights and basically. You have a breakdown of what the lights mean and what the locations are, so this receptacle is wired correctly.

This one also has lights, but it has a button to test. So the two oranges mean that it's wired correctly. And now I just tripped the GFCI to test the outlet itself. Now if you notice, I had to struggle a little bit to pull us out of the outlet. It's one of the most overlooked things in in homes, is to make sure that the receptacle can actually hold a plug.

And it should take effort. If it comes out very easily, that means that the tines inside that pinch, the plug receptacle, these are, is not working correctly. So it's often overlooked. The other thing is, and I like to do this with troubleshooting, is if you look at this GFCI outlet, it has a circuit board in there, which means it consumes energy.

So the temperature of this is 76 degrees. Okay? That's because it's consuming electricity. With the circuit board inside. So let's take a quick look over here. If I take the temperature of this outlet, it's 71 degrees. That's five degrees difference. So what you can do with the laser thermometer is take the temperature of the receptacles and receptacles.

All should be approximately the same temperature gcis should be the same temperature at each as each other, but not a standard receptacle like we just test tested. So if you're going through a make ready and you're checking receptacles and one receptacle, that's not A GFI is 3 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 degrees warmer.

Take it out of the wall, troubleshoot it, see what's wrong, it's probably cracked. Or if that has a bad connection or it's time to be replaced. Because when energy is being consumed by an outlet when it's not supposed to be, that's an indicator that something needs to be repaired or replaced. So just some tips.

Get an outlet tester, but also a check with the temperature and know that a regular receptacle, we should have a lower temperature than A-G-F-C-I.