electricalkitchensstovewiring
I have a 30" 5 burner cooktop stove that is hardwired. Due to my requirements, I have to be able to swap it out with another cooktop every once in a while.
I was wondering if it is safe to wire the cooktop to a plug, and install a plug socket in the cabinet so I can swap out the cooktop easy. Is this against any type of code?
It is a GE Profile electric stove, not gas, and is located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
As per the GE website, it is 40 Amps/240V
Green and bare wires are always ground. Ground is a means of short circuit protection, and all metal parts in electrical systems and fixtures are grounded. If a hot wire shorts out and touches the enclosure for some reason, it flows to ground and the circuit breaker/fuse trips (typically this happens in nanoseconds).
Without ground, if there is a short, the metal parts become energized. Once you touch it, you form the path to ground and get electrocuted.
Old fixtures didn't always have this, but we got smarter after several electrocution deaths. Modern fixtures without exposed metal (eg made of plastic) or where any metal is mechanically insulated from the wiring may not have ground as well. Since this is meant to be hardwired, they won't have spent the time to make sure everything is isolated correctly, so absolutely it needs to be grounded.
So no, you should not just cap the ground off, you should get a new wire that includes a ground. If you are leaving the wire exposed (not in any walls), you would typically use SJO wire (aka "extension cord wire" -- which is flexible, and has all conductors in a round outer jacket) in this situation. Readily available at any hardware stores.
You'll also need a surface-mount junction box of some sort, with the SJO wire terminating into it through a strain-relief connector of some sort.
You may not be able to find a timer that's designed to directly switch that much, but you can find a timer that switches a lot less, and use it to switch the coil of a relay that can switch whatever load you require. Relay coils take very little power to switch, and relay contacts can be had as large as you could possible need, or larger.
However, if you are not bound up in love with your 58 year old cooker, it may be a better idea to replace it; a relay capable of switching a typical cooktop load is not generally all that inexpensive itself, unless you can find one surplus.
A newER used cooktop is generally quite inexpensive - people remodel kitchens all the time and discard or sell off inexpensively perfectly good appliances that are not the right color, etc.
Best Answer
Canadian practice is very similar to US practice.
Stoves and ovens typically live on a 40A or 50A circuit.
It is common to provide receptacles for them, but 40A receptacles are not made, so the (US) National Electrical Code has a special exception allowing 50A receptacles on 40A circuits.
Sometimes the oven and stove are separate, but on the same 40A or 50A circuit, in which the NEC allows two receptacles to be provisioned.