Help! bonehead electrical question
nordindevelopment
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hi there
I’ve sold my first investment property, and close in a week. I had to hook up the electric dryer last minute, and noticed that it hads 10/2 coming out of a sub-panel box above it. when we got the (foreclosed) house, it just had that wire dangling.
How do I wire a receptacle (3 prong) to 10/2 – shouldn’t it be 10/3? The sub panel runs 10/2 all the way back to the panel, and there is nothing else coming out of it.
We should run 10/3 back to the panel I guess, but is there a way around that?
Thanks,
-a
Replies
Get an Electrician, keeps YOU off the hook in case , JUST IN CASE, sumptin aint right.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Enjoyning the finite of matter, in an infinite realm of possibilities...
Thanks, i was hoping to keep "permits" out of this.
-a
Where you building? I havent experienced this personally but i've been told some have problems selling flips undocumented.
BTW why would you need a permit to hook up a dryer? There are established electrical companies around here that will do service changes permit free.
its a foreclosure that was cleaned up. I did all the labor, and part of it was some simple electrical. (without permits) I didn't say that I would need a permit to hook a dryer up, but if I hired an electrician to run a new 240 circuit, (as is being suggested)most would go by the book and have a permit/inspection, and many I talk to insist on that. So, by default, all the wiring I did would end up being looked at.......hence, the problem.
Anytime you run any mechanical systems that need a permit, you put yourself in a libel situation.
No problem if you did your work right and it was truely unpermitted work.
All your electrician is doing is covering his butt. His work is inspected, passes and is considered safe. If he does it without permits and inspections and then something you did goes south.... it is his word against yours. Claiments go for the deep pockets,...his insurance co.
Dave
thanks.
the work was done right, just a little house, things were fixed where a previous owner screwed things up. mostly paint, cupboards, etc.
this was a learning curve project, of course going by the book and covering butts is the only logical and right thing to do, which we do. -no question! my original thought was really why someone would have 10/2 for a dryer circuit?
Ive learned alot from this forum, the first and most important thing being to do it right the first time, follow code..etc.
As you ask the question why someone would do this?
How old is the wire? Real old or pretty new?
But to answer your question- cause they didn't know the quickest way to the grave while saving a couple of bucks on that high priced wire.
About a year or so ago in the paper a student and his friends were moving into their first apartment. The freinds found the other in the laundry/utility room dead. Pluged in the dryer. Handy man owner wired nutral to hot side.Should be red black white in center of recepticle.
Sad. This was in SLC,Ut.
get your friendly nieghborhood electrician - had a run with the 220v dryer wire attached above the "box" - homeower had run it directly off the main supply to the box - lucky it only melted the outlet - and his wife was doing wash during the day - at night, she probably would have put on the dryer and went to bed, never smelling the smokejob security
Is that a sub-panel or a fused disconnect?
I wonder if there was an old hard wired dryer there at one time.
Since this is a new dryer installation is needs a FOUR WIRE connection. That is 10-3 w/ground.
And a sub-panel needs a 4 wire feeder.
Don't know exactly what you have, but most likely your electrican will need to run a new 10-3 back to the main panel and get rid of the "sub-panel".
yes, i guess that is a fused disconnect.
and considering that there was just wire hanging down, probably a
hard wired...
-
Edited 8/12/2006 11:21 pm ET by nordindevelopment