Doug Neumann wrote:
Hi,
I'm in the process of replacing a gas stove with an electric oven and
separate cooktop which has me playing with 220V current and I've got a
couple questions... I've got a 220V circuit that was run when the house was
built but never hooked up since we were using gas. I'd like to use this for
the oven, but it's not quite long enough. I'm hoping somebody can help me
answer the following:
1. Can I splice the existing 220 line to another 10 feet of cable to make
it reach?
2. Do I need a special junction box for this or can I use the same ones I
use with 110?
3. The wires are quite large. I can't imagine I'd be able to twist them
with the wires from another cable and put on a wire nut like I've done with
110 in the past. How do I join them together? A butt splice?
4. The oven manual explicitly states to attach it to copper wire. It
appears, though, that the existing wire is aluminum. Do I need to replace
the entire wire? Can I splice in copper and be fine?
Thanks,
-Doug
You need to determine whether your stove requires a neutral connection
(for the oven light, ignitors, etc.). It probably does. You need to
determine how many conductors are in the existing cable. If the stove
requires a neutral connection, and if the existing cable only has 2 hot
wires and a grounded wire, you cannot extend it and keep the current
configuration.
Do the old wires terminate in a big brown receptical? Even if there are
only 3 wires, you could still use it if you attached an extra-long cord
to the stove and plugged it into the old outlet. (This is unlikely to
be acceptable because it will be hard to hide the long cord, but I
thought I'd mention it)
If the wires are old enough, they might be tinned copper and they just
look like aluminum.
In the unlikely event that you do have 4 conductors, you can splice onto
them, and you can even splice copper to aluminum. But you have to use a
really big junction box, and the right connectors, and you have to
prepare the ends properly if they are aluminum.
If it were me, I would probably run a brand new aluminum cable (#4 or #6
aluminum type SER cable) from the breaker panel to stove and install a
NEMA 14-50R receptical right behind the stove. Then put a 4' or 6'
cord-and-plug set on the stove. This will come in handy later when you
need to remove or replace the stove -- you can just unplug it. And any
stove can be made to plug into a 14-60R outlet.
Bob
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