30

We have a "charging station" that has four USB ports on front and four regular outlets, two on each side, that was plugged into a bathroom outlet.

Front view of outlet

Now I am trying to remove it, but it seems to be stuck. There is enough for a gap at the back to see that it appears to be flexing both the back of the charging unit and part of the outlet, so I am afraid that if I pull harder something is going to break.

Top view of outlet

I have been trying to wiggle it up and down and from side to side in order to coax it out, but it is not working. It appears that the is a plastic "pin" (it's white anyway) that is going into one of the grounding holes and that is what is stuck.

It says GE on the front I have tried to look up what model it is hoping to find a manual or something that would give me a clue, but I have found nothing. How can I unplug this device without breaking either the device or part of the wall outlet?

Here is a third picture: it is not a GFCI output (there is no "reset" button on it) and the device is plugged into only the bottom outlet with a plastic pin plugged into the ground of the top, presumably to help stabilize it. side view

Michael
  • 997
  • 6
  • 16
  • 28

1 Answers1

39

Per the suggestion by @AloysiusDefenestrate in the comments, I shut off the power. Then I pushed a large flat-head screwdriver horizontally across in the gap above the plastic pin. In order for there to be enough room for the square screwdriver shaft to fit in the gap I had to push the bottom half down. Once it was in place I started wiggling the bottom to try to pull it back out and suddenly there was a pop and it came free!

Afterwards, I looked at the plastic pin. It did not appear to be burned or melted, but part of the plastic had been scraped off like it had caught on something in the outlet:

back of pin

front of pin

Michael
  • 997
  • 6
  • 16
  • 28