hot dog. i mean hot cookies.
Is there any reason why even have a neutral wire with an electric stove? I know they generally run the clock and stuff off 120 volts, but couldn’t they run that off 240 instead and save a substantial amount of copper by not needing a neutral? Maybe in the days of a shared neutral and ground they figured why not since it didn’t add any wiring, but those days are over. Also a 240 volt stove could be more safely installed in existing 3 wire installations, with the neutra/ground serving as ground only.
No, because residences get split-single-phase power which includes neutral.
The old ranges with seven or so pushbuttons per burner did some clever switching where the elements ran on 120 for low heat settings and 240 for high. IIRC, it was something like the small burner on 120 was low, the large burner on 120 was medium low, both on 120 was medium, and then the pattern repeats but on 240, ending with both on 240 as high.
So If I have an oven with a NEMA 10-50 Plug, can I rewire it and plug it into a NEMA L6-20?
Are you sure it’s an L6? Those are unusual in residences. In any case, you can’t do this for two reasons:
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The L6-20 receptacle is rated for 20 amps and your oven wants to draw a lot more current than that (up to 50 amps). You will trip the breaker and/or burn your house down.
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The L6 series connectors don’t have a neutral , although they do have a ground pin. The 10-50 connector is designed to ground the case via the neutral pin. That’s not up to code and it isn’t safe.
Im trying to wire the oven up in an industrial building. The outlets are either the L6-20 or a standard outlet. Im just trying to figure out how I can make it work.
The L6-20 in an industrial building makes more sense. (They’re used for equipment running off two legs of a three-phase service, usually.)
The right thing to do is get a qualified electrician to look at it. If the wiring is already sufficient to carry 50 amps, then it’s probably just a matter of changing out the breaker and receptacle. Otherwise it will require running some new wire. In either case, it’s not a huge job. But high-current appliances are not something you want to mess around with. Get it done right or not at all, pretty please with sugar on top.
Thanks