Unused 50 Amp breaker going to old 3 prong dryer plug - swap with NEMA 14-50 outlet?

[TheBertShow]

Getting my '23 Lightning today. Beyond excited, but a little inexperienced in electrical work...

Being a 23 it comes with the Ford Charge Station Pro of course, but with the mobile power cord, I need to have something more efficient than a 120v plug with the mobile power cord until the FCSP arrives.

I have an older 3 prong dryer plug outlet in my garage where the washer/dryer when my house was first built in the 80's. Previous owners added on to the house (with a new electrical panel separate from the original one), and washer/dryer is now in the added-on part of the house. There is a 50 amp breaker in the original panel, and I'm almost certain that the 3 prong outlet is connected to this breaker.

I am going to have an electrician come look at it, but if I'm correct that the 50 amp breaker is connected to the 3 prong outlet, is it a simple swap-out and plug-and-play for a 14-50 outlet?

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[mrau]

Likely the 3 prong outlet does not have a neutral wire running to it. Not really a problem since an EVSE does not use the neutral wire. If the wire and breaker are both rated for 50 amp, then a 6-50 outlet could be easily installed in place of the dryer outlet. The 6-50 is like the 14-50 only it has 3 prongs instead of 4.

Some folks have used a 14-50 on a 3 wire circuit and then label the outlet with "No Neutral Wire". Likely not code but should work fine.

 

[Scrappy]

If your wiring is 6 AWG you may want to consider doing a direct wire to your FCSP. You might even be able to bump up the breaker to 60 amps and charge at 48 amps (20% faster).

 

[Mach Turtle]

Depending on your level of patience, you could consider a 16-20 amp charger that uses the old 3-prong connector as a temporary solution. When I visit family who live about 70% charge away from my home, I plug into their NEMA 10-30 dryer socket with a cheapo 16 amp charging cable. Takes nearly all day and night to charge back up (about 19-20 hours), but it does the job.

 

[bmwhitetx]

Have electrician determine what wire you have and whether its NM-B (aka Romex) or individual wires in conduit (probably Romex). Then you know the max breaker size (see this chart). If Romex #6 you can't put in a 60A breaker, it's only good for 55A.

Then hard wire the FCSP. Set the dial based on breaker size x 0.8 (e.g. 60A breaker =48A charge setting, 50A breaker=40A charge setting):

 

[chl]

Getting my '23 Lightning today. Beyond excited, but a little inexperienced in electrical work...

Being a 23 it comes with the Ford Charge Station Pro of course, but with the mobile power cord, I need to have something more efficient than a 120v plug with the mobile power cord until the FCSP arrives.

I have an older 3 prong dryer plug outlet in my garage where the washer/dryer when my house was first built in the 80's. Previous owners added on to the house (with a new electrical panel separate from the original one), and washer/dryer is now in the added-on part of the house. There is a 50 amp breaker in the original panel, and I'm almost certain that the 3 prong outlet is connected to this breaker.

I am going to have an electrician come look at it, but if I'm correct that the 50 amp breaker is connected to the 3 prong outlet, is it a simple swap-out and plug-and-play for a 14-50 outlet?

{I am assuming you are talking about use the dryer outlet for the mobile power cord.}

Should be fine - but dryers not are considered "continuous loads" so be sure to check the wire size, for a 30A continuous load (the mobile power cord) can use #8 cu (or lower AWG number) and could be on a 40A breaker (I'd do that switch just because there have been cases where the MPC overheated, possibly from drawing more than 40A). Yes, Ford says use a 50A GFCI breaker, but a 40A will suffice and is cheaper.

I had a 6-50 outlet for my GE Watt Station and I just bought a heavy-duty adapter to accommodate the 14-50 plug on the MPC - works fine. Don't need a neutral anyway for the 240V dongle (see attached images).

I would not plan on using the MPC for too long, there have been some failures, melt-downs literally, reported by people using it as the only source of charging after a while.

They are made by Webasto and marketed on Amazon as the Webasto Go, and there were quite a few reports there about failures too.

Caveat emptor.

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