Portable GFCI Tools
- A flat-headed screwdriver removes and attaches the GFCI's faceplate, and secures and removes the receptacle from the wall box. Tightening the terminal screws to the attached electrical wires is achieved with a Philips screwdriver. Both types of screwdriver must have insulated handles to prevent potential electrical shock.
- When the bare-ended copper wires are removed from the terminal screws of the existing receptacle/GFCI, the ends are cut off, as they generally tend to be bent or misshaped. A wire cutter, which looks like pliers with a straight-edged blade on each jaw, easily snips off the wire by squeezing the cutter's handles together.
- With the old bare copper ends of the wires removed, ³⁄8 inch of plastic is removed from each black and white wire using wire strippers. The stripper has various size gauge holes along its jaws that fit various size wires. The wire end is placed in the correct gauge hole and the stripper's handles are squeezed together. The stripper is pulled from the end of the wire to remove the section of plastic coating.
- Though some GFCIs connect to wall box wires with wire nuts, others have terminal screws that the wall wires directly attach to. For this purpose, the ³⁄8-inch bare wire ends are first bent into hook shapes with long-nosed pliers so that the wires easily fit around the shank of the terminal screws. Each of the long-nosed pliers' jaws are roughly 2 inches long, which decrease in thickness to a point.
