I have a 3 wire drier. the wire has 4 wires, red, green, black, copper.how do i wire the outlet?

Question

The house was originally wired 3 prong but the receptical was broken. So i removed it and capped the wires.Now I have a new receptical. but there are 4 wires.

Answer 1

black and red are hot, white nuetral and copper is ground, sounds like you need a new plug and wire too

Answer 2

it is me had it right except for the fact that you do not have a white wire. You do have a green though. The correct wire color would be white for neutral.

You seem to have two ground wires and no neutral. Actually, the neutral and the ground go to the same point in the breaker box so the point is moot.

Is the wire that you describe, with the green AND copper, from the breaker box to the dryer? That part is unclear in your description. You say that you have a 3 wire dryer, then you later say that you have 4 wires. That is confusing.

Anyway, the proper wiring is black and red for the two sides of the hot. There should be a white for neutral, the copper is for ground.

Code says you need all four, even though the neutral and ground both come from the same source. That seems redundant, but it isn't. The green, ground, is tied to the metal chasis of the drier or whatever appliance. That way, any electral problem will not allow the chasis to become hot and therefore dangerous.

If these are individual wires in a conduit, it might be fairly easy to run another one. Whatever is missing from the required set of four.

You probably already know this operates on 240 volts. The amperage of the breaker is tied to the size of the wire. There are a few options on what the outlet will look like. Make sure it matches the plug and is four wire.

Four wire is safer than three so it is worth some effort to run additional wire. Replacing the wire on the drier is easier, but less safe. Be sure you know what you are doing before working on any circuit and make sure it is not live. Verify this with a voltmeter.

Do not rely simply on turning off a breaker. I have seen too many installations that are so cobbled up that turning off the breaker does not make the circuit dead.

P.S. He clearly stated that he does not have a white wire. That makes the previous reply incorrect. The neutral and ground certainly do go to exactly the same place inside the breaker box, look for yourself. If you read my post correctly, you will see that I stated they are different outside the breaker box and that is 100% correct. I was very clear and very correct, read it again. BTW, the ground only carries current under one very specific type of fault and not with any types of problems. The part about the bare wire potentially causing integrity problems with all the grounds in the house is total nonsense.

Answer 3

You need to call an electrician. The red and black are the 2 "hots" the green and bare copper, one should be ground and one should be neutral. The neutral, by code, should be white. It sounds like somebody who wired the house ran out of white and used green. The neutral and ground DO NOT RUN TO THE SAME PLACE. They are bonded at the first disconnect means, but they are not the same. The neutral returns the unbalanced current to the source, while the ground is a "safety valve" that only carries current when a fault condition occurs, and causes the circuit breaker to trip or fuse to blow. If this wire is in metallic conduit, and you use the bare copper as neutral, then the bare copper is in electrical contact with the metallic conduit, which can cause a parallel neutral path, and destroy the integrity of the equipment ground in the entire house. This can lead to overheating, shock hazard and FIRE. DRM Handyman knows just enough to be dangerous.

Answer 4

the best thing to do is replace the wire on the dryer...you can get them at most home stores, just get one to match the outlet.

Answer 5

itisme's answer is correct.