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.

 

[Rainor]

Hello. I'd like to recommend upgrading the old dryer receptacle to an industrial grade 4-prong type because of the load duty cycles beyond what the dryer outlet was designed to handle. The heat and current load of EV charging is a constant load. Dryers are not so you run the risk of fire.

Hard wire if you can.

 

[21st Century Truck]

Hello. I'd like to recommend upgrading the old dryer receptacle to an industrial grade 4-prong type because of the load duty cycles beyond what the dryer outlet was designed to handle. The heat and current load of EV charging is a constant load. Dryers are not so you run the risk of fire.

Hard wire if you can.

^^^ This ^^^

Hardwiring is always safer for EVSEs... assuming the wall wire is of an appropriate gage. If You have to replace the wire, a thicker gage than the minimum accepted by code is always better for these high continuous loads.

Sandy Munro has one entire episode (on YouTube) about the house safety risks of melted 14-50 receptacles used for continuous EV charging... the consensus on the Mach E forum is to use / demand the electrician use a Hubbell receptacle rather than a builder-special bin receptacle for any EV charging.

Again, it is always better to just hardwire a good EVSE in and be done with receptacle wear over time.

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