hey everyone, The wife is asking for a gas range (propane) in lieu of our current all-electric range. Currently, we just have the 220, 4 prong plug back there. The gas range requires 110v for the electronics, so I was looking to see if some sort of step-down adapter exists, and located one on amazon. It does have a built-in 15 amp breaker. My questions are: Does anyone currently use one of these? What is your opinion on using this? (Safety first) Also, feel free to say yay or nay. No one would be to blame for something bad happening but me. Woods Power Adapter for Gas Range Amazon.com: Woods Power Adapter for Gas Range: Home Improvement
Personally I would lean towards adding a 110 outlet there. You are going to have to run a gas line correct? 110 outlet should be simple. With that being said, if the adapter is UL listed it is a safe, legal way to do it.
I bet that adaptor uses some electricity 24/7 to complete the conversion, just something to think about. Also, copied this from the question and answer section: My understanding is that this product violates the National Electrical Code in the US because it uses the SAFETY GROUND as a NEUTRAL. In the mains electrical panel the SAFETY GROUND and the NEUTRAL are bonded together and from there make a short connection to a buried ground rod. A 240V circuit has a hot-ground-hot configuration (i.e. 120V - 0 - 120V). This adapter appears to break out one of the HOT legs and the (Safety) GROUND (used as a NEUTRAL). Yes, it places a 15-Amp fuse in the circuit, but the breaker would still have a 40 or 50 Amp breaker. I suppose anything you do in your own home is your own business but if something should happen it would be difficult to collect on any insurance claim, let alone the possible loss of life due to electrocution (it's like cutting off the "SAFETY GROUND" on a 3-prong plug in order to plug it into a 2-prong outlet (not a very wise thing to do)
You've got four wires in the wall from the panel to the 240 plug. You only need three for a regular 120 volt circuit, replace the 40 amp double pole breaker with a 20 amp double pole breaker and pigtails at each end to go from the 8 gauge wire to 20 gauge wire since the outlet and probably the breaker will only be big enough to handle 12 gauge. I had this "upgrade" done by the builder of my first home and that's how he did it. You end up with a dedicated oven circuit on 120 and it's reversible.
I agree. I always say that the trick to doing electrical work is understanding it enough to know you are safe. The product you linked looks safe to me, even if it does use the neutral as a ground (and it definitely does). The ground and the neutral are both the same, EXCEPT that the whole purpose of having the two is redundancy. The ground and neutral both get joined together in the breaker box. Anyways, if it were my house I would add an appropriate outlet. Do you have any buddies that know electricity and work for beer? And yes, half the payment is due upfront.
That is exactly what I would do. Running the gas line is more work than running a 110 outlet. By the way,. This gas oven upgrade will be a HUGE upgrade. You'll wonder why you didn't do it earlier. Electric ovens and ranges really stink in comparison to gas versions.
Thanks for the advice! We ended up in the end buying a duel fuel model that has the gas burners and electric convection oven. Looks like the only thing I'll need to do now is run the propane line. It's not coming in stock for a couple of weeks, so I have some time...yeah, I've heard most people are really happy with gas burners. We've only ever used electric, so this will be new.
Good choice. IMO in terms of performance electric for the oven is better, and gas burners are great for instant changes in heat settings, electric burners are better at very low and very high output, unless you go very high end.
I looked into the hybrid stoves before. I really like the idea. I want a propane stove for sure. I'd like to have a stove that uses NO electric. But they're hard to find
Sorry about replying to myself but wanted to fix the error that the 20 amp breaker would be single pole to provide 120 volts to the new outlet. What I dislike about my current flat top electric range is that a medium setting just means that the element cycles on and off at a 50% duty cycle. It doesn't just glow 50% as bright. Pretty weird.
I won't even say that electric ovens are good for the oven part. My GE Cafe dual fuel does have one of its ovens as electric only, but that's just the lower oven. The main oven is gas, as well as the 5 burners. The electric oven portion's performance ( or lack of) really depends the brand, and how well it's made. My buddy's all electric oven took hours to cook a lasagna we brought over. Even after that, the center was still cold. Magic chef my a$$. Lol.
I have an oven thermometer in my electric Maytag. It currently runs 50 degrees cooler than the oven thinks it is. So we bake cookies at 400 to get a real 350.
