2 Prong Recetacles

I have several 2 prong receptacles I would like to replace with GFI receptcacles.

When installing new oulets with GFIs you are required to use a 3 inch box (I think). The two prong ones I want to replace do not have 3 inch deep boxes.

My question; does the code allow me to place a GFI receptacle in a shallower box when replacing a 2 prong receptacle?

thanks

 

What box you can use will depend on what is going to be into it. The number and size of all the wires in the box will directly effect what kind of device will fit. Physically even if the code said it was ok does not mean you can do it the lenght of the wires in the box can take up alot of space. There are many ways around this though but we would have to know what we are dealing with.
So if you could post back with a little information the size of box you are dealling with the number of wires involved the size of the wires in the box. Then a reasonable answer can be provided to you.

 

If, and I do mean if, the old box was legal, the new box will still be legal after installing the GFCI. The code does not differentiate between different device sizes. Perhaps it should, but if it took everything into consideration, the calculation would be even worse than it already is.

Provide the info that gard requests and he can compute it for you.

 

What must be considered in addition to the depth of the box is cable clamps and the # of wires.----If it's a metal "gem" box with two 2-wire cables entering the box thru a clamp you'll have a tight fit. You can mount a Wiremold extension box on the existing box which increases the "depth" dimension.----Remember., a GFI receptacle has "Load" terminals and any wires connected to the Load terminals will be GFI protected.If you have a receptacle outlet box with a "feed-in" cable and a "feed-out" cable, you'll connect the "feed-in" cable pair (observing "polarity") to the GFI Line terminals and the "feed-out" cable pair to the GFI Load Terminals. Any receptacles connected to the "feed-out" cable will have GFI protection.--It's possible to protect several receptacle outlets with 1 GFI devise.----Good Luck!!!!