Rotten Plug

I noticed at Christmas time that one of the plugs on our front outdoor socket was holding firm, and the cover was pretty loose. It was a nice day out, so after giving the sprinklers a run through to make sure they were all working and pointed the right way, I decided to look at this plug. I pulled off the cover and pulled of the sealing foam and found part of the plastic receptacle was broken off. I also found that the receptacle housing had a pretty large mud dauber nest. I scraped that all out and swapped out the plug.

I've replaced several plugs in the house and I've found that the original builders just used the insert taps on the back of the receptacles rather that the screw terminals. While this isn't terrible, I don't really like it. I use the screw terminals on each plug I've replaced.

After replacing the plug, I filled in around the receptacle box with some indoor/outdoor caulking. Then I replaced the sealing foam and the metal cover. I then filled in around the cover with some additional caulking to help prevent more insects and geckos from trying to sneak in. There's a gap where two pieces of siding meet that seemed to be the likely entry point. Now the plug works like a charm. Total time, about 15 minutes.

The caulking is only evident in areas where I overfilled in an effort to keep out critters. There's a foam gasket that seals around a majority of the cover.