We bought a new house 25 years ago. The wall plug receptacles never from day one would hold a plug. Are they defective or are there springs missing that would keep them in place? Can they be adjusted or do I need to replace them all? All my receptacles have the third prong opening for ground.
Electrical – Plugs won’t stay in wall receptacle
electrical
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You might be able to get away with mounting an extension to the existing box, then using a box cover with conduit knockout and a cable clamp you could run your cable out the front of the box instead of through the side knockouts.
That explanation doesn't really make any sense to me personally. The neutral bus bar in your main panel should be bonded to the ground bus bar so in effect, all neutral wires in your house are grounded.
The third prong in a typical three prong outlet is known as the equipment ground. This is a safety feature that should cause your breaker to trip if an electrical fault inside of an appliance causes the metal body of the appliance to become energized. The equipment ground protection however is a safety feature for YOU so that you won't be electrocuted in the case of an appliance fault. It doesn't and shouldn't make any difference at all do the proper functioning of an appliance.
If an appliance you (recently purchased, older appliances may not have the same quality standards!) purchased has only a two prong plug, then it is essentially assured to not be an electrocution hazard in the case of an electrical fault, or it is not capable of having such a fault.
So basically what I am saying, the appliance you are talking about would never have been grounded anyway if it has a two prong plug. Grounding has nothing to do with the failure of your appliance.
You must have misheard because perhaps the tech support person meant to say "Ungrounded Neutral" which potentially could be a problem for sensitive electronics. The neutral (connected to the center tap in the main panel) can and does carry an electrical charge, so the neutral bus bar should be grounded to the outside through the use of a grounding rod to bring Neutral to Earth Ground.
If your home was built in 1959 then it is possible that the grounding rod was never placed deep enough into the earth to provide proper grounding, or perhaps it rusted away over time. How far the grounding rod needs to go depends highly on the region you live in too. I used to live in a home built in 1958 and had a similar problem. A qualified electrician would be able to fix this for you, or an adventurous DIY'er.
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Best Answer
Definitely replace as many as you can. Residential grade receptacles from that era are/were total junk.
If you can, I would definitely get "spec-grade" receptacles. These are commercial duty devices that are MUCH better than resi grade stuff.
Also, I agree, you will most likely have to install TR, or tamper-resistant, receptacles, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
For a 25 year old home most areas requiring GFI protection will already have it, but you will have to add them in some areas like protecting all kitchen counter receptacles. They don't all need to be GFI devices, just GFI protected.
Please ask if you are not sure of the requirements.