appliance cord hastwo black wires....?

Question

I recently got a new dishwasher. My hubby and I are in the middle of installing, and are to the point of hooking it back up to the electricity. The cord that we have has 2 black wires, one is smooth the other ribbed, then on the dishwasher, we have a black, white, and green(ground). Which wires do I hook up to which?

(cord)
black smooth
black ribbed

(dishwasher)
black
white
green(ground)

Answer 1

The two black wire cord is one wire short to properly connect the dishwasher.

The black wire on the dishwasher is the one that is supposed to get connected to a "hot" wire (it is supposed to be black), which goes all the way back to a breaker in the breaker panel. The white wire is supposed to be connected to a wire (it is supposed to be white) that eventually gets connected to the neutral bar in the breaker panel where all the other white (neutral) wires are connected. The green wire is for safety, it is the ground wire. It is supposed to be connected to another green wire (or a bare wire) that will go all the way back to the breaker panel and connect to the ground bus in the breaker panel with all the other green or bare wires.

The two black wires, one ribbed, is just a two wire cord. The fact that one is ribbed, just makes it easy for anyone to know which is which. It is typically used for lamps that do not need to be grounded, so there is no need for the third green wire. It is not suitable or legal to use to hook up a dishwasher. It is also doubtful that the two wire black cord is a large enough gauge (size) of wire. If a wire is too small, it can overheat and cause a fire. The minimum wire gauge recommended for dishwashers is 12 AWG copper.

Answer 2

It sounds like you are trying to use a regular lamp extension cord to hook up your dishwasher. Is the other end of the cord hardwired to the source? Or does it have a standard 110V plug on it?

I thought that most were wired with a #12/2 w/grd romex to a 20A breaker

black is hot, white is neutral, and green is ground. You need another cord with the right amount of wires and size wires. good luck

Answer 3

DONT HOOK IT BACK UP
The cord you have is the wrong cord
It is missing the ground and it sounds like it is the wrong size wire
Sounds like you have a lampcord
Where does the cord come from ?
A box in the wall? From the floor?

Answer 4

if its an american appliance there should be a black and white wire if the appliance is european then the ribbed black is the "white" wire and the smooth black is the black again I dont know what brand of appliance your working with and so on... It should also tell you in the instructions for the dishwasher... and if you dont have the instructions you should be able to get them for free from the appliance website...

Answer 5

You have the wrong cord. Goto your local lowes home improvement store and get the dishwasher power cord. here is a picture......

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=169061-46-4317824

It says "whirlpool" but, it will work on any dishwasher.

Answer 6

you need another cord and an electrician