On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 05:19:46 -0400, "Amun"
wrote:
"Bob Vaughan" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Amun wrote:
"Wes Stewart" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 14:35:19 -0700, "SQLit" wrote:
[snip]
3 wire plug is hot, hot and ground.
No. For clothes dryers and ranges, it's Phase, Phase, Grounded
conductor (Neutral)
snipped
I'm not going to squabble about a few volts.
And perhaps my newserver is not showing all the posts in this thread that
might have further info
But if you read the original post the item is a stackable washer dryer, and
some replies are talking about 3 wires.
And the OP says a 4 wire plug was installed "as a choice", but has an
existing outlet in a 2" box (3 wire? 4 wire?)
(the references to the cord as a "pigtail" and "earth ground" has me
guessing too)
Any North American unit would likely need both the 220/240, AND the
110/115/117/120/130, and would need 4 wires to have a ground
I'm assuming that the OP is in the USA. The "four-wire" or
"three-wire" option suggests that.
In older homes the code allowed the grounded conductor (here after
referred to as "neutral") to serve as the grounding conductor (here
after referred to as "ground") for clothes dryers and ranges. IOW, it
was tied to the frame of the appliance. There -is- some voltage drop
on the neutral, which there would not be on a ground wire, unless
there is a fault.
This voltage drop arises from the fact that typically, motors, light
bulbs, timers, etc. were all 120V devices and were connected from one
phase to neutral. The code required a certain minimum sized wire for
the neutral (I'm not going to look it up but it was substantial) that
would minimize the voltage drop to a safe level, as long as nothing
went wrong.
In the newer code, four wires are now required, with the neutral
unbonded from the frame of the appliance and the ground wire used for
the safety ground.
I believe that the OP said there were four wires in the box, so it
makes sense to install the four-wire receptacle and improve the safety
of the installation. If there were not four wires available then
changing the cord-plug to a three-wire is the safe thing to do, since
a four-wire receptacle without the ground wire connected gives a
future user an illusion of safety that isn't there.
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