News wrote:
I noticed the circuit that feeds my double oven is split at a junction
box to wire both the oven and a former range top. The wire to the
junction box is SER aluminum with a 50amp breaker.

At the junction box the wire is split to two smaller wires (one to the
oven, one to the old range top with the wires capped). The wire is
brown, solid and unmarked. It looks like 8 gauge.

I'm sure this is not safe. I would like to reduce the breaker size to
match the brown wire and remove the unused brown wire from the junction
box.

The double oven is marked 120/240 - 7000 watts. I believe that
requires a a dbl 40amp.

I just want to verify that I should change the dbl 50amp to a 40amp to
match the wire and that 40amp is correct for 120/240@7000watts. I will
verify the brown wire is 8 gauge.

Here are a few pictures of the junction box with wires:
http://66.232.129.14/o/oven1.jpg
http://66.232.129.14/o/oven2.jpg
http://66.232.129.14/o/oven3.jpg


Thank you,
John



This is very common and allowed by the electric code. I was going to
say it was probably done correctly, but the wirenuts are wrong if the
SER is really aluminum -- but it could be tinned copper. If you have
aluminum and copper wire spliced together, you need to use a AL7CU or
AL9CU rated connector (there's one other rating too, but I don't
remember if it's CO/ALR or what.) The aluminum and copper are supposed
to be separated by a tin-plated divider that's part of the connector.

Bob