rjschwar
New Member
I found this thread and have a similar setup but had a couple clarification questions:
https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/question-on-3-wire-kitchen-range-4-wire.67912/
We replaced a couple cabinets so I had to remove and reinstall our oven/microwave combo and the cooktop.
I have AA-8000 6 Gauge Aluminum SE Cable with insulated black, insulated black with red stripe, and bare aluminum strands running from a 50 Amp 240 breaker in my panel that goes to a oven/microwave combo with 4 wires, and then continues to my island cooktop/vent fan, again with 4 wires. The referenced thread says you can connect the 4 wire to 3 wire using the bare aluminum for both neutral and ground of the appliances. This is how it was done previously.
Elsewhere I've been told this can be unsafe if something causes the neutral to float at a hot voltage. The proposed solution to this they suggested would be to use a GFCI breaker and intentionally dead end the ground from the appliances avoiding at all costs tying the neutral to ground at the appliance else I'll lose GFCI protection.
I see a couple options, from the multiple sources I've seen.
1. Just connect everything back how it was previously. Black to black, red to black with red stripe, ground and neutral to bare aluminum at both appliances.
2. do 1 but add a GFCI. I'm leaing toward this assuming wiring ground and neutral together at the appliances doesn't mess with GFCI protection
3. same as option 1 except I don't connect ground and neutral at the appliance, instead cap the ground and connect neutral to bare aluminum at both appliances. The problem I see with this is the ground from the appliance is bare copper in metal conduit and metal junction box. I don't see how this would be much different than connecting the ground to the neutrals, as the SE cable is bare without insulation on the neutral as well.
4. I have a nearby spa panel that is connected with 6/3 to my main panel, so I have the option to "steal" ground from my spa circuit though I don't know if this is allowed, or how that might mess with my spa GFCI.
Any thoughts would be helpful.
Additional question. Is there anything special I need to do to connect Aluminum wire to copper? The previous connections just used wire nuts, but I thought I had seen before you need some anti-corrosive stuff to do that.
Thanks,
Richard
https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/question-on-3-wire-kitchen-range-4-wire.67912/
We replaced a couple cabinets so I had to remove and reinstall our oven/microwave combo and the cooktop.
I have AA-8000 6 Gauge Aluminum SE Cable with insulated black, insulated black with red stripe, and bare aluminum strands running from a 50 Amp 240 breaker in my panel that goes to a oven/microwave combo with 4 wires, and then continues to my island cooktop/vent fan, again with 4 wires. The referenced thread says you can connect the 4 wire to 3 wire using the bare aluminum for both neutral and ground of the appliances. This is how it was done previously.
Elsewhere I've been told this can be unsafe if something causes the neutral to float at a hot voltage. The proposed solution to this they suggested would be to use a GFCI breaker and intentionally dead end the ground from the appliances avoiding at all costs tying the neutral to ground at the appliance else I'll lose GFCI protection.
I see a couple options, from the multiple sources I've seen.
1. Just connect everything back how it was previously. Black to black, red to black with red stripe, ground and neutral to bare aluminum at both appliances.
2. do 1 but add a GFCI. I'm leaing toward this assuming wiring ground and neutral together at the appliances doesn't mess with GFCI protection
3. same as option 1 except I don't connect ground and neutral at the appliance, instead cap the ground and connect neutral to bare aluminum at both appliances. The problem I see with this is the ground from the appliance is bare copper in metal conduit and metal junction box. I don't see how this would be much different than connecting the ground to the neutrals, as the SE cable is bare without insulation on the neutral as well.
4. I have a nearby spa panel that is connected with 6/3 to my main panel, so I have the option to "steal" ground from my spa circuit though I don't know if this is allowed, or how that might mess with my spa GFCI.
Any thoughts would be helpful.
Additional question. Is there anything special I need to do to connect Aluminum wire to copper? The previous connections just used wire nuts, but I thought I had seen before you need some anti-corrosive stuff to do that.
Thanks,
Richard