Yesterday, one of our tenants had his fan stop working. My brother, my dad and I went to check there.
When my brother removed the switch plate, he shared “why they used this type of screw “.
Below is the image of Original/manufacturer Screws:
It’s a valid point.
The reason is they are not easy to operate screws.
I had a similar incident happen a few months back. In my home office, I needed to change some switch orders. So, to change the order, I needed to remove the switch plates.
Usually, it’s a 3 to 5-minute job to remove that.
But one screw in that switch plate was in the wrong thread, and it was not coming out. I need to put a lot of pressure to rotate that screw. When I put some pressure to remove that screw, the screw head was gone.
Now my screwdriver cannot rotate that screw. After doing a lot of experiments and excise, I finally removed that screw.
It took almost 20 minutes to remove that one screw. If that screw didn’t come out, then I need to break that switch plate to remove the screw.
Somehow, I managed to remove that successfully.
The thing you need to remember is, Don’t use the screws that come with your electrical switch plates.
Those screws heads break easily if you put little pressure. Moreover, they are not comfortable to install/remove those screws.
Most experienced electricians are aware of this fact.
In our building, one skilled worker used other recommended type screws in all electrical fittings. Still, his helpers used whatever screws that are available near them.
That’s why in some electrical switch plates, we still find original/manufacturer screws.
Using those original/manufacturer screws in the switch plate make you struggle alot when doing any repair work.
They are not recommended.
I personally experienced it.
I never took this screw issue seriously when my dad and good electrical labour told me about that screw issue. But when I experienced it, I understood why they told me like that.
Anyway, If you want to take this screw matter seriously, then inside my Electrical Work Guide, I show the recommended alternative screw with an image.
I also shared a recommended tip on how you can make your electrical labourer implement this alternative screw on all the electrical switch plates without fail.
In our building, I didn’t take this alternative screw seriously. I was unaware of this issue at that time. If I knew what I know now, I definitely could have considered implementing alternative screws seriously.
If have access to the guide, please download it again and check 5.70, 5.71 section (page no 36) to see the updated content.
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