I’m putting a electric range in an older house that has a 3-prong rather than the newer 4-prong outlet. I picked up a range power cord at the hardware store, but the wires on the power cord aren’t color coded. It look pretty straight-forward,the cord is flat and it looks the with the outer wires going to the outer terminals and the middle wire go to the neutral terminal.
Is this correct? Also does anyone know which prongs on the power cord correspond to Red, Black and White, so I double check it with my ohmmeter? The wires going to the terminals on the range are color coded.
Your new plug has two hots and a ground. The hots are generally red and black but they are interchangeable. So it doesn’t really matter which of the hot terminals you use for each wire.
Your oven should have instructions for a 3 wire plug. New ovens usually have 4 terminals for a 4 wire plug. Hot, Hot, Neutral, and ground. Since you are wiring with only three wires the neutral and ground need to serve the same purpose. On some set ups they have a jumper to connect the two, others may instruct you to use only the ground terminal or only the neutral.
agree that the outside wires are hot and either can be red or black.
the center is the neutral which is white. the instructions may have you connect the frame to the neutral with a jumper. read and follow the instructions.
If you connect the oven’s neutral and ground together, the safety ground would be carrying a current, yes? I didn’t think that was legal. Because if there is ever a break/discontinuity in the ground connection, the stove’s metal chassis would become hot.
Neutral = grounded conductor. Ground = grounding conductor. So long as one of those is connected to the chassis of the stove a hot wire coming loose will result in the same effect. The hot goes straight to ground and blows the breaker/fuse.
It’s a gray area. All new installations require a 3wire + ground be run.
The older stoves didn’t require a neutral as there was no part of the oven that needed it. All physical controls and the heating elements were 220v.
When things like clocks and lights started being added they still didn’t adjust to accommodate that. The oven manufacturers simply sent one leg to ground to power the 120v components. So yes the safety ground is carrying current(typically very little)
Not as safe as newer wiring methods but not dangerous enough that the government needs to step in and force expensive electrical upgrades.
3 wire set ups are simply a relic of an earlier time that will eventually get phased out as people remodel homes.