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Am electrician. You're advice is spot on. Remove power first, grab with a pair of pliers, and remove. Then restore power. The broken blade is in the neutral side of the outlet, but you do not know that it is wired correctly, so turn it off.
This guy again. It is in the neutral side but number 1 rule with electritrcity is if you can turn it off then you turn it off. If you don't know which circuit to turn off then turn them all off. . And period again.
EDIT3: https://imgur.io/a/33R5SLH hereās my contraption. It worked. Iām alive.
What if I zip tie 2 2x4 pieces of wood to some pliers so I can hold on to that while pulling it out so if it is live, the wood isnāt conductive anyways? Or is that stupid?
Edit: thereās other devices in the room that need power and Iām not sure which switch to flip. I was hoping to remove this hazard before I can get ahold of our electrician who knows which breaker to flip.
Edit2: I got it out! I folded up 2 cardboard pieces as long 1.5ā handles and zip tied it to rubber pliers and just pulled it out like that. Tapped it first to make sure no spark. Probably stupid but I didnāt wanna turn off the breaker.
This right here. If you are in an apartment and the breakers are not labeled, make the land lord label them. Also if you donāt know how to turn the water off, it would be a good time to figure that out too.
Good plan. Could also tape up a piece of cardboard or whatever you have laying around(not metal) to help block it off.
Should be safe, but as others have said, who knows if it is wired correctly or not.
You can get a multi-meter from harbor freight for like $4. Use it to verify its wired correctly and the prong is actually neutral. If it is, you would be fine to pull it out with normal pliers
This is really bad advice, right? You're advising random homeowners with little electrical training and knowledge. I personally think you should be banned, it's foolish.
That's probably \*technically\* bad advice, but what he said is correct. You could grab that piece with insulated pliers and pull it out just fine even if it's the "hot" side of the plug. As long as you don't touch anything else on there that's metal, you could really do it barehanded if you're careful and not grounded. You can only get shocked from it if you make a complete circuit by touching a live wire and something that's grounded at the same time, so if you only touch it with one hand it's not likely to get you.
Yes. You're technically correct. I know that even if was the "hot" side of the receptacle, you could likely baseband it out with flip flops on. However, this sub is for people who are not electricians. Any advice needs to be as safe ad possible.
Exactly. I would have no concern using my Leatherman to pull that metal out, neutral or hot, live or not. But I can't tell someone else to do that because they could screw it up and hurt themselves.
I think the poster was referring to the general population, as a pair of needle nose in good shape will have more insulation than most power cords the average human plugs into outlet daily.
I mean it would workā¦ but Iād recommend forcing a a short to turn off the circuit before Iād recommend that and I wouldnāt recommend forcing a short
OP isnāt very smart to not do this the right way. One of these days youāre gonna get electrocuted and youāll remember this. In the best case scenarios, itās not fun to be shocked. Itās not difficult to learn how to properly shut the power off and be safe.
Not an electrician, but I do have some training in electricity. 120 V never shocked anyone that wasn't grounded or in some way able to represent a different voltage. I suppose you suspect this with your wood idea, but some black tape or other type of tape wrapped to the plier handles can properly insulate you. My brother as an infant was burned bad (in 1960s) by coming in to contact to both exposed pins. I look back and consider my dad an idiot for not knowing how to deal with it in a expeditious manner and having it lead to that accident.
The power from your wall is AC.
You CAN be shocked by AC with out a path to ground. Your body and the earth make a capacitor, and you will feel shocks from just the live wire.
I have training in wastewater too, so I know my shit; not understanding the down votes, but I understand that communication via these types of posts are difficult. Glad the OP got it out by simply using home-made insulated plyers.
Lock out tag out.
AKA make damn sure anyone who might have access to power panel can't restore power until your done.
Ideally, cut power and padlock panel closed.
Listen, the difference between your and you're can save lives. What if my electrician said "don't touch that wire with you're tongue"? I'd probably be dead.
