# Oven, How to wire a 4 wire oven to 3 wire recepticle



## dacrew4009

Hi
 I have a kenmore slide in oven. I need to put a cord on it so I can plug it in. Problem is that the Kenmore has 4 wires coming from it Black, Red, White and Green. My outlet is 3 prong outlet. I purchased a 3 prong cord. Cord has Red, Black and white. I connected them and left the Green wire from the oven loose. Top of stove (Stove is a glass top) goes on and off. Not sure if this is proper operation with these glass tops. also the light on top that says ovenhot when lite stays on. Oven does not work at all, nor does the control panel lights at all. Previous owner insist it works properly. Can someone tell me the proper way to hook the 4 wires from the oven to a 3 wire plug.
Thank You
Hector A
[email protected]


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## kok328

The 3 prong outlet is very likely red, black and ground (green or bare).
You'll need to pull a neutral circuit to get the stove to work correctly and safely.
Any other suggestions will not be safe or legal to follow as a 4 wire unit must be connected to a 4 wire outlet.
You will need to pull a neutral circuit and change out the 3 prong outlet with a 4 prong outlet consisting of red, black, white & green (bare).
Make sure each prong corresponds to the cord color from the unit.


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## triple D

you need to double check the voltage and polarity of the plug in the wall. Verify that there is 240v between hots, and 120v from each hot to ground. Then land the green wire to the white wire in the back of stove,cause right now, you are not grounded! doing this is legal, provided the plug was existing and not newly installed. Just buying a new stove, in no way causes you to have to rip open walls and pull a new circuit, that is unless the stove requires more amperage. Let us know the results of your test, good luck...


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## kok328

Well, I was going to mention that the poster could use the old ground as the neutral but, we don't know if the stove is being fed from a sub-panel (where the ground and neutral are not the same buss bar) and we don't know if the ground goes back to the panel or is connected to a copper water line or other means of ground.  We also don't know if that ground is bare or insulated and in which case is it touching something metallic.  So I would definitely say that what is being proposed is neither legal or safe.
As I said _*Any other suggestions will not be safe or legal to follow *_


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## inspectorD

I wonder why folks hire electricians for this stuff?

Yup , it can work. However if you do not know enough about the system, don't mess with 220-240...it WILL kill you....for less than a hundred bucks.


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## kok328

Well, *if* the ground is fed from a properly wired sub-panel or the ground is attached to a water pipe, then how would the 120V devices on this oven operate without a neutral wire?

The problem is that the newer oven has 120V devices that require one leg of the incoming 220-240 plus a neutral and be grounded all at the same time.

If dacrew comes back to let us know if the ground is insulated, if the power is being fed from a sub-panel & where the ground leads back to and how many amps the over requires, then we can determine a solution short of pulling a netrual wire.

If he's feeding from the main with an insulated or jacketed ground then your approach is what I originally hesistated to offer up not knowing the conditions of what he has installed.


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## JoeD

A three prong setup will have the ground a neutral connected together by a jumper inside the oven. Look up the owner manual for your oven. It should have directions for properly connecting a three prong cord.
Here is a link about a dryer. Ovens are similar.

http://electrical.about.com/od/appliances/ss/4wireto3wiredryercord_5.htm


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