Hidden Electrical Hazards - Check Your Grounded Outlets

!±8± Hidden Electrical Hazards - Check Your Grounded Outlets

Shock hazards and warranty issues. If you live in an older house, you may be shocked, literally, to discover that your "grounded" (three-pronged) electrical outlets are not really grounded, after all. This article describes why that's a dangerous situation, how to tell if your outlets are really grounded, and what to do if they're not.

The electrical term, open ground, describes a situation where someone has installed a three-pronged outlet, but the cable serving that outlet still contains only two wires, a hot and a neutral, and no ground wire. The three-pronged outlet gives the appearance of an upgrade, but the outlet is not really grounded. This is bad news for two reasons.

Shock hazard

This should be your first concern, and it's a real one: a receptacle that is not properly grounded is a safety hazard to you and your family. A shock from an improperly grounded 120-volt outlet can cause injury, even death. And take note: those receptacle "cheaters," those little, grey three-hole plugs with the tab on them that you screw into the plate? They don't work, and they can present a hazard to you and the equipment you plug into them.

Warranty issues

The following appliances require a grounded receptacle, for both safety and warranty reasons:

RefrigeratorDishwasherWashing MachineComputerTelevisionAny piece of equipment with a 3-pronged plugPlugging any of this equipment into a receptacle that is not grounded can present a shock hazard, can damage the product, and can void the product warranty. Computers have especially sensitive voltage requirements. Note that surge protectors will not work properly unless a ground is present. These appliances and pieces of equipment are not small investments; protect them by using only properly grounded outlets. Where necessary, call in a qualified electrician to run you a new wire.

How to tell if your outlet is really grounded

You can buy a small, inexpensive, plug-in tester at your local home center or electrical supply store. They are generally fairly reliable.You could try cutting the electricity at the breaker, pulling off your outlet cover and having a look, but you may or may not be able to see the cable feeding the outlet. The older the house, the more likely it is to be dark and dirty and hard to see behind the outlet cover. It might be necessary to unscrew and pull out the outlet. Note: this is not recommend as a beginner's DIY project because of the safety hazards involved.Why take chances? Hire a pro. If you have any question whether your outlets are properly grounded - or for that matter, if you have any questions about your wiring or your breaker or fuse box - have a qualified electrician come in and take a look.
What to do if your outlet is not properly grounded

If the tester gives you a negative reading, there may be other outlets in the house that aren't grounded. We strongly recommend that you bring in a qualified electrician to assess the situation and recommend next steps.

Next steps could involve running new wire, but possibly not. In some circumstances, electrical code allows for ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protection (meaning the installation of a GFCI outlet) where there is no ground; however, the code has very specific requirements about how this must be done, including language that must be displayed prominently on the outlet cover. We do not recommend this as a beginner's DIY project because of the potential safety hazards to you and your family, and the warranty issues with your electrical and electronic equipment, discussed above.

More about wiring in older houses

A good rule of thumb: If you see wire and it's fabric covered, by all means, have a qualified electrician look at it.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission and utility companies recommend panel maintenance every three years. Generally, maintenance involves pulling the panel cover, inspecting all breakers and wiring, re-torquing connections, replacing breakers where necessary, and making recommendations about any further service that may be necessary or desirable. Routine maintenance can avoid a lot of problems.
For homeowners with older wiring for whom rewiring is not an option, your electrician might recommend replacing certain breakers with an arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI). This is a "breaker with a brain," fire protection technology that works just like a regular circuit breaker but also electronically detects arcing. For new construction and significant remodeling, the AFCI is now required for all circuits leading to bedrooms.

Hidden Electrical Hazards - Check Your Grounded Outlets

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Jack LaLanne Juicers - Recipes With Kids in Mind

!±8± Jack LaLanne Juicers - Recipes With Kids in Mind

Jack LaLanne Juicers are a great way to introduce the healthy benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables to your kids. Fruits like apples, red grapes, strawberries, pineapples, melons, and citrus are great for juicing and kids love the sweet taste. Now if you really want to get healthy and a little sneaky too, try incorporating vegetables into the sweet juices without announcing it to the kids. Vegetables like carrots, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, kale (broccoli and spinach), lime, and sweet potatoes are great additives and they don't change the sweet flavor of fruits.

