Safety – Electrical Outlet Covers

“Hi Mike, I'm not an electrician nor studying to be one, but I've been educating myself on some basics just to be able to correct some problems with switches and receptacles around our house such as exposed switches with no covers because somebody put paneling on the walls and did not correct recessed boxes so covers could be put on, receptacles with reversed polarity, grounds in the boxes but not connected to anything, a receptacle that actually fell apart when I removed a cover, etc. Anyway, in the course of my study I came across your forum and read with interest debates about twisting vs. not twisting wire nuts and which way should receptacles be installed - ground up or ground down? The ground up camp pointed out the possibility of something falling across the hot and neutral if outlets are ground down and a plug is loose especially a loose metal outlet cover. (I'll never buy a metal cover after reading this.) I started thinking there ought to be a safety shield of some sort one could put on an outlet to prevent such a thing.

I happened to come across just such a thing in my web surfing today. See http://www.lectralock.com/index.htm. I am not associated with this company and not endorsing them in any way, I just thought these were interesting and thought you might find them interesting, too, if you have not already heard of them.”

--Karen