Range shocking people

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Stevenfyeager

Senior Member
Location
United States, Indiana
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electrical contractor
A range was shocking people. I found 119 volts from some screws in the oven to ground! It was improperly wired, a 3 wire with no bonding strap. Also the terminal block was broken and had been held together with tape. One of the hot lugs was loose and may have been touching the junction cover on the stove, but no sign of any heat, black, etc. is this because the missing bonding strap means it was not grounding and therefore no arc whatsoever? The only grounding would be a person touching the stove ? Thank you
 
good possibility the lack of a ground path is the problem. Once you install the strap any serious faulty current flow will identify itself :)
 
Nice work. Those stoves & clothes dryers do lots of shocking, even without tape & broken bonding. Most of the time, unqualified wiring is the norm
 
Stevenfyeager said:
A range was shocking people. I found 119 volts from some screws in the oven to ground! It was improperly wired, a 3 wire with no bonding strap. Also the terminal block was broken and had been held together with tape. One of the hot lugs was loose and may have been touching the junction cover on the stove, but no sign of any heat, black, etc. is this because the missing bonding strap means it was not grounding and therefore no arc whatsoever? The only grounding would be a person touching the stove ? Thank you
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More than likely. When that broken terminal block/loose wire touched the metal frame, it raised the potential of the frame to its own (~120V). Without the bonding strap, without a path back to the source (panel), the breaker didnt trip and the range is sitting at 120V. No burn marks because no current was flowing.

Once the terminal block is replaced and a bonding strap installed, check the frame again to make sure your/the repairs fixed the cause of the shock.
 
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