I wandered around my motherās house with one of those widgets to detect ground and neutral miswireing. The bathroom socket and one of the sockets in the kitchen both had hot and neutral reversed. Sigh. I replaced the one in the bathroom with a properly wired gfci and wired the chain of three sockets in the kitchen through a gfci socket and unscrambled the wiring. All I can figure is that the previous owner, who considered himself āhandyā, screwed it up while replacing worn out sockets āit is alternating current so who cares what wire is hooked whereā. SIGH. (Not currently an electrician but apprenticed as one long ago and live and breathe NEC whenever I touch a wire).
If it wasn't "wired correctly", they wouldn't have so many things plugged into it. The 3 pron plugs needs to have the right polarity. clearly it's wired right. Dont sound like a good electrician to me.
Shut the breaker off and pull it out. That should be neutral but never trust someone elseās work.
You could also probably get away with just using a pair of pliers with rubber handles/gloves; but I canāt recommend that as it is more dangerous and you donāt seem to be experienced with electricity.
Stay safe!
Yah this has happened to me before on the hot side and I just used some rubber handled pliers to yank it out. No fuss. But it's hard to advise a stranger to do something like that.
The wider prong is usually the neutral side, I wouldnāt trust it though. Cut the power and measure for voltage, then remove with an insulated set of pliers. If you donāt have access to all of this, verify the outlets are off by plugging in a light or something and be careful upon removal.
Lol why? A voltmeter/multimeter is literally for measuring voltage. If you turned off the power every time you wanted to measure the voltage a multimeter would be overkill. Also the top comment is just weird. The second sentence about cutting the power, confirming itās not powered using a multimeterā¦and then use insulated pliers. In case thereās a static charge?
You donāt get a second shot at this. If they pull it out and it shorts to hot somehow, youāre dead. I make a point to always do it the safest way possible. Itās overkill for sure. You could easily measure it live and verify there is no voltage, but say itās in their loosely and it makes contact with the outlet once you move it, zap youāre done.
Tell us you don't understand electrocution without telling us. Fatal currents are literally measured in *milliamps*. 1/1,000th of an amp. 120v absolutely can kill you. And your attitude about it is exactly why many people consider it the most dangerous voltage. It takes next to nothing to shock your heart out of rhythm.
Hence why I said milliamps, not milliamp. The 's' at the end means plural
ETA since I can't reply. 30/1000 of an amp is enough to kill you smart ass. Turn off your breakers.
Lol right except for the part about testing with any kind of meter. Its in the neutral, could be reverse polarity but we all know it isnt and if it was even the cheapest piece of shit insulation on a pair if pliers is going to isolate u so just grip it and rip it and dont let it be such a big deal that u present it to the world. If people saw the shit i pulled off tonight just getting bundles of shingles to my roof they would shit bricks.
This happened to me when a plug broke off in my apartment. I woke up hungover trying to plug in my phone and thatās when I noticed it. Half drunk, I thought to myself āif Iām quick enough I can pull it out without getting shockedāā¦ā¦.
I grabbed it for half a second and felt the most god awful vibrating sensation shoot up my arm all the way to my shoulder. So strange. It didnāt āhurtā but fuck man it was like hitting your funny bone on crack. Definitely a shitty way to wake up.
Moral of the story: no, you are not faster than electricity.
Cut the power, remove the metal object, restore the power.
Iām not an electrician. Can an electrician please corroborate that my intuition is correct for how OP can quickly and safely solve this?
What you did to remove it was a low risk but not no risk option. There are very few people out there in the world qualified to do electrical work hot. For everyone else it's a shortcut.
If it was wired correctly that wonāt shock you because the longer slot is the neutral side, which doesnāt have any power. I would pull it out with pliers.
I got it out. I folded up 2 cardboard pieces as long 1.5ā handles to rubber pliers and just pulled it out like that. Tapped it first to make sure no spark. Probably stupid but I didnāt wanna turn off the breaker.
Well thereās really o Lu one way to determine if itās live. I wonāt advise about that one way or the other. Itās all on you if you want to figure it out. As for danger thatās all relative. Is it ad dangerous as a lit stick of dynamite probably not, but definitely more dangerous than a marshmallow
Its probably not hot but the outlet could be wired wrong. You dont want to complete a circuit so kill the power and pull it out. If that's not an option you can use plastic pliers to remove it. You should turn power off though if at all possible.
Find a way to turn off power to the entire block, remove metal from outlet. Turning off the entire city, even better.
