What's Wrong Here? Hint: A Disastrous Disconnect Location
How well do you know the Code? Think you can spot violations the original installer either ignored or couldn’t identify? Here's your chance to moonlight as an electrical inspector and second-guess someone else's work from the safety of your living room or office. Can you identify the specific Code violation(s) in this photo? Note: Submitted comments must include specific references from the 2026 NEC.
Hint: A disastrous disconnect location
Tell Them What They've Won…
Using the 2026 NEC, correctly identify the Code violation(s) in this month's photo — in 200 words or less — and you could win a 40-oz. insulated tumbler valued at $39.99, courtesy of ABB. E-mail your response, including your name and mailing address, to [email protected], and Russ will select two winners (excluding manufacturers and prior winners) at random from the correct submissions. Note that submissions without an address will not be eligible to win.
June Winner
Our winners this month were R.D. (Ralph) Jenkins, a building inspector in Palestine, Texas, and Scott Colledge, a project foreman for Wilkerson Electric, Inc. in Spanish Fork, Utah. They were both able to correctly cite Code violations in this photo, including Sec. 406.9(B)(1)(a), which requires enclosures for 20A, 125V receptacles installed in wet locations to be weatherproof whether any attachment plug is inserted or removed.
In this case, the unbroken cover would have been weatherproof only when no attachment plug was inserted into the receptacle, and the hinged cover was closed. With the cover broken, there is no way for this enclosure to be a weatherproof enclosure.
The broken cover results in a violation of Sec. 110.12(B). There must be no damaged parts that can affect the safe operation or mechanical strength of the equipment. The receptacle installed here is also not a weather-resistant (WR) type as required by Sec. 406.9(B)(1)(d).