I also have an old school plug in my wall that doesn't go with the connection provided. This may require the services of a licensed electrician, who will need to run a 4-wire cable from the receptacle to the main electrical box.I bought a used electric dryer and the connection that came with it says it's 30amp. If you want the extra margin of safety provided by the 4-wire setup, you will need to change the receptacle rather than the range cord. If you touch the range while also touching a spigot, you become the current's path to ground. Since both the neutral and the ground wire are connected to the range chassis, however, the surface of the range is now conducting electricity. The unused current flows back to the main circuit box via the neutral. The reason a 4-wire range cord is safer than a 3-wire is that range accessories such as fans, timers and digital displays operate at only 110/120 volts and require far fewer amps than the heating elements. ![]() In order to remember the difference between the two, just remember that the “L” goes in the laundry room. On a dryer plug, however, the third plug is bent in the middle at a right angle. On a range plug, the third prong is flat like the other two. The third prong (the one furthest from the wire) serves as both the “neutral” and the ground wire. The two flat prongs closest to the cord itself are “hot,” each feeding 110/120 volts to total 220/240 volts to the range or the dryer. It’s very easy to tell the difference between a 3-wire range plug and a 3-wire dryer plug. That’s why electric range cords are rated at 50 amps, while electric dryer cords are rated at only 30 amps. An electric range requires more amps (higher amperage), than an electric dryer. Amperage, on the other hand, is a measure of the amount of electricity flowing through the wires. Voltage can be thought of as the equivalent of water pressure, or the force with which the current is pushed through the wires. The connecting plugs and receptacles for the two appliances not only look very different but are designed to handle different amounts of current, measured in amperes, or amps for short. That’s OK, however, because the new Code applies only to new construction and it’s pretty easy to change the cord on the new range from a 4-wire to a 3-wire (we’ll tell you next week exactly how to go about doing that.) It’s important, however, to know the difference between a cord for an electric range and one for an electric dryer.Īlthough both electrical cords are designed for use with a 220/240-volt circuit to handle the greater electrical demand of a range or a dryer compared with that of the other small appliances in your household, they are very different from each other and should never be interchanged. If you are replacing a range more than 5 years old it probably has a 3-wire cord that connects with a 3-wire receptacle while the new range will have a 4-wire setup. The National Electrical Code, which was updated in 1999, now requires the use of a 4-wire setup. The newer 4-wire configuration is safer because the neutral and ground wires are separate rather than together, thus better able to prevent electrical shock (see previous e-mail on 3-wire versus 4-wire dryer cords.) ![]() Butler nj - Just like the dryer cords we discussed in a previous artical, electric range cords are available in either a 3-wire or a 4-wire configuration.
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