Why would an electric receptacle have 3 hot and 3 neutral wires With one set of wires screwed into the sides of the outlet and the other two sets pushed into the back?

Answer 1

no you have to improperly install it....... :P Shut off the power to the receptacle. Now remove the three black wires from one side of the old receptacle and twist them all together with your pliers. Make a short pigtail 6 inches long, same colour and wire size. Now twist this pigtail into the other three wires. Hold all four wires together with the appropriate size wire nut. Do the same with the white wires. Push all the wires into the back of the receptacle box. Connect the two pigtail wires to the new receptacle black wire to the brass coloured screw, white wire to the silver coloured screw. Screw the new receptacle back into the box, install cover plate, turn the power back on. Done deal.

Answer 2

This is the correct way to wire receptacles. Because more that one receptacle can be put on a circuit what you are seeing is the power to other receptacles and the use of this box as a junction box. It sounds like the splice is the way it should be. All of the splices in the back of the box with a pigtail from both the black and the white brought forward and connected to the duplex receptacle The reason the wiring is done this way is to facilitate the removal and replacement of the receptacle without disturbing the splice to the other devices in the circuit. Light fixtures can be fed out of these splices also. For a light switch, two wires will go from a wall receptacle to the light switch and then to the light fixture box. In the switch box the white wires will be spliced together and pushed to the back of the box and then the two black wires will be connected across the switch. When the switch is turned on the voltage is applied to the fixture junction box.