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Have a worn out outlet? Wondering how much does it cost to replace an electrical outlet. Since we are electricians we can answer that. An electrical outlet should cost a minimum of 100 dollars for your electrician to come out to the site and replace it. Providing it is the outlet only and not additional electrical problems. So How Much Does It Cost To Replace An Electrical Outlet? Electrician rates usually very however you most won’t likely get an electrician come out for less than $125 is the minimum charge. So you can count on your outlet being at least $125 to replace. You may want to look at having other electrical work done while the electrician is there to make it worth their while. Especially if you live in a remote location or have a home that is hard to access. The price is also related to the type of outlet it is. If the electrician finds other issues causing the outlet not to work it could cost even more. For example if there is a break in the wire covered up or even worse a mouse chewed the wire. We have actually seen this happen. How Much Does It Cost To Replace An Electrical Outlet If Its 240 Volt? 240 Volt outlets are generally more expensive. It really depends on the amperage the the 240v of that requires. Most of them are 15amps but some can be right up to 50 amp. If you get into a 50 amp 240 V outlet for example for a welder. This can cost upwards of $500 to replace. The welder outlet cable and breaker can be expensive. This will usually take the electrician a couple hours to do so you should be prepared for that. Special purpose outlets can run into a lot of money to replace as well. Some of the outlets have strange configurations to them. Rv or trailer outlets can run into big money. What About A GFCI Outlet? Basic GFCI receptacle cost about $30 dollars. However you’re going have to pay your electrician to come and do this. This will increase the cost of at least $100 dollars. Depending on if it’s just one GFCI receptacle or multiple the cost of it could be even more. At this point you may be better to look at getting a GFCI breaker. A GFCI breaker will give you less headaches and easier to reset if something happens to it to make it trip. Gfci receptacles can be difficult sometimes to troubleshoot. Even for experienced electricians. If you have multiple outlets feeding each other and the line and loads are or were not terminated correctly that can cause all kinds of unnecessary issues and cost. Why Do I Need An Electrician For This? Although you may think that you were handy enough to do this yourself, by code you are required to have an electrician to deal with electricity. At least in Canada anyways. If you insurance company finds out you did the repair and something happens they may not cover you. We cannot tell you how to do this yourself however we can tell you how we would do it. On the back of the receptacle there would be clearly marked line and load. We also look for the colour codes on the back of the receptacle as well. White and black and ground. We would simply just match up the colors up to the wires. The important part is to get the line load correct if the GFI is down feeding something else in the system. To do this we often disconnect the plug completely and then we turn the power on to meter out for 120 volt. This will let us know that it is line coming from the electrical panel. The second set of wires then must go to the load side of the GFCI receptacle. Everything down fed from the load side will be protected by that gfci. Will It Be Cheaper If I Get Them To Do Other Electrical Work? It is definitely a good idea to consolidate other electrical work at your premises. You can have the electrician come out to give you a quote and all this work to do it once. This would save you the $125 minimum flat rate charge fee for them to come out just to change the receptacle. Remember to use your common sense when it comes to spending money and having electrical work done. Most electricians will waive this flat rate fee if you have more than a half a days work for them. Instead of doing one small service call done make up a list for the electrician. Tell them about this list over the phone. This will prepare them so they are not running for parts and charging you for it. How Often Should Outlets be Replaced? You should only need to replace your outdoor receptacle or GFCI receptacle when it no longer works. As mentioned in other articles the red light starts flashing when it’s time to replace it. Having said that it depends on the environment that the GFCI receptacle is installed in. If you live in the salty environment next to the ocean you’ll find the corrosion happens quicker to the internal components of the GFCI receptacle and will need to have it replaced sooner. In some of these style environments we find ourselves replacing GFCIs receptacles at least every two years. This is why it would be more beneficial in an atmosphere like this for you to have a GFCI breaker instead of a receptacle. The breaker will last longer and you will not have to worry about corrosion destroying the breaker. How Much Is It For A New Outlet? Often times when it comes to how much pay for replacing an outlet we find that it is better to install a new outlet then it is to try to play with the old. If there’s issues in the wiring with the receptacle itself then you could lead into problems. At this point it’s best to abandon the old circuit and run a completely new one with a new receptacle. You can expect to pay a few hundred dollars for receptacle. This would be if there’s nothing else that you can come off of and you need to run right back to the electrical panel. The electrician will have to supply a breaker for this new receptacle as opposed to coming off of something else. However you can reduce the cost if you come off of another close by receptacle that permits it by code. What About The Cost Of A Specialty Outlet Like A Dryer? As far as larger equipment expect to pay more. The wire running from the panel is larger. The breaker is larger. The outlet is larger. This results in more labor and hence more cost. You can expect to pay $400-500 for a new dryer receptacle or stove receptacle. Especially if it’s if it is any distance from your electrical panel. You can add even more if it is a hard run through an attic or finished basement and has to be fished. Keep in mind when you have the size outlets installed for example we get calls all the time about welder plugs and the customer thinks it cost $20. One of the biggest surprises some of our customer get is underestimating the depth of some of the labor involved in the work. For more on our recommended products....... Learn More Here