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I have a series outlet that has two black wires and two white wires that I want to swap out with a new smart outlet so I can control it with wifi. But the new outlet only has screws for one black and one white wires. How do I hook up the new outlet? Is it possible?
If the little copper tabs between the screw terminals are intact, on both sides of the receptacle. It's as easy as using twist-on wire connectors (or other approved device), to "pigtail" the existing wires. That will leave you with a single wire, to connect to each side of the new device.
To create a pigtail. Start by turning off the power, and verifying that it's off. Remove the two white wires, and combine them with an additional length of same sized white wire, using a twist-on wire connector. Do the same with the black wires.
Now you'll have one white and one black wire, that you can connect to the new receptacle.
That's not really series, it's just making the most of a feature on common receptacles, that lets you splice together the supply and onward wires with the receptacle itself. It's the functional equivalent of a pigtail, you see the ground is pigtailed. You just need some more pieces of wire, a wire stripper and some wire nuts.
