I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman also sold me a three prong power cord. I didn't think too much of it, until reading some of these posts. The house was built in 1987, and currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp breaker. Would it be safe to say that I need an electrician to come in and rewire the range outlet? The new range is already in place, but if ranges of today differ from ranges of days gone by...I'd like to know. This is my first house and I would really like to make sure it's safe.

Thank you for any and all advice.

On Tue, 22 Mar 2016 21:16:44 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman also sold me a three prong power cord. I didn't think too much of it, until reading some of these posts. The house was built in 1987, and currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp breaker. Would it be safe to say that I need an electrician to come in and rewire the range outlet? The new range is already in place, but if ranges of today differ from ranges of days gone by...I'd like to know. This is my first house and I would really like to make sure it's safe.

Thank you for any and all advice.

The 3 wire plug is still legal if that was the way it was originally
wired. Just be sure the bonding strap is in place in the range
connecting the neutral to the case of the range. If you want to check
the wiring, be sure the neutral connections are tight in the panel and
at the receptacle.

There is a chance that it is still wired with a 4 wire cable. If so,
it will be easy to use the 4 wire receptacle. Otherwise I would not
worry about it.

On 03/22/2016 11:16 PM, wrote:
I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman also sold me a three prong power cord. I didn't think too much of it, until reading some of these posts. The house was built in 1987, and currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp breaker. Would it be safe to say that I need an electrician to come in and rewire the range outlet? The new range is already in place, but if ranges of today differ from ranges of days gone by...I'd like to know. This is my first house and I would really like to make sure it's safe.

Thank you for any and all advice.




Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the NEC now requires
a four prong outlet and receptacle...for grounding safety purposes.

Return the cord to the store for a refund and hire an electrician to
bring everything up to code.

To answer your question...the ranges have not changed but the safety
codes have.

On Tue, 22 Mar 2016 23:32:43 -0500, philo wrote:

On 03/22/2016 11:16 PM, wrote:
I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman also sold me a three prong power cord. I didn't think too much of it, until reading some of these posts. The house was built in 1987, and currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp breaker. Would it be safe to say that I need an electrician to come in and rewire the range outlet? The new range is already in place, but if ranges of today differ from ranges of days gone by...I'd like to know. This is my first house and I would really like to make sure it's safe.

Thank you for any and all advice.




Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the NEC now requires
a four prong outlet and receptacle...for grounding safety purposes.

Return the cord to the store for a refund and hire an electrician to
bring everything up to code.

To answer your question...the ranges have not changed but the safety
codes have.

The code only applies to new installations, not simple replacement of
cord and plug connected equipment.
As I pointed out, if this was wired with Romex, there should be a
neutral and a ground wire in there anyway. If it was wired with SE
cable, they could have used 3 wire.

You might see 8/2 with ground Romex but that was never legal.
The neutral has to be an insulated white wire with the only exception
of using SE cable.

On Tue, 22 Mar 2016 23:32:43 -0500, philo wrote:




Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the NEC now requires
a four prong outlet and receptacle...for grounding safety purposes.

Return the cord to the store for a refund and hire an electrician to
bring everything up to code.

To answer your question...the ranges have not changed but the safety
codes have.


But the old code is still good if it is the original. No need to
change things and add expense.

Only thing I'd have suggested would be to convert to gas.

If you decide to keep the 3 wire plug, I would add an extra ground wire
connected to the case of the oven to a good ground.

Then you are protected from an open neutral fault.

Mark

wrote in message
...
I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman
also sold me a three prong power cord. I didn't think too much of it, until
reading some of these posts. The house was built in 1987, and currently has
a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp breaker. Would it be safe to say
that I need an electrician to come in and rewire the range outlet? The new
range is already in place, but if ranges of today differ from ranges of days
gone by...I'd like to know. This is my first house and I would really like
to make sure it's safe.

Thank you for any and all advice.



I installed a new stove about 2 months ago. Similar to you . The house was
built in the 1980's with a 3 wire type outlet. I installed the new plug on
the stove myself and made sure the strap that goes from the frame of the
stove is connected to the neutral wiring post on the stove.

I feel safe doing it this way. As a retired industrial electrician that
worked with circuits up to 480 volt 3 phase almost every day I would not
have something around the house that I did not think was safe.

There is no need to go to a seperate ground wire if the circuit is already
in the house as it met the code when installed. At the breaker box the
neutral and ground wire go to the same place, so all you are doing is
running 2 parallel wires so to speak. While the seperate ground wire is
slightly safer, it is not enought to matter in most cases, especially if all
the wiring is in good shape.

I look on that as I do on my front door. When I bought the house it had a
good heavy dead bolt on the door. You would think that would be good, but
right beside it is a glass. It would be easy to just break the glass and
reach in and turn the deadbolt. The back door has the glass in the same
place, but no deadbolt. So which do you thing is safer ?

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 10:22:43 AM UTC-4, wrote:
If you decide to keep the 3 wire plug, I would add an extra ground wire
connected to the case of the oven to a good ground.

Then you are protected from an open neutral fault.

Mark

And when you do that, you've just made whatever that "good ground" is
a current carrying conductor. It will share the neutral current with
the existing neutral for the stove receptacle. And that is a code
violation.

