A good friend needs a new electric dryer. I looked at the old dryer its ancient and not worth fixing.
The existing dryer s a 3 prong unit
Will the dryer outlet need upgraded to 4 prong when the new dryer gets installed?
No, the new dryer will have instructions for installing on a 3 prong outlet. (keep it to yourself Doug...)
needs a new electric dryer. I looked at the old dryer
lacking a ground is it safe?
They made them like that for decades and there are no piles of electrocuted bodies. Retrofitting to a 4 wire feed can be difficult to impossible in some places.
could i run a ground line from the new dryer, attached to dryer case, to say a convenient electyric outlet box for safety?
theres a 3 year old wouldnt want anything bad to happen to him
A three wire dryer outlet has a ground, it does not have a neutral. It is perfectly safe.
The outlet already has a ground. The three wires to it are hot, hot and ground. The three wire outlets do not have a neutral.
No, the existing line has an adequate sized neutral/ ground conductor and the neutral and ground connections on the dryer are bonded together. Installing supplemental conductors could cause a new and possibly dangerous path for the current to take. Use it as the NEC allows, or change the entire line to four wire
It is a neutral. The motor runs on 120 volts
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He/she/it made it to 3, why would something be different now?
Do as the instructions for using w/ existing three-wire outlet say.
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No, that _is_ a neutral for the 120V motor circuit...
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I would just upgrade to 4 wire but its not my home and need to keep low profile on this.
Not a matter of cost or work just avoid irritating people:(
I'm of the camp there's no real reason for changing the service "just because" for existing work. Electric driers have not been shown to be unduly hazardous in practice for over fifty years. If you're doing something for a friend or neighbor and want to go the extra mile, fine; but I wouldn't have any concern over going back in as it presently exists. If they want to make a fuss over it, they're off my list... :)
No, it is a *ground*. The old code allowed the ground to be used as a neutral for small loads, the new code does not.
Pete C.
No, it is a *ground*. The old code allowed the ground to be used as a neutral for small loads, the new code does not.
That's why there are no requirements to replace the old three wire dryer circuits with four wire ones. New installations (i.e. home construction, not a new dryer) are required to be four wire circuits. If there was the slightest safety hazard with the old three wire drops, you can be sure that the overbearing homeowners insurance companies would be insisting on replacement of the millions of existing three wire drops.
Pete C.
Section 250.140 of 1999 NEC: states frames of ranges and clothes dryers shall be permitted to be grounded to the "grounded" circuit conductor. FYI a grounded circuit conductor is the neutral, a grounding conductor is the ground
If you actrually read the old 250.50 it says you are using the neutral conductor for grounding. Some (most?) inspectors said this had to be a white insulated wire unless you used the exception that allowed SE cable. It was never legal to use 10/2 wg Romex for a dryer. It was also never legal to feed a 3 wire dryer or range plug from a sub panel. It had to come from the main panel where the ground electrode connected.
You should really look at the wire. You may find that it was actually wired with 10/3 romex and the ground wire is connected to the box (a common method) or cut off at the jacket. In either case you can probably get enough slack to connect the 4 pin receptacle. If it is SE cable (or 10/2 RX) you are stuck with the 3 pin.
My mistake It was 250.60
Here is the text from the 96 code
250-60. Frames of Ranges and Clothes Dryers.(b) The grounded conductor is not smaller than No. 10 copper or No. 8 aluminum.
(c) The grounded conductor is insulated; or the grounded conductor is uninsulated and part of a Type SE service-entrance cable and the branch circuit originates at the service equipment.
Agreed, but it is probably worth removing the outlet cover for a look. Maybe this is a newer house that somebody retrofitted an old-style outlet to, to use an existing dryer pigtail. Not common, but it happens. If this a basement or first-floor laundry, with an open or drop-panel ceiling in basement, and basement service panel, I'd be inclined to replace the run. If the service is out in the garage or something, well.....
aem sends...
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