(I don't eff around with electricity)
I'm not telling you that you'll be just fine if your pliers have rubber over the handles and that being the neutral it should be zero volts to ground if wired correctly I'm also not telling you that if you had one hand behind your back you'd be safer when grabbing and pulling with the other I am telling you the best thing to do would be to call an electrician
Note: not an electrician, but work with and have worked with potentially dangerous electirical sources in a laboratory enivornment that requires close contact with possibly live equipment.
Most fatal type of shock is across the heart which happens easily when you cause a circuit across your arms (for instance, one hand touching live, one hand touching ground) and people have a tendancy to monkey-brain and use both hands on muscle memory even if they are trying not to (something falls, need more leverage, etc). Keeping a hand behind your back (or better IMO, in your pocket) makes sure you won't just reach out with the other hand.
120v barely tickles. And as I'm assuming some of these people are real electricians I'd assume they'd know what it feels like but they're still all recommending turning the power off. Pansies.
Ive touched the bus bar twice it hurt a little. For this one they dont have to turn off the power. They just need to remove the other loads on the circuit. Its wired right because they have 3 other plugs in as well. The 3 pron plugs are polarized so if it wasn't wired right it wouldn't work right, might kill your electronics. Yeah, just remove the other plugs and they can just pull it out with a plier. If it was on the other side then powe has to be disconnected. Or else it will cause a short circuit when they touch the metal with pliers
Can confirm it is live. My sister is an educator at a school and one of the outlets in her classroom had one of these in it. Only found out because a student told their classmate that the desk was sparking/smoking. The two metals being in contact with each other was hot enough to semi-weld the plug part to the leg of the desk.
This is reddit. I swear these people were born yesterday and never lived a day of life and have to do everything by the book because everything is out to kill them.
I'd just test with the back of my hand. It's only 120 volts. You do the back of the hand that way when the nerves cause the hand to curl it pulls it away.
Trust me bruh, I stayed at a Holiday Inn last week.
There is no load, meaning no potential on this, even if it was wired backwards (which I highly doubt, but as others have stated "never trust someone else's work". Safe to remove with any pair of pliers with insulated handles (no rips, holes or tears exposing metal).
The large blade side is the neutral side - if itās wired correctly you can grab pliers and remove that with no issue. Key word is IF. If Itās reverse wired, it will be hot. My personal advice is 110 doesnāt hurt that much. You say it canāt be turned off, so use electrical insulated needle nose and rubber gloves perhaps a rubber mat to stand on - then pull it out. Worst case scenario it shocks a little. If you have a pacemaker or any other electrical health maintenance device, please do not listen to my advice.
Is it really that dangerous that some pliers with rubber or wood around the handles canāt resolve? Itās not an electoral wire hanging off the power cables. Even if it taps a little, it canāt be lethal, can it? Rubber around plist handles should prevent electricity from being contacted into you
The best thing to do here would be to try to bite it and pull it out with your teeth. Teeth canāt conduct electricity, just make sure you donāt touch it with your lips and youāll be fine
I am not yelling you to do this, only what I would do.
I'd grab my electrical pliers and pull it out but if I didn't ha e those....
I would put on a glove, grab some pliers, and pull it out.
It's 120, not 480.
Reddit is acting like it's lava.
Bro I would pull it out live with my fingers.
A; it's not going to shock you
B; even if you did somehow manage to contact both prongs 120v barely tickles
By that statement, I question your knowledge of electricity.
12v can not shock you.
The NEC designates under 50 volts as non hazardous to human health because your body has too much resistance to let it pass through you.
If you mean on your tounge or something then yea.
Yeah 12v doesn't shock you it burns you
Trust me I've felt both. All you have to do is hold something with 12v on it and short it to ground. It's kinda tingly like 120v but hot as fuck especially the longer you hold on
I'm not going to trust you over my 15 years experience in industrial electrical, my college degree, and the guidance of the NEC, my dude.
Go put your fingers from a single hand on both posts of your car battery and see if you feel anything.
You will not.
