Inlet water hose for dishwasher

[Anonymous]

I have just moved houses and I have to re-arrange the location of my dishwasher. It is a Westinghouse SB906E*00 and it has a metal inlet hose that doesn’t reach the hot water tap, hence I bought a new longer hose. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that the original hose has an earth connection that I don’t know if is required with the new hose, which is not metal, it is rubber. Could someone advise accordingly please. Thanks

Gerry

[Harold KestenholzParticipant]

The earth connection is a nicety that routes transient electricity around the water in the hose. Theoretically, as water has resistance, the water in the hose could boil from large quantities of electricity, so electricity is routed around the hose through a better connection.

All the internal electrical devices should work without this earth wire. However, it is a good idea to add an earth wire from the sheetmetal of the washer to the metal grounded plumbing to honor the intent of the manufacturer. A build-up of static electricity would also be prevented.

[Jerry PeckParticipant]

The earth (equipment ground) connection on the original metal (copper) water line was not grounding the dishwasher through the metal water line (with one possible exception, see below). That would have been serving as a bond from the dishwasher to the metal water line. This bond to the metal water line would eliminate transient voltages from the water line by bonding it to ground. This is required to be done back at the beginning of the water supply line where it enters the house, within the first 5′ of water pipe. Bonding at this end would only serve to improve the bonding of the metal water pipe and could make up for the pipe being broken (electrically speaking) by fittings, at the water heater, etc.

The possible exception.

If this is a VERY old house with a two wire non-grounded electrical system throughout the house (knob and tube, old 2 wire romex, etc.), then the circuits are not grounded. In this case, as the dishwasher is required to be grounded, the ground from the dishwasher is allowed to be connected to a water pipe (when there is no other better grounding means available as discussed in the National Electrical Code). However, in this case, the dishwasher ground should not have been run to the dishwasher supply line (hot water) as it is required to be connected to a metal cold water line (there is less chance that a cold water line is broken, electrically speaking, by fittings, at the water heater, etc., than a hot water line).

If you do not know which reason the earth connection was for, then I recommend you have a qualified and licensed electrical contractor come by and verify the grounding / bonding issue. This is an mportant issue around water (in the kitchen and at a dishwasher). It would be well worth the service call cost to have this verified and checked.

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