My "current" problem...

June 29, 2008 6:19 PM

So I'm installing a new dishwasher. I've yanked the power cable from the old one (not paying a bit of attention as to how it was connected, of course), and now I haven't a clue as to how to attach it to the new one.

The cord is a standard 3-prong, part #4317824. There are tons of pictures of it online, but no instructions that I've been able to find so far. Any help?

P.S. This previous post wasn't much help.

posted by mezzanayne to home & garden (9 comments total)

This is rather confusing. The new one should have its own power cord, which you should be using to connect to a power outlet on the wall. You shouldn't have to use the power cord from the old unit for the new one.

If that's not what you're talking about, then what do you mean?

(And if the old one is still plugged into the wall and has wires dangling out the back end, unplug it immediately! In the trade that's known as a "widow maker".)
posted by Class Goat at 6:26 PM on June 29

I should have included, my "new" dishwasher is actually a "new-to-me" dishwasher that I bought slightly used and did not include the power cable, which is why I'm using the old one.

And the cable is NOT presently connected to the wall (silly!).
posted by mezzanayne at 6:27 PM on June 29

White to white usually black to black(or whatever color the other wire is) ground is green or bare and remember to ground the box
posted by SatansCabanaboy at 6:34 PM on June 29

I hate to demonstrate my gross ignorance, but does it matter what kind of wire nuts that I use? I've got winged, yellow ones. Will those work?
posted by mezzanayne at 6:54 PM on June 29

I hate to demonstrate my gross ignorance, but does it matter what kind of wire nuts that I use?

A lot of brands of wire nuts are color-coded by size. So yellow might be 12 gauge, and blue 14 gauge, or whatever. The point being, make sure that the wire nuts are sized correctly for the sizes of wires involved. Wire nuts are dirt cheap, so this is not the place to "make do" and hope for the best.
posted by Forktine at 7:08 PM on June 29

I think you should find someone who knows more about it and invite them to come take a look at it.

There are three wires. One is called "hot", one is called "common", and one is called "ground". If connect them incorrectly (e.g. mistakenly swapping common and ground), you could leave the frame of the unit partially live, potentially lethally so at some time in the future.
posted by Class Goat at 7:41 PM on June 29

If you possibly can, take a picture of the connectors on the dishwasher and the connectors on your plug, and we can tell you what to connect to what from there.

Black or red are going to be hot, white is going to be "common" or "neutral", and green or bare wire is going to be the ground. For this application you should be ok with yellow wire nuts, however you *might* want to consider springing for the goo-filled waterproof ones.

I think orange or yellow are the right color nuts for this application, of course I'm assuming you're in the US. But really, take a picture and we can tell youz.
posted by TomMelee at 8:54 PM on June 29

Thanks everyone; I ended up soldiering the wires just for good measure and then used the yellow wire nuts that I had. It appears that everything worked out.
posted by mezzanayne at 9:20 PM on June 29

There are sometimes funny colour codes for internal wiring.. Brown for live and blue for neutral is not uncommon in North America, though it seems to be a UK based standard. Often ground isn't just green, but green with a yellow stripe, or something. Ground shouldn't just be connected with a wire nut, it should be connected straight to the chassis, something like this. It isn't too complicated, but not as easy as wiring a light fixture.
posted by Chuckles at 10:53 AM on June 30