Tried getting it out with a small plastic dinosaur tail already. Is it a piece belonging to the socket?

Please advice.

by Emergency-Sea5201

22 comments

  2. looks like a small bearing ball?
    remove the cover (just the small screw to the left, then pull it out) and try to pick it out when cover is removed from the electrical parts..

  3. Turn off the fuse and try again. Do not do it while the power is on.

  6. Power off at mains / fuse box and it’s a disassembly job I’m afraid

  7. Turn the fuse off, remove the cover by unscrewing the small skrew in your picture, and pull it out with a pair of pliers. Make sure there is no power in the outlet, you can test the neighboring outlet with a phone charger or lamp or something to be sure.

  10. after turning of the fuse, you can unscrew the philips-screw on the left on the picture to get off the whole white plastic protector. is probably a lot easier to remove without that on.

  11. Your best move would probably be to call an electrician.
    But if that’s not an option for you:

    – Turn off the fuse powering the outlet. If you’re unsure about this step, just take the main fuse to your house to be sure
    – Regardless, make sure to double-check that the power is off by plugging something into the neighboring outlet
    – Unscrew the lid and pull it off
    – Then pick out the screw from the lid with some pliers

  13. Turn off power, unscrew socket, remove misplaced screw, screw socket back into the wall (not with the dinosaur tainted screw) and turn back power.

  14. Looks like there’s two screws stuck in your socket? (One straight in the Earth port, and one sideways in the bottom port).

  15. Hi, I used to work at the factory making these for over a decade, that’s a Elko double socket. I was on the crew for assembly of the child safety sliding cover that you seem have stuck something into.

    Here’s the two approaches I’d take
    1. Unscrew the screw to the left, pull off the cover and your part should come loose, remove it and then screw the cover back on.

    2. The white piece behind the main cover covers both holes, I’d suggest using something plastic to push on that hopefully that should make it slide away from the bottom hole.

    Hope this helps

  16. I had to replace the socket. The tamper resistant mechanism had been damaged and the spring and some internal metal pice was blocking the opening. Looked similar to this.

  17. turn off the fuse, stick a screwdriver or something long into the other socket to hold the child safety cover open. And then wrench the screw out with something thin and flat. If all else fails, you can unscrew that screw on the left to take the whole cover off. you should be able to get to it then.

  18. I see many people says turn the fuse of and dismantle the socket. Just be careful. Don’t do what I once did in my old house. I screwed out the fuse (old circuit box with screw in fuses) so that the power shut down. Started to work on the socket and got a serious caramel when touching a lead. I wasn’t aware that both fuses had to be unscrewed.

    This is important because if I had checked with a charger in the neighboring socket it would be dead, even though one of the phases was stil live. If you have modern fuses (the flip ones) this should no longer be an issue as one fuse brakes both phases.

  19. Turning off the fuse doesn’t guarantee that the circuit is fully dead if it was wired incorrectly. When the fuse is shut off, only the neutral *should* be connected, but if wired incorrectly the live wire could still be live, or the neutral may have some potential. I would advise leaving it to a professional

  20. Use a power washer and the water will get it out 👍👍

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