Dryer outlet with no GRD. question

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zappy

zappy

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Location
CA.
Customer bought a new stacked washer and dryer 220v. There existing outlet is three prong, cord on the wash/dryer four prong. So questions are: 1. Can i put a four prong outlet and put a sticker "no equipment GRD." 2. Change the cord to a three prong, and take a piece of 10awg wire and tie the GRD. and the neutral together.
 
Just change the cord on the appliance to a 3-prong and bond the neutral and ground together on the appliance if it's not done already. Don't even think of doing option #1.
 
I would first try and convince the owner to upgrade the wire to four conductors. If that was not the direction they wanted then I would do as Peter said--change the cord on the unit making sure the neutral and ground are bonded together.
 
zappy said:
Customer bought a new stacked washer and dryer 220v. There existing outlet is three prong, cord on the wash/dryer four prong. So questions are: 1. Can i put a four prong outlet and put a sticker "no equipment GRD." 2. Change the cord to a three prong, and take a piece of 10awg wire and tie the GRD. and the neutral together.
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I'd suggest you spend some time with 250.140.
 
zappy said:
Can i put a four prong outlet and put a sticker "no equipment GRD."
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This would be a violation of 406.3(B) (unless you GFCI it :D:D:D:wink:) and 250.140.

It would also be very reckless because there would be not return path for ground faults.

250.140 allows you to change the cord to 3 prong for existing circuits. Of course as was already mentioned don't don't don't forget to bond that neutral to the frame or again not fault path and dangerous.
 
Have you actualy taken the outlet out of the wall yet? Ive seen some 3 prong dryer outlets run in 10-3 romex, and the EGC was just pushed to the back of the box. You may be able to compliantly install the 4 prong receptacle.

Also, if the 4 wire cord is to remain, check to make sure that whoever installed it removed the neutral-to-EGC bond - it often isn't.
 
JohnJ0906 said:
Have you actualy taken the outlet out of the wall yet? Ive seen some 3 prong dryer outlets run in 10-3 romex, and the EGC was just pushed to the back of the box. You may be able to compliantly install the 4 prong receptacle.

Also, if the 4 wire cord is to remain, check to make sure that whoever installed it removed the neutral-to-EGC bond - it often isn't.
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Good advice. This happened to me once. In my own house. Moved in and found three wire receptacle. changed cord to to match. Somewhere along the way I realized there was an egc doing nothing. Ten years later I changed everything to four wire. :grin:


If the appliance people installed the cord you can almost bet they left the bonding jumper and didn't use any strain releif on the cord.
 
electricmanscott said:
Good advice. This happened to me once. In my own house. Moved in and found three wire receptacle. changed cord to to match. Somewhere along the way I realized there was an egc doing nothing. Ten years later I changed everything to four wire. :grin:
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The old school way was to install the 10/3 in a single gang box. I even worked for a guy who did this. :roll: The 3 wire receptacles fit just fine, but the 4 wire receptacles have to be pushed in with a hammer - literally. They scrape the sides of the box.
 
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