New a/c 5200 btu needs “3 wire 15 amp outlet w/ time delay fuse…”. Old house has 60 amp svce, four 15 amp fuses, room has one 2 prong outlet. I know, I know, we need to rewire, but meantime, can we safely use a 3 prong adapter to connect the 3 prong a/c to 2 prong outlet??
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Replace your old outlet with a ground fault interruptor. It won't need a ground to work qnd will offer protection. Get a good one because some cheapies will trip when an inductive load shuts down sometimes. Your old 2 prong plug is probably worn and could present a fire hazard. As a minimum, replace the outlet with a new one. If you're lucky as HE double toothpicks, there is a grounded box and you can just replace the 2 prong with a 3 prong outlet, but you'd be a lot more lucky than me if that was the case. Don't just replace the 2 prong with a 3 prong unless it's properly grounded.
What Martha says. The adapters are unsafe from two standpoints: First, even if "grounded" to the outlet box they don't provide a very good (ie, safe) ground, and second, they introduce an extra set of contacts with associated voltage drop and heating into a high-amp circuit. Replacing with a GFCI outlet will prevent both these problems.