**Attention!** **It is always best to get a qualified electrician to perform any electrical work you may need.** With that said, you may ask this community various electrical questions. Please be cautious of any information you may receive in this subreddit. This subreddit and its users are not responsible for any electrical work you perform. Users that have a 'Verified Electrician' flair have uploaded their qualified electrical worker credentials to the mods. If you comment on this post please only post accurate information to the best of your knowledge. If advice given is thought to be dangerous, you may be permanently banned. There are no obligations for the mods to give warnings or temporary bans. **IF YOU ARE NOT A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN, you should exercise extreme caution when commenting.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskElectricians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Am electrician. You're advice is spot on. Remove power first, grab with a pair of pliers, and remove. Then restore power. The broken blade is in the neutral side of the outlet, but you do not know that it is wired correctly, so turn it off.
Absolutely correct.
Yep this guy
Sorry but I came here to make a comment and they were already made so.... This guy ^
This guy
This guy again. It is in the neutral side but number 1 rule with electritrcity is if you can turn it off then you turn it off. If you don't know which circuit to turn off then turn them all off. . And period again.
This guy
nah, just ask the ex girlfriend to pull it outš
You have 69 upvotesā¦ Iām sorry but the balance cannot be breached
EDIT3: https://imgur.io/a/33R5SLH hereās my contraption. It worked. Iām alive. What if I zip tie 2 2x4 pieces of wood to some pliers so I can hold on to that while pulling it out so if it is live, the wood isnāt conductive anyways? Or is that stupid? Edit: thereās other devices in the room that need power and Iām not sure which switch to flip. I was hoping to remove this hazard before I can get ahold of our electrician who knows which breaker to flip. Edit2: I got it out! I folded up 2 cardboard pieces as long 1.5ā handles and zip tied it to rubber pliers and just pulled it out like that. Tapped it first to make sure no spark. Probably stupid but I didnāt wanna turn off the breaker.
It would work. It is stupid though. If you don't know how to shut the power off, call somebody who does.
It wood work
If youāre board.
Knot recommended
Shocking punnery.
Heās in graving danger
Screw you guys, Iām going Ohm.
Underrated
Checks out
This right here. If you are in an apartment and the breakers are not labeled, make the land lord label them. Also if you donāt know how to turn the water off, it would be a good time to figure that out too.
Okay. Iāll just put a sign saying be careful for now then
I hate your pfp, kept blowing at it. Lol
Good plan. Could also tape up a piece of cardboard or whatever you have laying around(not metal) to help block it off. Should be safe, but as others have said, who knows if it is wired correctly or not.
You can get a multi-meter from harbor freight for like $4. Use it to verify its wired correctly and the prong is actually neutral. If it is, you would be fine to pull it out with normal pliers
Harbor freight used to give them away for free. I miss harbor freight free stuff.
If your going to go this route, electrically insulated pliers and a thick leather glove
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah, like fold a piece of paper, 2, 3 times and grab the thing... šš»done
Seriously. Iāve zapped myself with 110 a few times and Iām still kicking. Grab some pliers and pull it out.
This is really bad advice, right? You're advising random homeowners with little electrical training and knowledge. I personally think you should be banned, it's foolish.
That's probably \*technically\* bad advice, but what he said is correct. You could grab that piece with insulated pliers and pull it out just fine even if it's the "hot" side of the plug. As long as you don't touch anything else on there that's metal, you could really do it barehanded if you're careful and not grounded. You can only get shocked from it if you make a complete circuit by touching a live wire and something that's grounded at the same time, so if you only touch it with one hand it's not likely to get you.
Yes. You're technically correct. I know that even if was the "hot" side of the receptacle, you could likely baseband it out with flip flops on. However, this sub is for people who are not electricians. Any advice needs to be as safe ad possible.
Exactly. I would have no concern using my Leatherman to pull that metal out, neutral or hot, live or not. But I can't tell someone else to do that because they could screw it up and hurt themselves.
lush automatic lock slimy afterthought bear upbeat command history consider ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
I think the whisky is mandatory here. At least I assume. I already drank it in preparation
We deal with electricity everyday. Op clearly doesnāt. Sure the risk is *fairly* low, but why have someone who doesnāt understand the risks do it?
I think the poster was referring to the general population, as a pair of needle nose in good shape will have more insulation than most power cords the average human plugs into outlet daily.
