Any electricians here? breaking the third prong off a power cord

[Cogman]

On the contrary, if you remove the ground from the treadmill, the plane is flying already!

Winnar!

And to the OP, don't do it. There is a good reason for the ground prong.

 

[Eli]

I do it all the time, but it's not recommended. And as someone said, there are adapters.

 

[So]

Ground and Neutral ARE bonded together at the electrical panel to meet code. There should also be a ground rod outside that the ground is bonded to.

Perhaps you were thinking he meant bonded together somewhere else? That would be wrong.

I thought he meant in the device.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I want him to do it and see what his 'on my way to the hospital' thread turns out like

Assuming the fuses are functional in his house it shouldn't be that bad.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

I want him to do it and see what his 'on my way to the hospital' thread turns out like

uhhh, why would he be on the way to a hospital.

 

[Skitzer]

http://www.amazon.com/Prong-prong-gr.../dp/B000I96AUM

just get a grounding converter.

This!

 

[BurnItDwn]

I would do some rewiring. Or, in your case, I would call an electrician.

 

[edro]

I would do some rewiring. Or, in your case, I would call an electrician.

Why when you can ask ATOT for free?

The very first response eliminated all danger.

 

[Matthiasa]

Why when you can ask ATOT for free?

The very first response eliminated all danger.

Except there is risk to it.

 

[Jeff7]

I had an arcade machine that was wired wrong and had the ground plug wired to the neutral line. Good grounding can be a lifesaver. If you absolutely have to plug a device with a ground prong into an ungrounded outlet, get one of the adapters mentioned above and screw the lug at the bottom into the faceplate of your outlet, it should give you some protection. Also, they are like $0.50 at home depot or walmart.

This of course assumes that said lug is grounded, otherwise it won't do anything.

All of the outlets at my apartment were 2-prong, and they were wired with 2-conductor wire - hot and neutral only. It's an old building.
My landlord was kind enough to pay for an electrician to wire in some grounded circuits in each room.

 

[Rubycon]

I have something I want to hook up in a room but I have no outlets with three hole sin that room, I know that is there for a reason though, grounding I believe. What is my risk if I break that off?

The risk depends on your wiring, the device and where it's being used. (water around?)

If the circuit breaker is a GFCI type then breaking off the ground - while discouraged - will not present a high risk of health threatening shock. If no GFCI is present (most outlets outside of bath, pool, outside, etc. areas do NOT have them) then yes if your device has a fault where the hot wire energizes the chassis and you touch it you can receive a shock. If you touch it with one hand while touching something else that's grounded it could cost you your life!

As far as ground and neutral being the same - yes they are bonded at the panel. HOWEVER the ground is NOT designed to carry current! That's the job of the neutral. The ground wire will ONLY carry current in the event of a fault from hot to chassis. This current opens the circuit breaker or fuse, disconnecting the circuit and protecting YOU from touching a hot chassis. Believe me you do NOT want to touch a hot chassis - ever! (well unless we're talking about other chassis' - but I'll leave sex out of this! )

Those adapters with the lugs are commonly found in use with the lugs not connected to anything. A simple neon bulb tester can verify if the wallplate screw is grounded by inserting the probe in the hot (right slot with ground prong facing down, left side with ground prong facing up - assuming correct wiring!) slot and the other probe on the screw. If the bulb glows brightly the screw is grounded. Remove the screw while holding the wallplate up (sometimes paint will keep them in place), plug in the adapter, put the screw through the lug and tighten. This way your three wire device is now connected to your mains properly.

NEVER snap the ground prong off a plug on a power tool! That's just asking to get "the new look".

 

[bruceb]

I agree, the Neutral and Ground are bonded in the main breaker panel. And a seperate ground wire then runs to the grounding electrode in the ground. But back to the original question. Do not cut off the prong. It is there for your Safety. Have the outlet changed to a properly installed 3 prong grounding receptacle. Easy to do if it is a metal box and wired with BX (armored cable) as that provides the ground. A little more work if Romex as there should be a Bare Wire connected to the Box Shell and also to the Green Screw on the outlet itself. Be sure you put the White Wire on the Silver Screw and Black on the Brass Screw on the outlet.

 

[DrPizza]

Most of the time it's for safety, other times it can produce "interesting" results.

Example:
When I moved into my house I didn't have any grounds, even though I had a lot of 3 prong outlets. When I hooked up my LCD TV my cable was flaky. And there was another side effect, I got zapped every time I touched the outside connector. You know, the one that is supposed to be ground. Inside the TV's power supply there are some caps that go between the line, neutral, and ground. This is a common and fair design. When it's not grounded, it puts the ground at approximately 60VAC (I measured 70...) due to leakage currents and the like. Thus, my LCD TV caused the shield on the coax, which happens to be ground, to be the ground. And this ground isn't a good ground like I needed it to be. So the net result... I got shocked every time I messed with the coax until I just used a pair of rabbit ears with that TV.

Ummm, all of the time, it's for safety. If you get interesting results, it's because something electrical is screwed up.