You potentially have a mess. There was a provision in the electrical code to use the grounded (neutral) conductor to ground the frame of the range. There is still a "grandfather" clause for existing installation into the code. These are commonly called "three wire" installations. Installations with separate ground and neutral are called four wire.

Depending on how the existing range was set up and what the wire is, you may or may not have had a compliant installation before. The white wire was probably NOT supposed to be white (but remarked).

It appears your new range is OK with being connected to a three wire installation from that description. Now you need to check to see if your existing wire is LEGAL for a three wire installation.

If the wire is truly bare after it emerges from the outer cable sheath, then you need to check to see what sort of cable you have. If it is the SE you are OK. If it is something else like type NM you are in trouble. Further you need to verify that the ground wire is at least #10 copper or #8 aluminum.

The "easiest" way to tell the above is to find some piece of the exposed sheath and look at what is written on it. It may not be exposed enough on the range end. If you look in the vicinity of the panel (or within the panel itself) you may find it.

The problem is that I've never seen type SE that has one black and one white. Most are two whites. What you appear to have is a type NM designed for 120V branch circuits which is not legal for this.

Does your range require a separate 120 volt circuit to run the timer, fans, etc.? If you use the proper 4 conductor wiring and NEMA plug the manufacturer can design the internal circuitry to split out a 120 volt connection for certain parts of the range. Although combining wires to get a 3 wire connection may be grandfathered and legal for 240 volt power, the directions for my GE range said it will not allow for the internal 120 volt circuit. It did not provide a complete explanation.

Bruce

A legal three-wire hook up provides 120V. It's has a NEUTRAL what it is missing is a ground (though it appears the original poster's installation is INCORRECT in this regard, grandfathering assumes it was done right in the first place).

i have no idea which GE range you are looking at, but the ones that are currently on the market not only support three wire hookup, they come with the NEUTRAL-GROUND bond preinstalled. You actually have to remove it to connect it to a four wire circuit if you had one. (Not uncommon, my Thermador professional range came the same way).

Most DIYs and non trade professionals do not understand what Ron is trying to say. The OP does not have a 3 wire hookup, from what was described it is a 2 wire hookup with a ground, which is for 240 volts only. This circuit is not safe or legal for a 240/120 appliance which most ranges are. Some cooktops and wall ovens are strictly 240 and do not require a neutral, in this case the circuit is fine. If your new appliance is 3 wire or 4 wire then that circuit is not sufficient because you have no neutral,

Well I guess it has gotten to the point I will have to call a certified electrician to look at it. My roommate called a friend in another state who was suppose to be an electrician. He said what we had was ok and told us how to hook it up. MY wiring is a two wire system at 220 volts. A bare copper ground wire and a black and white wire. The range is a three wire setup with blk, wht, and red

We wired things per his instructions and things "seem" to be working fine. The white wire from the range is going to the ground wire from wall. The red and black wire from range are going to the wht and blk wire from wall.

If I were there, I would remove the face plate from the breaker panel and check the wire colors going to the breaker for the range. If they are black and white, then the white wire at the range needs to be marked with some red tape to indicate what it is.

"The OP does not have a 3 wire hookup, from what was described it is a 2 wire hookup with a ground, which is for 240 volts only. This circuit is not safe or legal for a 240/120 appliance which most ranges are. Some cooktops and wall ovens are strictly 240 and do not require a neutral, in this case the circuit is fine. If your new appliance is 3 wire or 4 wire then that circuit is not sufficient because you have no neutral,"

Not necessarily. If this previously supported and properly powered a 120/240 volt kitchen range, then it is suitable for the 3- wire range hookup. The Black and the White are circuit conductors supplying 240 volts pole-to-pole and the bare served as the neutral. This was code compliant for many years. The old ranges used 120 volts for the clock, the lights on the controls and the oven light. The GE ranges of the late 1940s and the 1950s even used 120 volts for the lower heat ranges of the surface units.
What does the name plate on the old range show? And what voltage is shown when a meter is used on the black and the white?

Here is a link that might be useful: Discussion

This post was edited by bus_driver on Sat, Jan 11, 14 at 22:09

Original post, in part: "The OLD range had a black, white and bare ground wire." Is this the range, the range cord or the premises wiring circuit conductors to the range receptacle?
Did a bit of research. Apparently 1996 was the latest code change on range and clothes dryer wiring. Article 250.140. Parts of it seem to "grandfather" only certain existing installations. And the original post does not provide sufficient details to make that determination.
Ronnatalie's first post may well be the correct one.

This post was edited by bus_driver on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 16:27

The only error in my initial statement is I said the Type SE has two whites, I meant obviously two blacks (as the previous statement said it didn't have a white).

There's not enough information to tell if the existing installation is legal, but if it was, the new installation would also most likely be compliant. JoeFixit and Bcarlson are both wrong in my opinion, certainly in line with any modern NEC version and the installation manuals for every GE range that I am aware of. As stated, many ranges including GE are already jumpered for 3 wire hookup. You have to remove the jumper (one of the things I caught the electrician who built my kitchen failed to do...).

SE originally has one Black and one that is "sort-of" White. The color difference originally is great enough to be able to distinguish between the two conductors. Over time, the white gets dirty and does get darker. The rubber also changes the coloring over time.

This post was edited by bus_driver on Sun, Jan 12, 14 at 20:45

"Not necessarily. If this previously supported and properly powered a 120/240 volt kitchen range, then it is suitable for the 3- wire range hookup. The Black and the White are circuit conductors supplying 240 volts pole-to-pole and the bare served as the neutral. This was code compliant for many years."

I read the OP's description as a Romex type of cable with a bare grounding conductor, not a SE with a bare neutral conductor. If this is the case I do not agree with you. I guess we will need to see a photo to know for sure.

Incidentally some may not know this but when the permission for a 3 wire 240/120 circuit using SE type cable was given, one of the conditions was that it must originate from the main service panel, not from a sub panel.

Yep, we're now in agreement. He may or may not NOW have a legal 3 wire installation. If it was legal before, most likely adding the new range is probably also legal.

However if the existing wiring is not legal, the only real option is to run a new 4 wire run. Often that's not as hard as people imagine (especially not for electricians whose job it isn't to repair the holes they make in the drywall :)

(delete double post)

This post was edited by ronnatalie on Mon, Jan 13, 14 at 23:42

Maybe this is a dumb or stupid question - but if the new range is working fine and the circuit breaker hasn't tripped AND the wiring is NOT "legal" - what are the things that can happen?

In a perfect world, we'd still have knob & tube in the walls. However, when things go wrong (shorts, bad connections, etc.), you want any electrical system to fail "safe" and to minimize human injury and property damage. No system is perfect and dangerous situations can always occur.

The illegal wiring can kill in the event of shorts to the range body, etc. The circuit breaker is there to protect the wires from overheating and causing a fire. Just because it hasn't tripped,doesn't mean that you are safe.