Is there any purpose for 8/2 wire?


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Old 10-19-07, 07:53 AM
J
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Is there any purpose for 8/2 wire?

I'm moving my laundry room from location A to location B in my house. My existing dryer is 15-20 years old, and uses a 3-prong receptacle fed by 8/2 wire. The new laundry room will have a new dryer connected to a new 14-30, 4-prong receptacle fed by new 8/3 wire (in other words "up to code").

This means I'll have about 50-60' of used 8/2 wire in excellent condition. I was thinking of using it for a backup generator with a manual transfer switch, but the generator also uses a 14-30 plug that, to my knowledge, can't *safely* be used with 8/2 wire (emphasis on "safely" because it certainly can be done, but doing so increases the risk of shock).

Which makes me wonder: Is there any use for 8/2 with ground anymore? I'm thinking of just removing it and selling it for scrap.
 
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Old 10-19-07, 08:03 AM
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You won't get much selling it for scrap, but that may be your best option. It can obviously be used for a 120 volt circuit, but it is harder to work with that 12-2 or 14-2 and would need to be pigtailed to connect to most receptacles or switches, so scrapping it might be the best alternative.

I suppose it could be used for an oven or stove top, if the oven or stove top were straight 240 volts only. It could also be used for an electric water heater. It could also be used for a 240 volt air conditioner.

No, you cannot use it for your generator, unless you only want to pull 120 volts from it.

Why are you using 8 gage wire for an electric dryer? 10 gage is sufficient. Is the run extremely long?
 
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Old 10-19-07, 08:09 AM
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Smile Scrap it

Scrap it, copper around here for #1 is selling for $3.00 a lb. If it was me pulling out old wire is not very safe to use again.
 
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Old 10-19-07, 08:26 AM
J
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Thanks

It's fairly common for a dryer to require 8 gauge wire, even if it uses a 30 amp circuit breaker. Small dryers can use 10 gauge wire, but only if the nameplate on the dryer says so. Mine specifically says that it requires 8 gauge wire unless the run is 8' or less, which is not the case.

Maybe I'll hang onto it for future use. It's like $1.50-2.00 a foot retail.

I could run 220 over it by jumping the green to the ground on the generator's 14-30 plug, but I presume that's not a safe option, and I'm not going to test that theory Seems to be the same thing that a 3-prong dryer plug does, but it's against code to do such a thing.
 
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Old 10-19-07, 08:35 AM
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Air conditioner, arc welder, air compressor, baseboard heaters, table saw, any 240V shop tools. Sounds like you need to make a trip to the tool store...."Honey, if I didn't get this new welder, it would be waste of this perfectly good wire. See, I'm actually saving money!"
 
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Old 10-19-07, 08:40 AM
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Ha!

ibpooks, you hit the nail right on the head!!! I'd rather buy a tool or appliance of some sort to put the wire to use rather than discard the wire. Hopefully my wife won't ever come across this post :-D
 
 

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