How to Wire a Plug

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Woodie's DIY will show you how to wire a plug. This will help make your appliances more safe and secure.

How to do it

Step 1

Take off old plug by unscrewing the centre screw on the plug using a Philips head screwdriver and taking off the casing.

Step 2

Loosen the bottom two screws to release the wire clamp in the plug.

Step 3

Use the flat head screwdriver to loosen the terminals in the plug and release the wires from the terminal. It’s important at this point to take a note of which wire goes to which terminal.

Step 4

Take the flex from the old plug.

Step 5

Take the casing off the new plug by unscrewing the centre screw.

Step 6

Loosen one of the bottom screws in the new plug and remove the second so that wire clamp can be opened fully.

Step 7

If the wires were damaged cut off the old wires so that you are inserting fresh wires into the plug. You may or may not need to do this.

Step 8

Remove any extra unnecessary insulation from the outside of the wire. Make sure you don’t snip any of the internal wires when removing the outer casing. If you do, cut these wires off and start again.
There should be three smaller wires inside the outer insulation – these are what will be wired to the plug. The wires are:
• Green/Yellow = Earth
• Brown = Live
• Blue = Neutral
You will need to have these at differing lengths due to their positioning in the plug. Live will be the shortest, Neutral will be the next size and Earth will be the longest piece.

It’s a good idea to leave a note of these coloured wires in your toolbox for future jobs.

Step 9

Strip back a small amount of insulation from the top of the three internal wires. This should expose the fine copper wires underneath. Twist the copper wires tightly. This ensures a better connection.

Step 10

Loosen the terminal screws inside the plug using a small flat head screwdriver. Insert the wires into the correct terminals and tighten the small screws in the terminal. Ensure all the connections are fully tightened.