where does the white wire go?

[JosephVelder]

electric hot water heater, 220v

house wiring has a black, white and red wire but the hot water heater doesn't have a white wire.

[Erby]

Clipped off and capped. Not needed in this setup.

[Marc]

The white wire is a neutral for wherever you need 120 volts. The heater uses only 240 volts so the neutral isn't needed, like Erby said.

How's it going with the house Joseph?

Marc

[Jim Katen]

I'll add that your existing wire nuts have not been sufficiently tightened.

[JosephVelder]

Thanks Erby,

Marc, the house is coming along well, I'm going to try to line up the open wall inspection for next week.

Jim, you have a keen eye, I left the wire nuts loose in case I had to go back and add the white one to one of them.

[dutchofsc]

The wrong wire was used to install this water heater. These require a 2 hot and a ground, usually a #10, depending on capacity. This is a 3 hot with ground so the white wire is not uses/not needed. Just put a wire nut on it and stuff it into the junction box. Just to be safe, make sure the white wire is also capped of in the breaker panel, not on a neutral bar or breaker.

BTW, why do you need a water heater if the water is already hot, get it, "Hot water heater"

[Carson2006]

Actually the wiring is correct in regards to amperage capability. The NM cable is 10/3 with ground; 2 ungrounded conductors (hots), 1 grounded (neutral) and 1 grounding (equipment ground). Mostly a it?s a waste of a small amount of money. However, an electrical inspector may call out the use of a ?smurf tube?, (ENT, electrical non-metallic tubing), box connector being used as a NM cable connector. This connector is not listed for securing NM cable. As an electrician, I would just snip the neutral off at each end of the circuit. It would allow more room at the water heater connection point to stuff those wires into already small and cramped area.