Went into Lowe’s today to buy a new outlet. I pull a TR (tamper resistant) out of the box. The first one I pull out I realize there is no visual shutters unlike the one on display or the pic on the box. I dug thru several boxes/ styles and colors and couldn’t find a single TR outlet that has shutters. All of the outlets are “Eaton” … has anyone ran accross this? I’m kind of assuming it’s some sort of new design, but I couldn’t find anything on the internet about a shutterless TR outlet and Eaton has their messages on twitter and FB off. Their TR vs the non-TR outlets visually look the same other than the TR stamp.
The shutters are there, they are black plastic.
The MFG’s claim customers prefer the look but in reality it’s cheaper and better. White plastic requires a lot of dye whereas black only requires a small amount of carbon black, it’s also stronger, UV resistant and can have additional flame retardants added.
So little carbon black (dye) is needed it doesn’t effect conductivity. All good things when it comes to outlets.
Interesting facts:
The one thing about black plastic is that it cannot be (easily) recycled.
Recycling plants use specific (near IR) light to sort plastic from other material, black isn’t ‘seen’ as plastic so the automated machines reject it.
Most items made from recycled plastic are black because it’s so easy to dye, much easier then trying to dye multiple combinations of previously dyed colors any other ‘color’.
Recycled plastic is not food, child or pet safe because it contains plastic from any number of sources and could contain small amounts of heavy metals, toxins or other ‘impurities’.
Black food containers are the worst type of plastic as it’s not made from recycled plastic nor can it be recycled. Many are trying to ban it (single use plastic) for such purposes.
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You are correct… they are very hard to see back in there. I used a pin to see if I can shove it in them.
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