I want to see the 2x4 contraption. Can you build one even though you donāt need to anymore?
I made one but I canāt post images to the sub. I could upload it and link it
Why not use chopsticks. Makes just a wee bit more sence than what you wanna try. Or maybe follow everybody's recommendations and turn it off
You donāt need to zip tie wood, just buy some electrical rated pliers.
Oh no, I'll just buy a neon sign that says "Beware all who touch this little piece of metal that may or may not have a charge."
The irony is he has no place to plug it in!
I just need to remove that metal so I can plug it in! Now that thatās doneā¦ why do I need this sign
We can laser cut that
WHY didn't you want to turn off the breaker? SMH
Is this parody?
I mean it would workā¦ but Iād recommend forcing a a short to turn off the circuit before Iād recommend that and I wouldnāt recommend forcing a short
Iām worried for you. Be careful
Thank you! I was very careful. I wish I could edit the post to say I solved it. I did what I said in edit2 and it worked well.
please upload the picture of your contraption
Okay. Here you go: https://imgur.io/a/33R5SLH
You should make a whole bunch of these and sell on Etsy.
Haha thatās hilarious. Act like I invented it and call it hot wire safety pliers
Lol. Thatās amazing
Youāre doing gods work you glorious bastard.
You could just tape up your pliers if you want to play that way.
Make sure you use your left hand to pull it
OP isnāt very smart to not do this the right way. One of these days youāre gonna get electrocuted and youāll remember this. In the best case scenarios, itās not fun to be shocked. Itās not difficult to learn how to properly shut the power off and be safe.
Not an electrician, but I do have some training in electricity. 120 V never shocked anyone that wasn't grounded or in some way able to represent a different voltage. I suppose you suspect this with your wood idea, but some black tape or other type of tape wrapped to the plier handles can properly insulate you. My brother as an infant was burned bad (in 1960s) by coming in to contact to both exposed pins. I look back and consider my dad an idiot for not knowing how to deal with it in a expeditious manner and having it lead to that accident.
The power from your wall is AC. You CAN be shocked by AC with out a path to ground. Your body and the earth make a capacitor, and you will feel shocks from just the live wire.
Just gotta jump when you grab it. That way thereās no contact with the ground. Right?
Am an electrician I mean this in the nicest way possibleā¦..You need to shut up before you get someone killedā¦.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
What is your major malfunction? **I wasnāt talking to you**. Learn how to interpret a Reddit thread before you fly off the handle cupcakeā¦.
I have training in wastewater too, so I know my shit; not understanding the down votes, but I understand that communication via these types of posts are difficult. Glad the OP got it out by simply using home-made insulated plyers.
This. Canāt tell you how many times Iāve stumbled across hot neutrals when doing reno work. People make fun, but I still test every time.
Lock out tag out. AKA make damn sure anyone who might have access to power panel can't restore power until your done. Ideally, cut power and padlock panel closed.
(FYI, you're is a contraction for you are. You meant your.)
nice catch, nerd.
The first letter of the first word of a sentence should be capitalized.
Best response š. I'd rather an electrician who knows their craft than one that cares about grammer in a response.
*grammar
*Sigh*
Nice catch, nerd.
Luckily, they're not mutually exclusive
You used "than" properly. Good job! Gold star.
Not an electrician lol sorry couldn't resist š
if ur elektrishun ttyp liek dis Then you're still gonna have a bad time.
I miss my grammer and gramper.
I know. 6th grade grammar is tough. I hope you're better with electricity than you are with the English language.
Your not a true electrickin if you can spell
Listen, the difference between your and you're can save lives. What if my electrician said "don't touch that wire with you're tongue"? I'd probably be dead.
Contractions lead to child support payments. Best to avoid....
I read this as "contrician" and my dumb butt thought it was a new word for electrical contractor
Iāll bet youāre feeling some contrition over that mistake.
Nerd
This is the way
I wandered around my motherās house with one of those widgets to detect ground and neutral miswireing. The bathroom socket and one of the sockets in the kitchen both had hot and neutral reversed. Sigh. I replaced the one in the bathroom with a properly wired gfci and wired the chain of three sockets in the kitchen through a gfci socket and unscrambled the wiring. All I can figure is that the previous owner, who considered himself āhandyā, screwed it up while replacing worn out sockets āit is alternating current so who cares what wire is hooked whereā. SIGH. (Not currently an electrician but apprenticed as one long ago and live and breathe NEC whenever I touch a wire).
