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What are tamper-resistant outlets?

Dave Farquhar DIY April 11, 2023April 7, 2023

What are tamper-resistant outlets? Tamper-resistant outlets are a special electrical outlet, sold in North America, designed to prevent injury or death from toddlers or children inserting a foreign metal object into the outlet and causing electrical shock or electrocution. They have an embossed “TR” to distinguish them from earlier types of outlets. You can buy tamper resistant versions of various types of outlets, including standard duplex outlets, and ground fault circuit interrupter outlets (GFCIs).

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Milwaukee tools at Lowe’s

Dave Farquhar DIY March 29, 2023June 3, 2023

Milwaukee is a popular brand of power tools, often used by professionals and one of the biggest rivals of DeWalt. Meanwhile, Lowe’s is the second largest home improvement store chain in North America. It would be natural to expect Lowe’s to carry Milwaukee tools. But the relationship between Lowe’s and Milwaukee is complicated.

Lowe’s sells a brand of cart and dolly called Milwaukee that has no connection to Milwaukee power tools. Lowe’s hasn’t sold Milwaukee power tools since 2007, and Milwaukee’s parent company’s relationship with Home Depot makes it unlikely that situation will change any time soon.

Dave Farquhar

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Where to buy steel wool

Dave Farquhar DIY March 28, 2023March 25, 2023

Where to buy steel wool isn’t a difficult question. It’s clear from the Google search results that any hardware store, home improvement store, and even one of the large discount store chains carries steel wool. But finding it in those huge 100,000-square-foot stores is another matter. I’ve even heard people lament that nobody seems to sell plain steel wool anymore, that all they can find are SOS pads that have a cleaner embedded in them. In this blog post, I’ll reveal the secret of where to find steel wool in big box stores.

You can still find plain steel wool today, but the trick is to not look in the cleaning section. It’s usually in the part of the store that sells paint, wood stain, and/or sandpaper.

Dave Farquhar

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Hubbell Twist-Tite outlet

Dave Farquhar DIY February 21, 2023November 24, 2022

A friend bought an old house recently, and he came across an odd outlet. He asked me to look at it, wondering what it was, and if it was even AC. He thought it might be high voltage DC, a holdover from a very different time. It turned out what he had was a Harvey Hubbell Twist-Tite outlet.
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Dave Farquhar

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Is Ryobi a Home Depot brand? It depends

Dave Farquhar DIY January 25, 2023September 8, 2023

Is Ryobi a Home Depot brand? Not exactly. Does Home Depot own Ryobi? No. Ryobi is a Japanese manufacturing conglomerate. They introduced a line of power tools in 1968. In 2000, Ryobi sold their international tool operations to Techtronic Industries (TTI) and licensed their name to them. They retained the rights to make and sell Ryobi tools in Japan. They sold the Japanese tool business to Kyocera in 2018.

In North America, Home Depot and TTI have an exclusive agreement to sell Ryobi branded tools at retail only at Home Depot. The situation is different in other parts of the world.

Dave Farquhar

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Does the ground go up or down on an outlet?

Dave Farquhar DIY January 18, 2023April 19, 2023

Why are some electrical outlets upside down? The direction of an electrical outlet doesn’t matter to the electrons. Electricity will flow regardless of the way you mount the outlet on the wall, whether it looks upside down, right side up, or sideways. So whether the ground prong should be up or down is simply a matter of practicality.

Legally, nothing says which side of an outlet is up. But there is a practical safety argument for the ground going on top on an electrical outlet, and sometimes the direction of the outlet means a light switch controls it.

Dave Farquhar

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Are LED light bulbs recyclable?

Dave Farquhar DIY December 14, 2022November 25, 2022

It’s pretty common knowledge that compact fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury and need to be recycled rather than throwing them in the trash. But what about LED light bulbs? Are LED light bulbs recyclable? And should they be recycled?

Dave Farquhar

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Are Ecosmart light bulbs good? My experience

Dave Farquhar DIY November 29, 2022December 4, 2022

I’ve been buying Ecosmart light bulbs at Home Depot since the summer of 2015. Ecosmart is Home Depot’s house brand. At the time I started buying them, they seemed like good bulbs for the money. The last time I bought bulbs, they had pretty much crowded everything else off the shelf. So let’s talk about Ecosmart light bulbs and whether they are any good.

Dave Farquhar

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Prevent tools from rusting

Dave Farquhar DIY November 22, 2022December 4, 2022

A common problem with tools, whether we are talking garden tools or hand tools, is the tools rusting in storage when we aren’t using them. Here’s how to prevent tools from rusting in your garage, your shed, or your toolbox.

Dave Farquhar

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The white walnut: Butternut

Dave Farquhar DIY November 15, 2022October 15, 2022

Walnut is an expensive hardwood, desirable for its durability, attractive green pattern, and rich color. But it has a relative that is well known for being less expensive while having a similar appearance. It’s called butternut, also known as the white walnut or the poor man’s walnut.

Dave Farquhar

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