Begin with flavors your children already love, add a few new ingredients that are good for them and later you can branch out into other more exotic ingredients that your children may not know but could learn to like in time or when blended well. The key to successfully introducing new flavors to children is by doing it in small steps and only one new flavor at a time. Sometimes too much can turn them away from trying new things at all. When introducing vegetables to your children whether in a juice or as part of a meal, you will quickly discover that sweet vegetables like sweet potatoes, sweet corn, and carrots go over much better than bland vegetables like peas or green beans.

When shopping for ingredients to be juiced, stick to local grown fruits and vegetables because they are much fresher than items that are transported across from other parts of the country or items that are imported from other countries. When fresh ingredients are not in season, canned or frozen work just as well but make sure you thaw out all frozen ingredients before you place them in the juicer. Drain out the liquid from canned items because most of the liquid is full of sugar in the case of canned fruits like peaches or pineapples and full of starch in the case of vegetables like beans and potatoes.

Here are a few healthy kid friendly juicing recipe ideas:

Pineapple Sweet Surprise
1 fresh pineapple or 2 cans of pineapple (drained)
1 sweet potato
4 large oranges

Sweet Kiwi Medley
4 ripe pears
4 kiwi
2 small apples

Delicious Delight
3 carrots
2 small oranges
1 hand full of grapes (red or white)
1 medium apple

Recipes like these are great places to begin because they all tackle an unpopular ingredient. Sweet potatoes, kiwi, and carrots are typical flavors that children either never tried or don't like. These recipes take those flavors and blend or mask them with the wonderful sweetness of fruits. Your children will never know the difference. Use these recipes as a starting point and experiment with other ingredients you think your children will enjoy. Juicing success involves blending flavors you normally would not mix together and making them taste good. When some of my juices lack sweetness, I simply mix in a little store bought juice just to ensure I can win everyone over.

Jack LaLanne Power Juicers come with an easy to access pulp collector which yields wonderful amounts of pulp from the ingredients you have juiced. I use the pulp to make purees, soups, dips, and even muffins. The possibilities are endless and entirely up to you. I wish you many wonderful juicing experiences and may your power juicer change your life as much as it has changed mine and that of my family.

Jack LaLanne Juicers - Recipes With Kids in Mind

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Don't Use a Pan - Use a Griddle For Pancakes

!±8± Don't Use a Pan - Use a Griddle For Pancakes

To prepare pancakes, you need to start by making the pancake batter. Get a good recipe that is fairly simple to follow, and start measuring out all the ingredients. Follow the instructions on how to mix it all together and you get your batter.

When the better is set, you can finally cook up your pancakes. Just pour out the batter onto the pan, cook, flip, cook some more, and enjoy. That's pretty easy, right? Nothing to it.

Cooking pancakes isn't exactly a science, but you couldn't cook them any which way you want, either. For example, you aren't supposed to bake pancakes. Why not? Because they just wouldn't turn out right. Sticking them in the oven, you wouldn't get the kind of pancakes you're looking for.

If you poured the batter into hot oil and fried it would it still be pancakes? Of course not! In that case, it would be fried dough. And even more, it wouldn't be able to be called 'pan' cakes anymore.

What type of pan should you cook your pancakes on? Technically, you could use a skillet or frying pan to make them and it would work, but it probably would be a little difficult. You could even use a wok if you really wanted to, but you'd have trouble.

A griddle will be the best pan to use. It is almost like the griddle was made just for making pancakes, that's how perfect it is. Get a big one or small one, one fore the stove or an electric griddle.

Electric or stove top griddles are perfect for making pancakes. It's so easy to use them to flip the pancakes over and out of the pan. Use whatever shape you want that will fit your needs.

Electric griddles are great space saving pans. If you cook a lot at once and need the stove, an electric griddle gives you more cooking space on the counter. It is a great use for pancakes.

Don't Use a Pan - Use a Griddle For Pancakes

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