Open ground for a washing machine - quick fix ?

Hello !

I'm helping a friend who just moved in a new appartment. One of the things we made was to change all the old painted switches and outlets (and accompanying wallplates) by brand new ones.

Using a receptacle tester, I made sure that all outlets were correctly wired.

There are two outlets were I found an open ground, one of it is unused but the other one is in the bathroom, where the washing machine is installed. I double checked that the ground wire was correctly screwed to the outlet.

We informed the owner who doesn't seems to care of the problem - at least in a short term period.

Besides this outlet, there's a 220v one used for the dryer - and its ground contact seems correctly wired.

I wonder if a ground wire can be "safely" installed between the 110v faulty outlet to the 220v one as a temporairy quick fix.

Any advice on this ?

Thanks

Reply to
Michel S.
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Don't screw around with the wiring. Install a GFCI receptacle on the 120V circuit in the bathroom. It is required by code.

Ed

Reply to
ehsjr

I agree.

Have you checked if the ground wire or conduit is actually connected to a ground?

Bill

Reply to
Salmon Egg

Thanks for your replies.

I agree too.

But with an open ground, will the GFCI protection be sufficient, given that the washer manual says : "This appliance is equipped with a cord having a grounding wire with a grounding plug. The plug must be plugged into an outlet of standard 120 VAC, 60 Hz that is properly installed and grounded. Your washer should be the only appliance on this circuit".

All I can tell is that there's a 3 wire cable entering the box; all 3 are correctly wired to the receptacle and my tester shows an open ground.

Note that I got the same reading before replacing the receptacle, meaning that it is not the new one which is faulty.

My conclusion is that the ground wire is not connected somewhere, but I can't tell more. Remember it's a rented appartment built in the sixties, I'm not the owner (nor an electrician as you may guess), and I'm only looking for a way for my friend to safely use her washer by the time it will take the owner to fix the problem once for all.

Thanks again.

Reply to
Michel S.

Usually the washer and drier are side by side.

It probably wouldn't hurt anything to bond the two together.

Reply to
Tim Perry

I have found some weird wiring errors in troubleshooting home owner wired houses. I have found the bare "ground" wire used as a neutral current carrying conductor in one home. In another I found 18 guage phone wire used on a 20-ampere breaker to supply recepatcles. I would not assume anything. If you are not an qualified electrician, I would hire one to check out the wiring.

Reply to
Gerald Newton

I've seen some pretty hair-brained things done by "qualified electricians" too.

Reply to
krw

Once on a wastewater treatment plant project, several of us decided that the electrical contractor's foreman was a good man for a supermarket construction job, because he certainly didn't know anything about hooking up the instrument signal wiring going to my control systems.

Mike

Reply to
Mike Lamond

Really, you have seen "hair-brained things done by qualified electricians." Isn't that a contradiciton?

Reply to
Gerald Newton

Control wiring at a wastewater treatment plant is what we consider gravy work. Try running 4inch rigid metal conduit off a 16 foot ladder in 30 below using a headlamp in the dark while wearing hard hat, fall protection equipment, a respirator, steel toed boots, and arctic gear. Journeymen electricians do a broad range of electrical work.

Reply to
Gerald Newton

Running wiring or conduit isn't really "electrical work".

And anyone who agrees to do what you just described is flirting with Darwinism...

Reply to
Floyd L. Davidson

I've seen where an "electrician" failed to use 3 wire for the smokes in a new home, and used the ground conductor for the interconnect to the common alarm point. I've seen 18 gauge wire run through an aluminum door frame to feed an outlet on a twenty amp ckt. I've seen a neutral wire from a 208 volt panel adjacent to a 480 volt panel used for the lights fed from the 480 volt panel. I could go on here for a few hours.......

Reply to
Long Ranger

The pay scale for residential wiremen is about half that of industrial/ commercial electricians. The fact is many very unqualified people wire homes. I have also seen carpenters turn into house wiremen when the carpentry work is slow. There is a pervasive belief that anyone can do this work. Of course ignorance is bliss, and they proceed doing electrical work without knowing that there are many NEC safety rules that are mandatory by law for these installations. That is why many areas of the country have a permitting and inspection program to insure that qualified persons do the work correctly. If I were to ever contract again, I would not touch house wiring, because there is little money to be made. The money is in industrial wiring. And Floyd, by Alaska law, any work subject to the minimum requirements as given in the National Electrical Code (NEC) is electrical work and requires a license. The NEC has an article on each type of conduit, as well as many articles on wiring. So installing conduit is electrical work! There is an exception for 50 volts or less and that is why communication workers and low voltage control installers get by without having a license in Alaska. The State of Washington does not have that exception.

Reply to
Gerald Newton

Long Ranger avait écrit le 2007-11-15 :

I'm a computer consultant and if I told you what I saw in the last year in my customers PC's I could go on for a few DAYS..

But nothing would be related to my original post..

Thanks anyway !

Reply to
Michel S.

Apparently not.

Reply to
krw

Not at all.

All it means is they've done the right courses, passed the exams and got the bits of paper. It doesn't they're not still idiots.

There are plenty of idiots driving round on the roads but they've all got their licenses to prove they're "qualified"

Reply to
Stuart

Only because it's true. There isn't much simpler than house wiring.

Hogwash.

That might be true, only because anyone with half a brain can wire a house.

Sevear pinko cities have the same asinine rules. It's nothing more than a license to steal.

Reply to
krw

Evidently, you do not realize how dangerous electrical work is and do not take the licensing as a means to protect both the consumer and the worker. I do, because I have several decades of experience. The majority of the experienced professionals agree with me. Like I said before ignorance is bliss.

Reply to
Gerald Newton

Evidently, you have an over-inflated sense of self-worth. The only purpose behind licensing, at least as done, is to put money in you rpocket. You sound like the HVAC friutcakes on the homeowner's groups.

Horse hockey. Residential wiring is trivial. If it took you "several decades" to learn, you're pitiful.

Of course they do. No one wants to bite the hand that feeds them. Unions are like that.

If you think it takes great intelligence to do residential wiring, you must be the happiest man on Earth.

Reply to
krw

Here is some anecdotal evidence in favor of Newton: The electrical trade is the one trade not infested entirely by cheap Mexican labor. Not even residential wiring, which is relatively easy. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that the average Mexican IQ is about 13 points lower than the average white guy, and even lower than that compared to Asians. (Asians are another story when it comes to electricity. They typically reside more towards the engineering end of the spectrum, with very few actually doing anything with their hands.)

Reply to
Long Ranger

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