Wall outlet wiring question - missing one white wire


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Old 01-10-17, 10:40 AM
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Wall outlet wiring question - missing one white wire

Hi - and thanks in advance for the help.

I have a wall outlet were only the top plug works. Upon pulling the outlet out of the wall it only has one of the two white wires attached. There is white wire that is not connected to anything that is capped in the back of the box. Both the red and black wire are connected

This is not a switched outlet and I want both plugs hot.

I believe all I need to do is connect the second (currently disconnected) white wire and both plugs should work corrected, but I wanted to double check first.

Thanks!
 
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Old 01-10-17, 10:57 AM
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With the outlet out and disconnected is the top and bottom screws connected by a plate or has someone busted the tab out? Normally it doesn't matter top vs bottom. But if someone wanted to switch only half the outlet it can be changed. Bet if you hooked up a new outlet exactly the way the old one was it would work just fine.
 
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Old 01-10-17, 11:06 AM
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Thanks for the reply - it does look like the tab is broken. So basically it was set up for half switched without being attached to a switch?

I have a new outlet, with tab intact, let me try that.
 
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Old 01-10-17, 11:15 AM
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Only explanation I can think of why they broke it out. Not sure why it wasn't hooked up to something. But your new one should so the trick without you doing anything else. I have been replacing outlets all over my house and it's kind of random whether they hooked top or bottom but since it's ganged it doesn't matter.
 
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Old 01-10-17, 12:30 PM
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That worked Jeffrey - thank you very much.
 
 

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