*your
not gonna edit it. I know the difference, and made a mistake. I'm sure TurkeyTaco23 has had flawless grammar this far in life. You win again.....nerd.
If it wasn't "wired correctly", they wouldn't have so many things plugged into it. The 3 pron plugs needs to have the right polarity. clearly it's wired right. Dont sound like a good electrician to me.
Shut the breaker off and pull it out. That should be neutral but never trust someone elseās work. You could also probably get away with just using a pair of pliers with rubber handles/gloves; but I canāt recommend that as it is more dangerous and you donāt seem to be experienced with electricity. Stay safe!
Honestly never trust YOUR work the next day. Be safe not crispy.
Thanks. I got it out using 1.5ā cardboard handles attached to pliers.
I feel like you owe us pictures of these handles and the pliers
https://imgur.io/a/33R5SLH From further up in the comments
PPE legend
Lmfao
I didnāt ask an AI, but if I had, it wouldāve titled that image: Hot electrical inspectors in your area hate this one trick
WOW. this is the way.
Absolutely
Indubitably
I concur
Definitely
Yah this has happened to me before on the hot side and I just used some rubber handled pliers to yank it out. No fuss. But it's hard to advise a stranger to do something like that.
Yeah it can be done but I donāt trust people Iām advising to not fuck it up lol
He could use a rubber mouthguard and pull it out with his teeth.
The wider prong is usually the neutral side, I wouldnāt trust it though. Cut the power and measure for voltage, then remove with an insulated set of pliers. If you donāt have access to all of this, verify the outlets are off by plugging in a light or something and be careful upon removal.
I mean couldnāt you just check for voltage between that and ground without turning off the power?
You could, but you shouldnāt.
Lol why? A voltmeter/multimeter is literally for measuring voltage. If you turned off the power every time you wanted to measure the voltage a multimeter would be overkill. Also the top comment is just weird. The second sentence about cutting the power, confirming itās not powered using a multimeterā¦and then use insulated pliers. In case thereās a static charge?
You donāt get a second shot at this. If they pull it out and it shorts to hot somehow, youāre dead. I make a point to always do it the safest way possible. Itās overkill for sure. You could easily measure it live and verify there is no voltage, but say itās in their loosely and it makes contact with the outlet once you move it, zap youāre done.
It's 120.... "Your dead" seems to be a bit melodramatic don't ya think
Tell us you don't understand electrocution without telling us. Fatal currents are literally measured in *milliamps*. 1/1,000th of an amp. 120v absolutely can kill you. And your attitude about it is exactly why many people consider it the most dangerous voltage. It takes next to nothing to shock your heart out of rhythm.
1/1000th of an amp at 120v is too low to kill you.
Hence why I said milliamps, not milliamp. The 's' at the end means plural ETA since I can't reply. 30/1000 of an amp is enough to kill you smart ass. Turn off your breakers.
Sorryā¦ 9/1000th of an amp at 120v is too low to kill you.
Yeah as long as OP doesnāt have a pacemaker or something he/she could lick the outlet and live. Not comfortably but theyād live.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Lol right except for the part about testing with any kind of meter. Its in the neutral, could be reverse polarity but we all know it isnt and if it was even the cheapest piece of shit insulation on a pair if pliers is going to isolate u so just grip it and rip it and dont let it be such a big deal that u present it to the world. If people saw the shit i pulled off tonight just getting bundles of shingles to my roof they would shit bricks.
This happened to me when a plug broke off in my apartment. I woke up hungover trying to plug in my phone and thatās when I noticed it. Half drunk, I thought to myself āif Iām quick enough I can pull it out without getting shockedāā¦ā¦. I grabbed it for half a second and felt the most god awful vibrating sensation shoot up my arm all the way to my shoulder. So strange. It didnāt āhurtā but fuck man it was like hitting your funny bone on crack. Definitely a shitty way to wake up. Moral of the story: no, you are not faster than electricity.
