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Posted by on August 14, 2006, 11:57 am
Hi,
I just moved to a new house and the dryer hookup box has two cables
coming into it. (i.e. there are 2black, 2white(neutural), and 2 ground
wires) . Both of the cables have 30amp breaker each. Can anyone give me
words of advice how to make the connections for a 4 prong hookup.
Thank you in advance
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Posted by hallerb@aol.com on August 14, 2006, 12:48 pm
kalin.ranov@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
> I just moved to a new house and the dryer hookup box has two cables
> coming into it. (i.e. there are 2black, 2white(neutural), and 2 ground
> wires) . Both of the cables have 30amp breaker each. Can anyone give me
> words of advice how to make the connections for a 4 prong hookup.
> Thank you in advance
normally theres only one cable feeding box.
turn breaker off, check entire home for anything not powering on
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Posted by Chris Lewis on August 14, 2006, 12:52 pm
> Hi,
> I just moved to a new house and the dryer hookup box has two cables
> coming into it. (i.e. there are 2black, 2white(neutural), and 2 ground
> wires) . Both of the cables have 30amp breaker each. Can anyone give me
> words of advice how to make the connections for a 4 prong hookup.
> Thank you in advance
This was wired incorrectly from the get-go. It looks as if the
person who used it used two separate 120V (with ground) circuits
to make one 240V one, and promptly didn't bother using the ground.
Code violation amongst other things (separate breakers, multiple cables
for the same circuit). Further, I have my doubts whether
the cable is in fact properly rated for the ampacity you're pulling
from it - if they were stupid enough to wire it the way you have
it now, I wouldn't put it past them to use undersized wire _too_.
Without a very close look at the circuit (eg: wire size, where
the breakers are, tiebars etc), I recommend you call in an electrician
to figure this mess out. I'm not going to tell you how to make the
existing double-cable mess "work". Because it's dangerous, perhaps
_very_ dangerous, and they probably screwed it up in other ways that
you haven't realized yet.
Correctly done for a modern code 4 prong hookup, this circuit _should_
have a single 10gauge 4 conductor cable (black, red, white and bare),
connected to a dual breaker (two breakers connected together with
a tiebar). Which means pulling a new cable.
_If_ the existing cable size was right, and you replaced that breaker
with a dual, you could abandon one of the cables and make it a 3 wire
connection. But I don't recommend that, despite the fact that it's
still code legal (renovation grandfathering) in the US.
It ain't legal, period, in Canada. Hasn't been since at least
WWII. If you try to install a dryer onto an existing circuit,
it MUST be converted to 4-wire. No exceptions whatsoever.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.
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Posted by hallerb@aol.com on August 14, 2006, 3:43 pm
someone may have tapped the 240 for another outlet like perhaps a lttle
used welder or other infrequent load. i must admit doing that.... being
out of breaker slots....
the 2 loads are never on at the same time...
theres also a chance someone doubled up the number of cables to save
buying heavier wire.
really need to know more....
likely not safe but if it feeds say a now unused 240 outlet for welding
and the conductors are heavy enough it wouldnt be a big thing
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Posted by Chris Lewis on August 14, 2006, 10:02 pm
> someone may have tapped the 240 for another outlet like perhaps a lttle
> used welder or other infrequent load. i must admit doing that.... being
> out of breaker slots....
> the 2 loads are never on at the same time...
> theres also a chance someone doubled up the number of cables to save
> buying heavier wire.
Then both wires would be connected to both breakers.
Big no-no. You're not allowed to double up conductors ot
increase ampacity. Nor are you allowed to do this with
conductors smaller than about #2.
Paralleling conductors is almost never useful in a residential
setting, and is only permissible in order to reduce voltage drop.
Each conductor _must_ be sized large enough to carry the full
amps by itself.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.
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