Something New in Gas Stoves

[Tom Bender]

My brother does a lot of residential work, including installing appliances. Normally a gas stove has a very small electric demand, lights, ignition, clock etc. Plug in to any handy outlet. But recently he noticed some bigger wires in the back of a stove, like 16 ga. A little investigation showed an electric grilling section where gas is normal, about 12 amps at 120 volts! He ran another circuit.

[Jim Becker]

The griddle on my big 48", $11K Thermador gas range at our old property was an electric element because it provides more precise heat control for that specific application. And yes, it's best to have a dedicated circuit for that reason.

In that house, the circuit for the range was originally for an electric cooktop, so it's like 8 gage wire, even though it was knocked back to 120v in 2003 when I renovated the kitchen. (gut job) The shallow crawl space was not, um...conducive...to running new wire to that particular location due to lack of headroom. Just getting the gas line in was a whole bunch of fun for the plumber I hired for that job!

[Mike Henderson]

My stove is like that and it's 15 years old. The griddle between the gas burners is electric. I never checked the circuit - the stove was installed when we bought the house, but I'll bet it's a 240 volt circuit of decent amperage so the griddle can get hot quickly.

Mike

[Bill Dufour]

16 gauge. do you mean 6 gauge which is rated for 50 amps? I belive a full electric stove is only 30 amps so #10 wire.
I belive #14 is no longer allowed at all, even for 15 amp lighting circuits.
Bill D

[Brian Elfert]

Appliances often use smaller gauge wires because the wire has high temperature insulation on it. I follow major National Electric Code changes pretty closely and I have not heard anything about 14 gauge wire not being allowed for residential. Loads for lighting are getting lower with LED lighting so more fixtures are being allowed on a circuit,