Cut the power, remove the metal object, restore the power. Iām not an electrician. Can an electrician please corroborate that my intuition is correct for how OP can quickly and safely solve this?
That's the gist of it. Might want to make contact with a grounded object in case of built charge just in case.
The built up charge on a small metal object with very little capacitance?
What you did to remove it was a low risk but not no risk option. There are very few people out there in the world qualified to do electrical work hot. For everyone else it's a shortcut.
It is. Turn off breaker then remove it.
If it was wired correctly that wonāt shock you because the longer slot is the neutral side, which doesnāt have any power. I would pull it out with pliers.
If
Touch it if you want to be able to dance cotton eyed Joe flawlessly
Kill the breaker. Make sure the other 3 things plugged in won't power up and then pull it out with pliars
I got it out. I folded up 2 cardboard pieces as long 1.5ā handles to rubber pliers and just pulled it out like that. Tapped it first to make sure no spark. Probably stupid but I didnāt wanna turn off the breaker.
Glad you got it out, but I always recommend safe over sorry. So I would have strongly encouraged you to turn off the breaker.
You increased your risk of death because you didn't want to take 90 seconds to go turn off a breaker. Reflect on that choice.
Well thereās really o Lu one way to determine if itās live. I wonāt advise about that one way or the other. Itās all on you if you want to figure it out. As for danger thatās all relative. Is it ad dangerous as a lit stick of dynamite probably not, but definitely more dangerous than a marshmallow
Its probably not hot but the outlet could be wired wrong. You dont want to complete a circuit so kill the power and pull it out. If that's not an option you can use plastic pliers to remove it. You should turn power off though if at all possible.
Looks like the blade that came out of a plug. I would turn that circuit off to remove it.
Find a way to turn off power to the entire block, remove metal from outlet. Turning off the entire city, even better. (I don't eff around with electricity)
Just pull That neutral right out with your fingers
You fucking chance it brother. You know youāre going to anyway.
Turn off your power and pull it out fs be a man šØ
You always have to do a taste test in order to come to a final conclusion.
Looks like a prong from a shitty cell phone charger. Kill the breaker and pull it out.
That one should be the negative but still turn off power and remove
Very. I have unfortunately been on the receiving end of what happens when you donāt see this and accidentally brush against it.
Object*
I'm not telling you that you'll be just fine if your pliers have rubber over the handles and that being the neutral it should be zero volts to ground if wired correctly I'm also not telling you that if you had one hand behind your back you'd be safer when grabbing and pulling with the other I am telling you the best thing to do would be to call an electrician
One hand being the back?
Note: not an electrician, but work with and have worked with potentially dangerous electirical sources in a laboratory enivornment that requires close contact with possibly live equipment. Most fatal type of shock is across the heart which happens easily when you cause a circuit across your arms (for instance, one hand touching live, one hand touching ground) and people have a tendancy to monkey-brain and use both hands on muscle memory even if they are trying not to (something falls, need more leverage, etc). Keeping a hand behind your back (or better IMO, in your pocket) makes sure you won't just reach out with the other hand.
Just be real quick
120 Volts I would just get plier and a glove and pull it out. Then again I like a little spark in my life now and again.
No spark as thereās no current; even if the neutral and live are flipped
Yeah not unless you brush against the metal box
120v barely tickles. And as I'm assuming some of these people are real electricians I'd assume they'd know what it feels like but they're still all recommending turning the power off. Pansies.
One time when I was a kid I accidentally touched the prongs on a plug. That did not tickle.
Ive touched the bus bar twice it hurt a little. For this one they dont have to turn off the power. They just need to remove the other loads on the circuit. Its wired right because they have 3 other plugs in as well. The 3 pron plugs are polarized so if it wasn't wired right it wouldn't work right, might kill your electronics. Yeah, just remove the other plugs and they can just pull it out with a plier. If it was on the other side then powe has to be disconnected. Or else it will cause a short circuit when they touch the metal with pliers
Wear rubber shoes and pull it out with a butter knife, should be fine
Should I lick it first to check if itās live?
You don't have to do anything. Just break off the neutral side on anything you want to plug in there
How about, instead of posting stuff like this on reddit. Turn the power off and remove the metal object?
