re: So I just replaced all my 15A outlets with 20A...but realized most breakers are 15A

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I meant that for the guy who told him to replace the breakers. That would've really fricked up his situation, which right now is already pretty safe.

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thats the great thing about this site. the conversation eventually sorts out whats right & whats wrong.

I wouldn't rely on the breakers either, they can and do fail. I've had two-pole breakers fail in such a way that one pole was still hot even though it had tripped. I've had one fail such that it lost a pole while the other side was engaged. I've seen contacts weld themselves together inside while the plastic around them had broken so the circuit stayed hot while the breaker was "tripped".

That's actually a top five reason for failure of a electric dryer.

Customer--" I know it ain't the breaker because the dryer comes on"

Me-- "yes, a dryer only needs 115v to run. It needs 220-240 to heat"

C-"well I flipped the breaker"

M--"Yes, it's half broken, you have one good leg, since power flows through the element it didn't matter which leg is hot, the dryer has power to run and cannot read voltage"

C--"so what's that mean?"

Me-- well you pay me my service fee and call an electrician; bye.

I could change it, but I can't change it.
Sucks.

I have a simple voltage reader that I use to show the customer if they have this issue, but I can't legally fix it.

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How are you still alive after all these years?

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well, by learning from mistakes.

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that would probably be a much easier process. i wouldn't be running all over the house trying to twist wire around screws that doesn't want to twist.

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Just as an fyi, you should make sure the wires carrying that 20 amps are rated to do so.

Having 20A breaker and 20A outlet with light gauge wires is a fire hazard waiting to happen.

i have the opposite problem. i replaced a few outlets the other week, and the old ones were all marked with 15a/125v, so that's what i replaced them with. However, the switches at the breaker box are all marked as 20 amp switches.

So I don't know what to think there, because i'm positive all of the original outlets were installed by the original electrician.

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most of my outlets have 4 wires and a ground (2 white, 2 black)

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Might want to take a couple out and verify something....

Odds are you actually have two grounds in the back of the outlet housing that are pigtailed together with one ground coming out to simplify connecting to the outlet. The reason you have 2 black and 2 white on some is because those outlets are somewhere in the middle of the circuit. The outlets with just 1 black and 1 white are at the end of the circuit, whether that circuit has one outlet(like a refrigerator) or multiple outlets(like a wall between two bedrooms). One black wire is the hot/power source and it feeds the other wires downstream in the circuit through the other black wire, and when connected to the source wire via the outlet, the other black wire also becomes hot. Anyways, just a little better understanding. Also, when you connect your wires to each side of the outlet your circuits are wired in series.... meaning if you ever have some outlets go dead, it's likely because of one outlet in the series. The way the ground wires are pigtailed together makes your ground actually in parallel, which is perfectly okay and typically how it's done.

Well, it actually likely depends on your outlets themselves. Some of them do create a parallel circuit and likely would still power other outlets in the circuit if one particular outlet goes bad. In fact, these are most common nowadays, theres a bridge between the connections It just depends on the connections on the outlet itself. GFCI outlets are in series and made to break the circuit if tripped.

very good to know. thank you.

i was concerned initially, but thought there's no way the original electrician would have messed something like that up, but that puts my mind at ease even more.

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because of polarity concerns

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AC doesn't have polarity per say. White wire is generally the neutral conductor that carriers the return current for the circuit. Technically you could have flipped the wiring on the outlet and wouldn't know anything was wrong without a tester indicating that neutral/hot wires are switched around.