trouble with outlet operated by a lightswitch

[Dudley]

I am no electrician, but I have had an outlet that wouldn't hold a plug in it securely so I replaced it with a cheap simple outlet I got at the 99cent store. The outlet used to be controlled by the lightswitch in the room but now the outlet is always powered whether the switch is on or off. I believe I connected all the wires the same way they were connected in the original outlet. Any idea whats wrong here and why it would no longer be controlled by the switch. Do I need a special kind of outlet to make this work.

Any help is useful
Newbie

[nates]

wow dont plug anything into that! what you have is a 220v outlet now, there is a little metal tab on the side of the hot wire that has to be snapped off, it runs between the two screws and links them together, when you break this one will be back to working with the switch.

nate

[Jimmer]

Dudley,

As Nate said you need to remove (break off) the tab as pictured below on the side with the black (or red) wires ...



Good luck, Jim


'Just a handyman trying to help'

[nates]

hey nice pic did you draw that

[Jimmer]

nates,

I am not quitting my day job. Just trying to help people understand better sometimes requires a visual and I couldn't find a picture on the net.

Jim

'Just a handyman trying to help'

[Troy]

Jimmer is the king of images and diagrams. Just look around the forum, I'll bet there is a hundred of them!

[Dudley]

Thank you guys so much. It worked! Hallelujah!

[nates]

did you cook anything you had pluged into it?

[Dudley]

No, actually all that I had plugged into it was three wall sconces with 60w light bulbs. All survived fine. But I thank my lucky stars nothing happened because I had no idea it was dangerous.

[irregularjoe]

A plug / socket has the ability to seperate the Hots and also the nuetrals. You need to break the tab between the hot side . Then you can bring a wire over to one leg of the plug from a swicth.

Did you ever see OHM'S mother in LAW?...... SHOCKING!