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Adding a ground to a 3-wire dryer receptacle

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stklein

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Location
Bellevue, WA
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Technical Program Manager
Greetings all. Just moved into a new house that has an existing 3-wire 220v 30a receptacle for the dryer. I would like to update it to a 4-wire receptacle. (not important, but I want to do this so that I can also use the outlet for another device that requires a 4-prong plug). This means that I need to add a ground to the existing receptacle.

Running new 10-3 nm from the service panel is going to be very difficult - but not impossible.

My other option is to run a separate ground from the existing receptacle bonded to the cold water line. The main water pipe enters the house about 4 feet away from the existing receptacle. There is existing 6 ga copper stranded that bonds the cold water, hot water, and gas pipes in the house that presumably provides ground for other circuits in the house. The last time I researched this my area was under NEC 2008. Now we are under NEC 2020. Is there anything preventing me from just running a new 6 ga ground directly from the receptacle to the cold water pipe at the point the pipe enters the house? Or does something require ground and neutral be bonded at the service panel for 220v 30a?

Thanks in advance and cheers!
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Retired Electrical Contractor
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