Old 3 wire dryer in new house with 4 wire receptacle

15 years ago

I am in the process of moving into a new house, dryer out let has 4 wires, my old dryer has three prong connector. I purchased a new 3 prong receptacle for the wall and it has 3 places for wires but there are 4 wires.

Receptacle has red, black, white and bare copper. The directions tell me where everthing goes except the bare copper wire.

Any ideas? Thanks!!

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Comments (6)

itsunclebill
15 years ago
Put the 4 wire receptacle back in just like it was and take the 3 wire receptacle back.

Purchase a 4 wire cord for the dryer. The middle terminal on the dryer should have some kind of jumper, either a bare metal strip or a green wire, that gets removed. There should be a place marked where the green wire in the cable goes on the dryer. The black, white and red wires in the cable go to the terminal block.

There should be a diagram for all this on the dryer.

The standard for dryer wiring is to use 4 wires instead of 3 and it is not code compliant to change back to 3 wire.
buster100
Original Author
15 years ago
Sounds easy enough, thanks for the help. My wife was hoping to just go purchase a fancy new dryer.
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How did the receptacle get damaged? Any current generating enough heat the damage the receptacle should have tripped the breaker. Nothing that you plug into an outlet should damage the branch wiring in your home. As for running a length of wire, you can use a junction box provided it remains accessible. You can't bury the box behind drywall etc. Really though, if part of the wire got hot enough to be damaged, I'd just replace the whole run back to the panel. Overall, I wouldn't trust the "dryer guy" for electrical advice. Get a qualified electrician out there asap.
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While dryers and ranges have typically been 120/240 V loads there is a long standing exception allowing the use of 3-wire circuits. The exception still allows the use of the older 3-wire circuits and almost all ranges and dryers come with instructions for either installation. The change to the exception is that it is now strictly a 'grandfather' exception. All new circuits must be 4-wire, and if any changes are made to a 3-wire circuit it must be changed to 4-wire. Many ranges and dryers do not even come with a cord attached, but one is purchased to match the circuit in the house the unit will be installed in. The difference in the equipment is usually the removal of a bonding screw between the neutral terminal and the chassis. A 3-wire installation bonds the neutral to the chassis for safety, while a 4-wire uses the ground in the circuit to ground the chassis. The wire resistance is low enough that having a neutral grounded chassis for the small 120 V loads (motor and timer typically) does not produce enough voltage drop in the wiring to be detected by people (the chassis has a voltage equal to the voltage drop in the neutral leg present).
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Ignoring the ground wires(since you know where they go) I can't be any clearer than this. You have two terminals(the part where you push the wire in next to the screw terminal is the same terminal, maybe that is your sticking point?) on the old switch. Let's call them line and load. The line terminal is the one with the 'mystery' wire. The load terminal is the other one. Take All the wires on the load side, marrette them to the load Side wire on your new device. Take the wire from the other terminal, marrette it to the other wire on the new device. Ta-da!
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cobraguy- I guess "installed" was the wrong word. The new receptacle is wired and hanging out of the current, too small, box (power off at main). I didn't even think about seeing if I needed a new box...it looked like it would fit the same as the old. I guess I was wrong. I now have a new square metal box to install and still need to get a faceplate for the outside.
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petey_racer
15 years ago
"My wife was hoping to just go purchase a fancy new dryer."

You could always go that route anyway hoping to score some nookie points. ;)
davidandkasie
15 years ago
My wife was hoping to just go purchase a fancy new dryer

and a new dryer does nto come with a cord usually either! have to buy it seperately now.
buster100
Original Author
15 years ago
Not sure I understand where the green wire goes. I purchased the new dryer cord and re-installed the original 4 wire receptacle. New cord I see where everything but the green wire hooks up. There is a green wire from the dryer hooked up about two inches from the terminal block, do I just add the green wire here? The dryer was new in 1996. Thanks
davidandkasie
15 years ago
in the dryer the green and white wire are currently tied together. or you have a jumper from teh white connection to the chassis of the dryer. remove this jumper and put the green wire from teh new cord to the chassis where it was hooked up.

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Old 3 wire dryer in new house with 4 wire receptacle

Comments (6)

itsunclebill

buster100
Original Author

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Old 3 wire dryer in new house with 4 wire receptacle

Comments (6)

itsunclebill

buster100Original Author

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petey_racer

davidandkasie

buster100Original Author

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buster100
Original Author

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Original Author