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 12:16:54 AM UTC-4, wrote:
I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman also sold me a three prong power cord. I didn't think too much of it, until reading some of these posts. The house was built in 1987, and currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp breaker. Would it be safe to say that I need an electrician to come in and rewire the range outlet? The new range is already in place, but if ranges of today differ from ranges of days gone by...I'd like to know. This is my first house and I would really like to make sure it's safe.

Thank you for any and all advice.

I know that some may think that this is a ridiculous question, but one never
really knows.

Is is safe to assume that you are replacing an *electric* range with a
*electric* range?

I ask because it is possible that the previous owner switched to gas but
left the original receptacle and breaker in place, simply changing the cord
on the gas range. Yes, a terrible hack, but we've seen worse.

I'm just making sure that we have all of the required information.

On 2016-03-23 7:02 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On Tue, 22 Mar 2016 23:32:43 -0500, philo wrote:




Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the NEC now requires
a four prong outlet and receptacle...for grounding safety purposes.

Return the cord to the store for a refund and hire an electrician to
bring everything up to code.

To answer your question...the ranges have not changed but the safety
codes have.


But the old code is still good if it is the original. No need to
change things and add expense.

Only thing I'd have suggested would be to convert to gas.

Yep, when I redid our entire kitchen I discovered that the stove was
hard-wired, I went and bought the box, socket and cord, so it could be
plugged in and installed it. Simple swap as I had four wires in the
cable. Wasn't necessary but easy to do when the wall was down anyway.

--
Froz...

Quando omni flunkus, moritati

On 3/23/2016 10:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:


Is is safe to assume that you are replacing an *electric* range with a
*electric* range?

I ask because it is possible that the previous owner switched to gas but
left the original receptacle and breaker in place, simply changing the cord
on the gas range. Yes, a terrible hack, but we've seen worse.

I'm just making sure that we have all of the required information.


I don't follow this. If the original 220V receptacle and breaker are in
place it is still code. Just plug in the proper cord. Gas ranges are
110V. Even if he hacked an Edison circuit from it nothing else would
change.

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 2:15:57 PM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 3/23/2016 10:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:


Is is safe to assume that you are replacing an *electric* range with a
*electric* range?

I ask because it is possible that the previous owner switched to gas but
left the original receptacle and breaker in place, simply changing the cord
on the gas range. Yes, a terrible hack, but we've seen worse.

I'm just making sure that we have all of the required information.


I don't follow this. If the original 220V receptacle and breaker are in
place it is still code. Just plug in the proper cord. Gas ranges are
110V. Even if he hacked an Edison circuit from it nothing else would
change.

Let's see what he said:

"I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman
also sold me a three prong power cord."

Do you know for a fact that it's a electric range? Gas ranges can be
free standing and have a three prong power cord.

"The house ... currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp
breaker."

Have you been in his house to see what style outlet this is and what size
wire runs to the 40 amp breaker?

All I am saying is that everyone is *assuming* that what he bought will
work with what he has, but we really don't actually know. Just sayin'

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 5:37:20 PM UTC-5, DerbyDad03 wrote:

Do you know for a fact that it's a electric range? Gas ranges can be
free standing and have a three prong power cord.

"The house ... currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp
breaker."

Have you been in his house to see what style outlet this is and what size
wire runs to the 40 amp breaker?

All I am saying is that everyone is *assuming* that what he bought will
work with what he has, but we really don't actually know. Just sayin'

The salesman sold him a cord and the outlet is 40A...do you actually need and more information to assume this is an electric range?

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 6:36:00 PM UTC-5, bob_villain wrote:
On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 5:37:20 PM UTC-5, DerbyDad03 wrote:

Do you know for a fact that it's a electric range? Gas ranges can be
free standing and have a three prong power cord.

"The house ... currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp
breaker."

Have you been in his house to see what style outlet this is and what size
wire runs to the 40 amp breaker?

All I am saying is that everyone is *assuming* that what he bought will
work with what he has, but we really don't actually know. Just sayin'

The salesman sold him a cord and the outlet is 40A...do you actually need and more information to assume this is an electric range?

"any more"

On 3/23/2016 6:37 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 2:15:57 PM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 3/23/2016 10:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:


Is is safe to assume that you are replacing an *electric* range with a
*electric* range?

I ask because it is possible that the previous owner switched to gas but
left the original receptacle and breaker in place, simply changing the cord
on the gas range. Yes, a terrible hack, but we've seen worse.

I'm just making sure that we have all of the required information.


I don't follow this. If the original 220V receptacle and breaker are in
place it is still code. Just plug in the proper cord. Gas ranges are
110V. Even if he hacked an Edison circuit from it nothing else would
change.

Let's see what he said:

"I recently purchased a new free standing range from Best Buy. The salesman
also sold me a three prong power cord."

Do you know for a fact that it's a electric range? Gas ranges can be
free standing and have a three prong power cord.

"The house ... currently has a three prong outlet connected to a 40 amp
breaker."

Have you been in his house to see what style outlet this is and what size
wire runs to the 40 amp breaker?

All I am saying is that everyone is *assuming* that what he bought will
work with what he has, but we really don't actually know. Just sayin'


Having bought a few gas ranges, they all came with a cord attached for
110V. Having bought or installed electric appliances, NONE of the 220V
came with cords except AC units. 40A three prong is typical in tens of
thousands of houses using electric ranges.

I don't have any question as to what he has.