[jyl]

This is for the PPOT House Electrical braintrust.

I need a 240v 50 amp receptacle in my kitchen, to run a dishwasher. The equipment specifies a 14-50R receptacle, the 4-wire kind.

I do not have any 240v circuits in my kitchen, or any unused positions in my electrical panel. (I had two unused positions but a few years ago, I used them to install a sub panel in the garage. I am trying to avoid having the panel upgraded because the location is no longer code-compliant, being too close to the basement laundry sink.)

There is one 240V circuit in the basement, directly below the kitchen. It is being used for a clothes dryer, using a 3-wire 10-30R receptacle. That dryer's manual says it can be used with either the current 3-wire receptacle or a 4-wire 14-30R receptacle.

What I am thinking about doing is: change the dryer cord to a 14-50P plug, change the dryer receptacle to a 4-wire 14-50R, run conduit from that receptacle up to the kitchen, install a second 14-50R receptacle there. I haven't checked if the current breaker on the circuit is 30 amp or 50 amp, if the former I'd install the latter.

So I'd have two 240v 4-wire receptacles on the same circuit. I suppose I'd have to not run the dishwasher and clothes washer at the same time.

Does this make sense?

In case you're wondering, this is to install a commercial, high-temp undercounter dishwasher. My old dishwasher crapped out two years ago and we are getting along just fine with hand washing for ordinary living, but for really big dinner parties it would be nice to have a dishwasher, primarily for all the glassware (wife likes to set table with a forest of stemware.) However, our big parties result in over two full dishwasher loads so the modern dishwashers' long cycles are impractical. Don't want to stay up until 4 am waiting to reload the dishwasher. My friend's bar is closing and he's offered me his pretty new Hobart LX30H for $350. This sort of machine is usually several thousand dollars new and a couple thousand dollars used, so seems like a good deal. My other restaurant friend says if I end up removing it, I'd be able to sell it for a profit. I'm aware of the characteristics and limitations of a commercial dishwasher. I have simply vowed to never buy a consumer-grade kitchen appliance again.