Replace 220v electric oultlet?

Question

My 22-year old home has two 220v electric outlets in the kitchen. One used to be for a wall double oven and the other for a cooktop range.

Long story short, the appliances died and I ended up buying a free-standing range. Because it's cable was a 4-prong, I changed the range cable to a 3 prong.

The problem is that one of the terminals on the cable doesn't fit the 220v outlet where I'm supposed to connect it.

When I looked at the 220v electric outlet where the double oven used to be connected, it seemed that the range cable would fit well (all 3 prongs), however, the range is too far to connect it.

My question... is it safe for non-professional electrician like me to turn off the brakers and try to swap the electric outlets? or should I leave that to the experts?

If I have to leave it for an expert, is it worth it to connect a 4-prong outlet for the range?

Thanks much.

Answer 1

swear I answered this already...
YOu must have checked the ratings of the devices you removed...and most likely the NEW range is a higher amperage than the old..THUS you need to run a completely NEW feed to the NEW range. These appliances cannot simply be plugged in to any outlet as 110 volt appliances are. EACH range or heavy duty appliance needs its OWN feed and its own breaker and own outlet...they all are differant! (example I am guessing your old range top ran on a 20 amp circuit and your double oven at 30 amps yet your NEW range is running at 40 or 50 amps!)
Call a qualified electrician to do this.. please..

Answer 2

You would need to check the size of the wire feeding the 220vac recepticle. If for example it is only 10 gauge then it is too small for a range and oven combination. If your runs are not too far from the breaker box you may get by with 8 gauge. He at home we have an overn, glass stove top and microwave on top, I ran double aught from the break box to the recepticle, I felt it better to be safe than sorry. Double aught is all that feeds the house from the transformer on the pole. I also use a 40 amp breaker. When in doubt about the wire get the next size bigger.

Answer 3

You may already have 120 volts. Some ranges require a dual voltage system. 220 volts for the burners etc...and 120 volts for the control circuit. You might just have to cap one off. Many clothes dryers have that configuration too. Change the 2 pole breaker to 2 single pole breakers. Take one of the wires and hook it to the single pole breaker and the other will go to the neutral bar. Cap off the extra one if there is one. Now change your outlet and make sure that the wire that went to the neutral bar is connected to te silver terminal on the new receptacle. The wire that is connected to the breaker will go the the gold (hot) terminal. Take the old ground wire and ground it to the new receptacle. I don't know if that is code, but it should work as long as the wires to the old range were sized big enough to handle the current to the new gas range. I am sure they are since the control circuit for a gas range draws very little current. You may need to reduce the wire size with a pigtail. Wire color doesn't matter because the electrons do not know the color of the insulation. Just identify them accordingly.