On a older clothes dryer that has a three-wire cord where does the bare wire connect in the subpanel - on the neutral buss or the ground?

Answer 1

Answer for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz supply service.

WARNING

Do not use 2 conductor with ground cable to feed a 3 prong 120/240V dryer outlet. The outlet is ungrounded, and the third conductor is neutral not ground. Your ground wire must be sheathed by code. You cannot use the bare neutral conductor as ground.

Another answer

You should not connect a three wire circuit for a dryer to a sub-panel, it should go all the way back to the main panel. The code never allowed a three wire circuit with a bare neutral to go to a sub-panel. By connecting the three wire cable to the sub-panel you take the chance of energizing the enclosure for the sub-panel if something were to happen to the grounding conductor from the main panel. Four wire circuits were required for dryers anytime they originated from a sub-panel, now the code requires all dryer circuits to be four wire: two hots, neutral and grounding conductor.

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As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.

Before you do any work yourself,

on electrical circuits, equipment or appliances,

always use a test meter to ensure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

Answer 2

The bare wire should be connected to the ground bus in the subpanel for an older clothes dryer with a three-wire cord. This is to ensure proper grounding and safety for the appliance operation.