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I recently bought a new Legrand Adorne outlet to replace an old one in my bedroom (dual outlet). I watched Legrand's installation video and it seemed pretty straightforward. But after removing my old outlet, I noticed 2 black, 2 white, one ground, and also one red wire, which is throwing me for a loop. I attached a couple of pictures showing the old outlet and the new outlet (back).

My question is how should I connect the 2 black and red wires? Should I connect the black wires to one grouping, or should each black wire be in its own group? Either way, where should I connect the red wire? Also, please note that neither the upper nor lower outlets are driven by any light switch, which is what I first thought when I saw the red wire. Both outlets work when the light switch is on or off.

Your expert knowledge is greatly appreciated!

Old outlet img 1 Old outlet img 1

Old outlet img 2 Old outlet img 2

Old outlet img 3 Old outlet img 3

Old outlet img 4 Old outlet img 4

New outlet (back view) New outlet (back view)

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  • It appears as though you have a half-switched outlet setup. Is that the case?
    – isherwood
    Commented Nov 19, 2019 at 19:33
  • Do you mean a device where one half is an outlet and other half a switch? No, it's both outlets on one device. I've uploaded another picture that shows the front of the old outlet.
    – Sebbo
    Commented Nov 19, 2019 at 19:50
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    No. A switched outlet. Is the jumper between the screws at the black and red wire locations removed?
    – isherwood
    Commented Nov 19, 2019 at 19:52
  • Ah, yes indeed! The jumper is removed between the black and red wire.
    – Sebbo
    Commented Nov 19, 2019 at 19:54
  • That would imply that either 1) a nearby switch controls half of the outlet (usually the red wire), or 2) you have a dual-circuit situation for increased current capacity. Check for the latter by determining whether a single breaker disables both halves.
    – isherwood
    Commented Nov 19, 2019 at 19:58

1 Answer 1

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What you have there is a split outlet, which each socket controlled separately. By luck, your new outlet does support that.

Sometimes a device has wires that are not strictly necessary for its primary function. It is being used as a splice for additional wires.

This doesn't need to happen at the device. It is also common for the two wires to be joined at a wire nut, with a short pigtail wire going to the device. If you want to convert to that, that is fine.

You have that happening in two places on this device, in two different manners.

First, the two black wires are spliced together. This is done by placing one of the wires on the backstab connection, and the other wire on the screw. These are internally connected together within the outlet.

Second, the two white wires are spliced together. This is done by failing to break off the "tab" separating the two white screws. (Only one is actually on the screw; the other is on the internally connected backstab).

So you can go several ways with this. You can pull both spliced wires off and pigtail them with a short length of wire.

You may also use a feature on this receptacle, called screw-and-clamp. This allows 2 wires in the back-wire (not back-stab) connections at each screw.

Since this is a split receptacle, you will need to break off the tab. Make sure to break the hot tab (side with the shorter slots). If you break off the neutral tab by mistake, you can recover by using the screw-to-clamp feature to accommodate the two white wires and a short insulated jumper between the screws.

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  • 1
    Thank you! Both your answer and @isherwood's clue about the outlet being a switched outlet led me to the correct solution. I placed the two black wires in one of the hot groupings of the new outlet, one white wire to each of the white groupings, and the red wire in the other hot grouping. I also broke the tab between the hot groups. Everything works the way it worked before with the old outlet.
    – Sebbo
    Commented Nov 20, 2019 at 0:10

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