#Three prong 240 volt plug how to
#Three prong 240 volt plug install
#Three prong 240 volt plug upgrade

The box itself was not very deep, what I should have done was cut the wires for the hots and neutral short because they were a pain to twist around with them being 10 gauge. I went ahead and cut out some of the sheet rock to enlarge the hole and put in a new 2 gang mud plate. It did indeed have a mud plate, the opening was a bit too small for the new outlet to fit through, the previous 3 prong outlet did fit in there since it had a round body with only 3 connections.

The new outlet also has a grounding strip connecting it to the plate of the outlet, although some don't recommend relying on that to ground the outlet.Įdit: to clarify, there is a threaded 10-32 in the box, which I plan to use with grounding screws I bought. I am also not sure if the ground wire is connected to anything else below the box, although it's doubtful. Also, since 10 gauge wire is thicker, it might be tougher to wrap around ground screw and read someone recommending using a yellow fork terminal connector, I thought those were only for stranded wires? Some questions I have, can I leave the ground wire as is and just run a standalone pigtail from ground screw to the outlet since the box is already grounded or does the piece of copper wire going to the outlet have to be twisted together with the ground wire using a wire connector? If they must be twisted together, can I use a grounding wire connector with a hole and top and just have the pigtail from the screw go through the hole into the outlet while twisted together with the ground wire? I would save a little space at least.

#Three prong 240 volt plug how to

However this box is small and these are 10 gauge wires, I don't see how to squeeze all that in together with the outlet in this tiny box. I would have to cut the ground wire because I cannot get it out of it's current pinched/squeezed position. Other 'proper' method is to grab 2 extra pieces of copper wire, and using a wire nut twist them together with the ground wire, with 1 scrap pigtailed to the ground screw and the other going to the outlet. If using the grounding screw, if the copper wire coming from the bundle is long enough, wrap around the screw and then to the outlet. All the research I've done says to ground the box first then the outlet, using either a ground screw or grounding clip. What would be the best way to go about grounding the box and outlet? I bought some 10 gauge wire, grounding wire connectors, grounding screws and clips.

#Three prong 240 volt plug upgrade

I decided to upgrade to a 4 prong outlet and dryer cord. I confirmed the box is grounded with a multimeter reading 120v between one of the hots and the box. There is no ground screw, I assume they did it this way to ground the metal box.

The copper wire is pinched between the box and what looks like some kind of face plate. It being an old townhouse built in the late 60's I assumed there wouldn't be a ground wire, but when I took the outlet out I noticed there was a metal electrical box with with the 2 hots, neutral, and an extra bare copper wire. This just simply separates the ground circuit and neutral circuit versus having the ground line act as a neutral in the older circuit above.I was going to replace an old 3 prong dryer receptacle with a new one. The neutral line is a return line for the voltage and should not be done through the green ground wire, even though a neutral and ground are really the same, so new codes require a dedicated neutral line as well as a dedicated ground line. The difference between this diagram and the 4-prong outlet below is the addition of a neutral wire.

#Three prong 240 volt plug install

If your running a new circuit, I highly recommend that you bring your outlet up to code and install a 4-prong dryer outlet. Now a 3-prong outlet is outdated from modern electrical codes but is accepted if you already have one in your home. This size breaker requires a minimum of a #10 gauge wire so this wire used would be a 10/2 with ground. This circuit originates from the breaker box containing a 2-pole 30 Amp breaker. The 3 prong wiring diagram above shows the proper connections for both ends of the circuit.