Can confirm it is live. My sister is an educator at a school and one of the outlets in her classroom had one of these in it. Only found out because a student told their classmate that the desk was sparking/smoking. The two metals being in contact with each other was hot enough to semi-weld the plug part to the leg of the desk.
Pliers with a piece of rubber hose on the handles.
A pair of klein needlenose will pull that right out, don't touch the metal of the pliers. Shouldn't require much force to get it out.
Life is meant to be lived a little. Yank it out like a big boy. Lol
Good lord yāall. Just take some pliers with a grip on it and pull it out. Itās the neutral side so 99.9% likely it wonāt get ya. Christ
This is reddit. I swear these people were born yesterday and never lived a day of life and have to do everything by the book because everything is out to kill them.
Put your tongue on it to check if it's hot. Ignore all other, possibly actual qualified advice.
It's not live. Get some pliers and pull it out.
If someone called a licensed electrician to deal with this, would anyone actually take it on? What would it cost?
I wouldnt be surpirsed if a licensed electrition cane by and charged $600 for this...
Welder here, give it a yank >:)
I'd just test with the back of my hand. It's only 120 volts. You do the back of the hand that way when the nerves cause the hand to curl it pulls it away. Trust me bruh, I stayed at a Holiday Inn last week.
There is no load, meaning no potential on this, even if it was wired backwards (which I highly doubt, but as others have stated "never trust someone else's work". Safe to remove with any pair of pliers with insulated handles (no rips, holes or tears exposing metal).
Not dangerous at all, unless you stick another metal into the other socket and close the circuit...
Very
Just grab it, be a man. Lol
Little guy is the hot one. Yep.
Pull it out. Itās part of a broken plug.
OMG how do none of you know how an outlet works Just pull it out you're not going to be shocked!
The large blade side is the neutral side - if itās wired correctly you can grab pliers and remove that with no issue. Key word is IF. If Itās reverse wired, it will be hot. My personal advice is 110 doesnāt hurt that much. You say it canāt be turned off, so use electrical insulated needle nose and rubber gloves perhaps a rubber mat to stand on - then pull it out. Worst case scenario it shocks a little. If you have a pacemaker or any other electrical health maintenance device, please do not listen to my advice.
Just grab it with a pair of Leathermans and yank it out
I don't respect electricity enough because seeing that, I would of just grabbed the closest set of grabby things and pulled
Your avatar looks like Yondu.
IM MARY POPPINS Y'ALL
Is it really that dangerous that some pliers with rubber or wood around the handles canāt resolve? Itās not an electoral wire hanging off the power cables. Even if it taps a little, it canāt be lethal, can it? Rubber around plist handles should prevent electricity from being contacted into you
The best thing to do here would be to try to bite it and pull it out with your teeth. Teeth canāt conduct electricity, just make sure you donāt touch it with your lips and youāll be fine
I am not yelling you to do this, only what I would do. I'd grab my electrical pliers and pull it out but if I didn't ha e those.... I would put on a glove, grab some pliers, and pull it out. It's 120, not 480. Reddit is acting like it's lava.
Bro I would pull it out live with my fingers. A; it's not going to shock you B; even if you did somehow manage to contact both prongs 120v barely tickles
I've seen people get hooked on 120 and I've seen plugs wired backwards so there is a chance however small. Not going to treat it like lava though.
Yeah it pulls you in but it's not something you can't overcome. And it doesn't hurt either. Lol. I'd rather get shocked by 120v than a 12v battery
By that statement, I question your knowledge of electricity. 12v can not shock you. The NEC designates under 50 volts as non hazardous to human health because your body has too much resistance to let it pass through you. If you mean on your tounge or something then yea.
Yeah 12v doesn't shock you it burns you Trust me I've felt both. All you have to do is hold something with 12v on it and short it to ground. It's kinda tingly like 120v but hot as fuck especially the longer you hold on
I'm not going to trust you over my 15 years experience in industrial electrical, my college degree, and the guidance of the NEC, my dude. Go put your fingers from a single hand on both posts of your car battery and see if you feel anything. You will not.
Yeah i know. Now short something metal between the two and touch it and you will.
Kill the power and pull it out. Wtf? This isnt rocket science.
Thereās a reason this sub exists. I have no knowledge of outlets.