Can I swap new ears onto an old work electric box?

distro_dave

An electric receptacle and its box are pulling out of the wall because the ears broke off of its old work electrical box. Otherwise it is fine. Can I just swap the ears from the replacement box onto the old one, or should I swap the entire box?

Originally asked by MackM on Stack Exchange (diy) (CC BY-SA 4.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

That looks like a North-America-style old-work box. If in the USA or Canada, code requires using an electrical device like this box according to the manufacturer's instructions. Technically this means that if the instructions don't mention replacing the ears, then it's not within code to switch them out. That said, it seems common sense that if the new box and the old box are the same manufacturer and the old & new box model #, ears, screws, and channel are the same, it would be OK to switch the ears. It's still the same parts on the same manufacturer's box, so it would still be in the same configuration that was tested for fitness by the UL/ETL labs. FWIW the screws are different, so the...

Full answer by Triplefault: https://diy.stackexchange.com/a/333562 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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