Expert: Don Beck - 4/11/2006

Question
I would like to know if I connectecd my new kenmore 220V cooktop?  The cooktop comes with a red, black and ground (green).

The power coming in, has four wires. A bare metal so I connected to ground, the red wire to the red wire on the cooktop, and the black wire on the cooktop to the black wire to the cooktop.  AND the fourth wire is gray colored and I went ahead and hooked that one up with the black wire.

So in short, I have three connections. Ground, Red. and two wires to the Black, I am about to go out and look at the circuit box to see is the gray wire is hooked with the black wire on the circuit panel, by removing the cover plate on the electrical box.

I hope this is not too confusing, I want to flip the breaker on and see if anything smokes or whatever, but my wife is about to call out our electrician.  I have been working 12 hour days and did not take the time to note which wires were connected to which, but I did notice that all four were hooked up, I just can't remember if two wires were connected to the red or black on the cooktop.

Any help is very much appreciated, I have spent most of the day removing sinks and garbage disposers, new countertops, and reinstalling them all.  Carl Davis  

Answer
Hi Carl,

You idea of checking the breaker panel and see where the wires go there is the best idea.
I'm sure the red and the black wires are hooked correctly and the green is the ground. Howevere, this gray wire surprises me. I haven't run across that before.
My best guess is it is a neutral wire ,which is usually white and is attached to the ground bar in the breaker panel with all the other white a green wires. Checking the breaker panel and seeing where it is attached will answer that question. I would not fire up the cooktop until this is determined.

Good luck,

Don Beck