220-Volt Outlets for Dummies

220-volt receptacle wiring

We've pointed it out here before, but a basic fact about the world of eHow.com "contributors" bears repeating: some of them would attempt to reuse the same "information" for many different posts¹, regardless of the value of that information or their grasp of the necessary knowledge to authoritatively address the topic. One such miscreant is history student Nichole Liandi, who grabbed dozens of electrical-related topics and botched darned near all of them... just as she did in the HomeSteady.com post, "How to Install a 220 Volt Outlet for an Electric Dryer."²

Liandi, already featured six times herein for wiring-related topics, pulled the same trick used by many a clueless freelancer at eHow: she interpreted the question so it made it as easy as possible for her to "answer" it a few words. This time, Nichole reinterpreted "install an outlet" as "replace a receptacle." In order to fool her content editor, Nicky cited two books and an online resource that said, and we quote, "I would strongly suggest that you contact a Licensed Electrical Contractor..." We agree: and you certainly don't want the likes of Liandi telling you how!

Nichole needed 180 words to tell you to turn off the power, remove the old plug, rewire a new plug, and turn the power back on – in the process, performing a copy-reword-paste job on a process she'd very likely never attempted in her life. After all, 24 of those words consisted of,

"Loosen the screws on the cover surrounding the existing dryer outlet. Put the screws aside, pull off the cover and place the cover aside."

Really? 24 words on how to take off an receptacle cover, compared just 45 for wiring the new outlet?

"As you look at the rear of the outlet, place the black with in the far left terminal, the white wire in the lower center terminal, the red wire in the far right terminal, and the green or bare wire in the upper center terminal."

The lack of quality instructions notwithstanding, it's pretty clear (to us, at least) that the OQ wanted to run a new 220-volt circuit for an electric dryer. We sure wouldn't want a college history major telling us how to,

1. Add a new 220-volt breaker: 220-volt appliances like dryers are on dedicated circuits
2. Run 10-gauge cable directly from the breaker box to the laundry room
3. Wire the plug: red and black wires to brass terminals, white wire to silver terminal, green wire to green terminal

But, then, what would Nichole know about that? It's highly likely that our Dumbass of the Day had never had any experience with electric dryers other than in a laundromat.

¹ eHow, the flagship brand of Demand Media Studios (now known as Leaf Group) paid freelancers a flat fee to "write to titles"; consequently some of them tried to shortcut the process by rewording the same dreck over and over.
² The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was    ehow.com/how_8255359_install-volt-outlet-electric-dryer.html

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