need assisitance hooking up 4 wire plug

Hello

I am trying to correctly connect 4 wires to an outdoor plug. There are no other plugs or switches on this circuit.

There are 4 wires from the box, red, black , white, and the ground wire that need to connect to the plug. I dont know what to do with the red and black wire. Do I not bother with the red wire at all ? Leave it disconnected in the receptacle box?

thanks

 

Is this outdoor plug 120V or 240V. Is it fed by a 1 pole breaker or 2 pole breaker?
Does the plug itself look like a standard plug?

 

What type of plug? Regular duplex receptacle? A 240 volt receptacle?
What is the other end of the wire connected to? The breaker panel? Is it a double breaker? It should be since you have a red wire. What is the amps marked on the breakers? What is the wire size?

 

It is 120 volt outdoor plug outlet kit. No wiring instructions. The amps marked on the Double pole breaker are 15 amps each.

This wire at one time was used as a plug....(I think)

There are 2 brass screws (hot) and two silver screws (white wire) on the plug and one green ground screw.

just not sure where to hook the wires. Initially I hooked the the red and black wires to the two brass screws, but the main breaker popped off (in a big way)

 

Yeah, in a big way. You short circuited the two hot legs together. Yikes!
Check the circuit breaker to see if the red is connected to one terminal on the 2pole breaker, and the black is connected to the other. If so, turn the breaker off and disconnect either the red or the black, then wire nut off the disconnected wire. Do the same on the receptacle end. Then red OR black (whichever is not nutted) to the brass, white to the silver and bare/green tot he ground on the recept.
At a later date you may choose to replace the 2pole breaker with (2) 1pole breakers.

 

""Check the circuit breaker to see if the red is connected to one terminal on the 2pole breaker, and the black is connected to the other""

""Then red OR black (whichever is not nutted) to the brass, white to the silver and bare/green tot he ground on the recept. ""

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So basically either use the RED or the BLACK wire for the power source? and just leave the unused wire in the receptacle box,?(Marred off of course)

 

I don't know what marred off means. If it is the same as "wire nutted" or "safed off" then yes.

 

""Marred off of course""

meaning Mar connecters, black,yellow, orange caps you thread on wire. Are those not called Marr connectors?

I appreciate this website and your help. (you as well joed)

 

Hook it back up the way you had it (red and black to the brass screws) and break off the tab between the 2 brass screws. Leave the tab on the silver screws. This will give you 2 15 amp circuits on the one plug.

 

edited by JN for tone

An outdoor outlet must be a GFCI outlet. I have not seen any GFCI outlets that can support two hot inputs.

 

An outdoor receptacle need not necessarily be a GFCI receptacle, but it must be GFCI protected. If you want to split-wire it as suggested by Joe, you will need to either replace the cable with two hots and two neutrals (using GFCI receptacles on each cable in the house), or use a 120/240 GFCI breaker. The alternative is to use a GFCI receptacle on this circuit (either inside or out) and use only one of the two hot wires as suggested by Ron.

Ron's way is less expensive and quicker. Joe's way give you more power. Your choice.

 

John, you are correct. My comment was simplified. It does not sound like this poster should be messing with replacing a breaker, so I am going the route of having him install a GFCI outlet. Since he has no idea what else is or might be on this circuit, this makes the most sense anyway.

Besides, unless there is a desire to run numerous outdoor items at the same time (such as 2 parts of a very, very large Christmas luight display), having two circuits on a single outdoor duplex outlet is a little overkill.

 

""Hook it back up the way you had it (red and black to the brass screws) and break off the tab between the 2 brass screws. Leave the tab on the silver screws. This will give you 2 15 amp circuits on the one plug.""
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Thats interesting to know.

anyway, i have my outdoor plug hooked up and in use now.
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I have chosen not to have GFCI plug.....to each his own......

According to the hardware store the majority of people install regular receptacles. (Outdoor kits)

 

Good luck with that.

 

so, you forego safety to save $5??? put in GFCIs!!!!, else be thinking of a creative story to tell the judge & your significant others if someone gets shocked/ electrocuted!! GFCI requirements have been in Code for 20+yr.