The Great Cryo'd Outlet Test

Stehno: One outlet I sent to Ed only had one set of connecting screws. I'm assuming he took the outlet with both sets of screws and removed them so that both outlets are identical to you. That means that there could be some confusion with respect to which screws are cryoed and not cryoed; ie. you could be listening to a cryoed outlet with non-cryoed screws and vice versa. Personally, I doubt whether that could have much of an effect on the outcome. I had not used either outlet in a very long time and can't even recall where exactly I had them in use. I believe Ed ran them on his refrigerator for a few weeks, but not sure whether he did each half of each receptacle. If there's any doubt, you could simply pop each one on your fridge or freezer with 3 days or so on each half and I think you'd be fine. Frankly, I'd just go ahead and use them at this stage. Obviously with your wiring situation, you'll need to use both sets of connecting screws with each outlet. Have fun and see if you can hear the difference.

Ed: just out of curiousity, seeing that you sent both outlets to Stehno with only one set of screws in each, did you mark the receptacles at your end before sending them off to identify the cryoed one?

Hdm, my previous post was mostly tongue-in-cheek.

My intention is to leave the one I installed in for about about a week and then swap in the other for another week or so.

Stehno: Great-it's hard to get that tongue-in-cheek cheek stuff sometimes when it's in writing. Thought some of those ungrounded circuits of yours might of fried your air conditioning or something!

Yeah, I'm really quite surprised at the almost mass hysteria of some of those guys.

You were quite diplomatic I might add.

-IMO

Hdm and Stehno....Some facts...

There is zero chance that I mixed up the outlets which I received (although I have no way, except trust, to know what I was given). I was, of course, aware of the risk of mixup, and took suitable precautions.

The screws were removed and placed in the plastic bag when I first received the outlets. I thought that the "two screw" outlet might be a way of telling which was which, although I guess Hdm did something more clever than that!

On the back of each outlet I marked "A" and "B" just in case the little slips of paper got lost.

Both sides of both outlets were "burned in" on the refrigerator. (That's why it took so long).

I am 90 percent sure that the Cryo'd outlet was the one with two sets of screws. I didn't think to note this carefully, as I didn't think the screws were significant. The extra screws were simply removed: no chance that screws were switched between outlets.

The outlets were sent to Stehno labeled "A" and "B". A sealed envelope contains the key.